Beware Of BROWSER FINGERPRINTING

 

BROWSER FINGERPRINTING!  Sound techie?  YES it seems BUT before you shun this off in an instant, allow me to beg you to hang-on for a minute please?  BUT I won't be a hypocrite to claim domain knowledge about it because I am NOT and I DON'T have it.  Instead, allow me to piggy-back on Ritoban Mukherjee's recent sharing via lifehacker.com as he highlights the risks way below the surface and offers a cost-free solution WHICH even non-techies like us can consider☝☝☝

Allow me to quote EN TOTO Ritoban's sharing "Uninterrupted browsing used to be a lot simpler.  Disable third-party cookies, blacklist known tracking domains and get an ad blocker.  BUT now, online platforms can pick on things like your screen resolution, basic hardware specs, timezone, and installed fonts to establish a fingerprint unique to your browser and device.  Websites can query a lot of seemingly harmless data from your device without prompting any security reaction"!!!

WHAT's scarier here is that unlike cookies, "FINGERPRINTING does NOT require a website to install files OR extensions to your web browser.  Instead, it uses server-side and JavaScript-executed signals to collect innocuous details about your device and setup".  IF that does NOT scare you, in the simplest terms, it can likely breach through your login credentials to your online banking.  There you go, lock, stock and barrel❌❌❌

Is there a FIX RIGHT NOW?  Yes there is, and it's FREE.  Accessing for free EFF's "COVER YOUR TRACKS", I was able to run FREE scans that showed me exactly HOW EXPOSED my device is/was.  The site generates an immediate report that tells me WHETHER I have cookies or trackers enabled in my browser, along with the types of data my device is "LEAKING" that can then be accessed by FINGERPRINTING technology.  BUT the thing is, we CAN'T fully stop browser fingerprinting because the technology does NOT rely on a single point of access to collect data from our device💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  WHILE there is no fool-proof FIX to this BROWSER FINGERPRINTING, I can attest that by leveraging on 'COVER YOUR TRACKS' [which offers the 'FREE SCAN' of your browser], I am alerted at the earliest possible time WHEN a potential data leak becomes imminent.  Dude, please DON'T shun off from this practical advice simply because you'll claim you're NOT a techie [BUT hey, this piece is for laymen like us😂😂😂