Today I learned about browser fingerprinting and the differences in how Brave and Firefox handle it.

Both browsers block trackers using blocklists, but Brave adds an extra layer of protection by randomizing the fingerprint for each website session. This technique is known as “farbling.”

Countless techniques are used in browser fingerprinting, such as User-Agent and headers, TLS fingerprinting (TLS handshake), system configurations (timezone, fonts, screen resolution, etc.), and hardware-related features (Audio, WebGL, etc.).

The most prominent technique used in fingerprinting is HTML5 Canvas fingerprinting, where a tracker asks the browser to draw a shape in an HTML5 Canvas and uses the hashed result as a fingerprint, as each device’s hardware and drivers render pixels slightly differently.

To achieve protection in Firefox, you can toggle these advanced security settings:

  • Standard: Set Enhanced Tracking Protection to “Strict.”
  • Hardcore: Navigate to about:config and set privacy.resistFingerprinting to true.
  • Randomization: Use the CanvasBlocker extension to mimic Brave’s noise-injection behavior.