Online tracking and digital fingerprinting have become part of everyday browsing, turning the simple act of reading the web into a privacy minefield. Privacy browsers push back, but they don’t all do the same things.
We make Incognito Browser. Below, we look at how privacy browsers deal with fingerprinting and tracking, which browsers do the most by default, and what our own app does and does not do.
Understanding Fingerprinting
Before we explore how privacy browsers respond, it’s essential to grasp what fingerprinting entails. Digital fingerprinting, or browser fingerprinting, is a tracking technique that compiles information about your device, browser, and settings to forge a unique identifier or “fingerprint.” This method allows trackers to identify and monitor users without relying on traditional cookies. The question then arises: how do privacy browsers deal with fingerprinting and tracking?
How Privacy Browsers Tackle Fingerprinting
Privacy browsers take a few different approaches:
- Make everyone look the same. Tor Browser aims to make all of its users look alike, so no one stands out.
- Add noise. Brave slightly randomizes, or sometimes removes, the browser features that trackers use, so your fingerprint doesn’t stay consistent.
- Block the scripts and blur the answers. DuckDuckGo’s browser blocks many fingerprinting scripts before they load, and makes many of the browser features used for fingerprinting return no information or less useful information.
Agent Cloaking: What It Does and Doesn’t Do
Incognito Browser’s Agent Cloaking masks the browser and device that sites see, and can load desktop versions of sites. It is not fingerprint protection. A fingerprint uses many details, such as screen size, fonts, time zone and how your device draws graphics, and changing the browser and device details sites see does not stop fingerprinting. If fingerprinting is your main concern, use a browser built to resist it, such as Tor Browser or Brave.
Counteracting Online Tracking
Online tracking often rides along with ads and the scripts that come with them. Many privacy browsers block trackers by default: Brave’s Shields block trackers and cross-site cookies, Firefox’s built-in tracking protection blocks hidden trackers without extra setup, DuckDuckGo’s browser blocks third-party trackers, and Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention helps prevent cross-site tracking.
Incognito Browser has a built-in ad blocker. If blocking trackers by default matters most to you, the browsers above do more here.
Web3 Addresses
Incognito Browser can open IPFS addresses and blockchain-based domain names such as .eth and .crypto. That makes it easy to explore the decentralized web, but opening these addresses does not, on its own, protect you from tracking or fingerprinting.
Privacy Settings You Control
Privacy browsers often let you decide what web pages are allowed to do. In Incognito Browser, you can turn images, JavaScript and cookies on or off. Turning off JavaScript stops many tracking and fingerprinting scripts from running, though many sites won’t work properly without it. You can also choose your search engine. For more on how fingerprinting works, see our guide.
What Incognito Browser Keeps and Collects
Incognito Browser wipes history, cookies and sessions when you exit the app, and it keeps no browsing history or cache on your device. Downloaded files are kept. The Google Play Data safety section says the app may collect crash logs, diagnostics and other app performance data, for analytics. The app is not open source, and it is not a VPN, so it does not hide your IP address from websites or your internet provider.
Online tracking and fingerprinting are everywhere, and privacy browsers handle them in different ways. Brave, Tor Browser and DuckDuckGo’s browser include defenses against fingerprinting, and several browsers block trackers by default. Incognito Browser, with Agent Cloaking, a built-in ad blocker and Web3 support, focuses on keeping your browsing history off your phone. Choose the tool that matches what you want to protect, and combine tools when you need more.
