Mozilla has a history of trying to prevent online user tracking. (Tor Browser is based on Mozilla Firefox ESR.) This new feature comes over four years after the Tor Browser implemented an option of letting users prevent canvas fingerprinting, and is the result of an ongoing effort to implement all Tor Browser privacy and security patches into Firefox. With the change, which will require sites to prompt users for permission before they can extract canvas data, Firefox will become the first of the major browsers to do something about this ubiquitous online tracking technique. Some browser fingerprinting attempts can be prevented by using add-ons like Privacy Badger or DoNotTrackMe in conjunction with ad blocking lists.
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In this way, a profile of the user’s browsing habits can be created, and used to target advertising.Ĭanvas fingerprinting works because each browser and the system on which it is installed has a specific hardware and software configuration, meaning that the fulfilment of the site’s request will result in different renders and, therefore, different and possibly unique fingerprints.
This fingerprint is shared among advertising partners, and used to detect when that user visits affiliated websites. The result is extracted, and a hash of it becomes the fingerprint of the browser. The technique works like this: a user visits a website that sends a request to his browser to render hidden text or graphic on a hidden canvas element. There are a number of browser/device fingerprinting techniques, but Mozilla aims to address the issue of “canvas fingerprinting,” which works by exploiting the browser’s HTML5 canvas element.
Starting with Firefox 58, users will be able to refuse websites’ requests for information extracted via the HTML5 canvas element, which can be used to fingerprint their browsers.īrowser fingerprinting is used as an alternative to browser cookies by websites and web analytics services that want to identify users and track their online behavior.
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