Just having a website know your “canvas size” based on Windows resolution, DPI scaling and the web browser zoom level, all make this a HORRIBLY unique value, and I mean UNIQUE. That alone needs severe regulation, but it’s been around since the early days of the web, and it’s more than enough to identify at least hundreds or thousands of unique website visitor.
Then there is HASH values for the canvas (this should really be illegal) and then to top it all of, as if none of this matter:
AudioContext ID. First of all, why in the blue blazes does a website need to know about my audio hardware. If I have sound disable, enabled etc, that’s my business, and to me, a website has absolutely no right to make a hash of my “audiocontext” without my permission.
So, if this has peaked your interest, go visit the EFF’s “Cover Your Tracks” website:
This isn’t about covering tracks, it’s about not being severely uniquely identified on ANY WEBSITE YOU WILL EVER VISIT. I strongly believe just any TWO of these values is way more than enough to uniquely identify any and all visitors to any website. Let’s say you clear all these ID values, well then you are just as unique as you were before you did that, because nobody else will even have the inkling of an idea to know how to do that, why to do that, etc. So you’ve 0 everything, that won’t work.
Let’s say you randomize all these values–that won’t work, unless you do that every single time you visit a website, and to be clear, you’d need to do that on EVERY website visit, whether it be the same website, or a new one. So you can’t get away from this. A hash will be made of your browser characteristics, and nobody asked for your permission before one was created of you. It’s a bit insane if you ask me.
If you have JS turned off all the time, such nefarious games are very limited.