Browser fingerprinting is a technique used to collect unique information about a user’s browser type, settings and device to identify and track them online.
Key Terms:
- Browser Fingerprint: Unique data collected from a user’s device like screen resolution, fonts, OS version or installed plugins.
- User Tracking: The process of collecting and storing users’ online behavior patterns.
Benefits:
- Fraud Detection: Identifying suspicious activities by recognizing smallest unusual patterns. A great example of browser fingerprinting is banking websites: apart from regular passwords and 2FA, they also apply high level browser fingerprint tracking to prevent fraud and keep accounts safe.
- Best User Experience: Enables personalized content based on users’ preferences. Ad engines make an exact portrait of your browsing behaviors to sell you things you would be most interested in.
Drawbacks:
- Privacy Concerns: It can be used to track individuals without their knowledge or consent, like described above. Many users don’t realize the amount of data social networks collect about them to later sell it to data brokers.
- Personal Data Misuse Risk: Data collected by platforms could potentially be misused if fallen into the wrong hands, as it happened in a well known case of Cambridge Analytica.
