Show HN: Explore what the browser exposes about you

I built a tool that reveals the data your browser exposes automatically every time you visit a website.

GitHub: https://github.com/neberej/exposedbydefault

Demo: https://neberej.github.io/exposedbydefault/

Note: No data is sent anywhere. Everything runs in your browser.

coffeecoders 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Hi HN,

I’ve been experimenting with ways to reduce my browser fingerprint and exploring techniques to anonymize fingerprint data.

So I built this.

This is kind of like a lighter, more thorough version of CreepJS but entirely client side. I don’t maintain massive lists of time zones or do server-side comparisons to calculate uniqueness. Instead, it automatically surfaces everything a browser exposes, explaining each item in detail.

▲

njitram 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I tried various browsers, even the Tor browser, but it keeps showing 'Unique to 1 in 17.179.869.184+ devices'?

▲

qwertytyyuu 31 minutes ago | parent [-]

I have the exact same, Unique to 1 in 17,179,869,184+ devices. actually slightly different. hmmm... ,'s vs .'s

	▲	aaronharding 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		the person above you is from The Netherlands ;)

▲

alentred 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

EFF has a similar tool: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

No idea how representative either tool is.

▲

Santosh83 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What we need is VPB. Virtual Private Browser like VPNs. Essentially standardised cloud browsers that can execute your requests and send you back the result as bitmap buffers.

	▲	ycuser2 11 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Great idea! How to make sure that the users data stays private without the cloud knowing where the user is surfing. And I wonder how to monetise it? Subscription?

▲

conartist6 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I could not be more thrilled to see tools like this being built. Without tools to see the problems, we will never fix them

▲

oersted 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Interesting!

For me it says 1 in 17,179,869,184+, but scrolling through all the variables, the vast majority should be the same for any MacBook Chrome user.

It would be great to see the stats of each individual characteristic.

	▲	jspash 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I would love to be able to toggle an attribute off/on to see what affect each has on the uniqueness of my fingerprint. My guess is that there are a handful of _very_ unique things, that if obscured, would make one less recognisable.

▲

reconnecting 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

May I ask if this code is the result of 'vibe coding'?

▲

evgpbfhnr 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I get a new fingerprint id everytime I refresh the page (firefox, linux) -- so that might be sampling a tiny bit too much. audio and canvas fingerprint are constant though so it's probably plenty enough...

▲

mpeg 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I think it might be because the performance fingerprints need to be bucketed. If they're too specific you'll never get the same fingerprint twice.

▲

reconnecting 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The same applies to macOS. Safari produces a unique fingerprint ID every time, and Firefox also has a different fingerprint ID with every visit.

If the fingerprint ID is unique every time, there is zero possibility of using it for identification.

	▲	conartist6 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Very interesting. So this is the battlefield perhaps. Randomly corrupt the data instead of eliminating it?

▲

dvh 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

ERROR> https://neberej.github.io/exposedbydefault/assets/index-3936...: Uncaught ReferenceError: speechSynthesis is not defined

▲

fareesh 40 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

seems like brave works well and isn't getting correctly fingerprinted

▲

udev4096 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Doesn't even load with JS

> Impossible to "expose"

The perks of disabling JS on every site!

▲

SeriousM an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Here's another one: https://amiunique.org/fingerprint

It's important to point out fingerprinting, yet no ordinary user cares.