Using a device fingerprint is one of the most commonly used methods to prevent imposters from attacking a website or performing malicious activities on it. Or for people who need to hide their device fingerprinting for privacy reasons. Therefore, it is important to understand this term and how it works to become more proactive in ensuring safety.
What is device fingerprinting?
Device fingerprints are information related to the software or hardware of the device that the user is using. Through these parameters, user activities can be tracked.
Fingerprinting devices collect information about hardware when users access a website or change servers. This activity is tracked by websites and applications for both positive and negative purposes.
Mobile device fingerprinting and cross-device fingerprints are two common types of device fingerprints that many users are familiar with. So fingerprinting mean is great
With device fingerprints, hackers can analyze the configuration of the device's software and hardware. Each configuration will have a unique fingerprint, making it easy to identify the fingerprint when users perform suspicious connections or activities. This activity can also be called device hashing.
Taking a cookie fingerprint on the web will be different from taking a browser fingerprint, as users can control and limit trackers for cookie fingerprints. Browser fingerprints cannot be controlled and depend on the server platform.
How does fingerprinting work?
When users access a website platform, their IP address will be detected through a device with web applications or an internet-connected device. Information may also be extracted through the login or payment process on the website.
The combination of browser and device is called a fingerprint device. The browser fingerprint can belong to a mobile device or a computer depending on the user's device. With device fingerprints, the customer's connection to the web service is tracked. From there, websites can capture customer behavior or detect suspicious user behavior.
Parameters such as device type, operating system, screen size and resolution, time zone, and language... are the most commonly collected information by websites or applications.
What is a cross-device fingerprint?
Fingerprints on many devices mean that even if users change different devices, information related to their activities can still be identified and recognized as a user. This method is called cross-tracking. There are many device fingerprinting solutions, but most of them have to do with technology. To detect this, it relies on characteristics and information that do not change when users switch from a computer to a phone or another device.
Therefore, users' personal activities can be tracked by anyone even if they do not log in to any online page.
The benefits for websites and applications when tracking user activity are for advertising, monitoring, or detecting illegal behavior purposes.
How accurate is device fingerprinting?
The accuracy of device fingerprinting is extremely high, and the more information collected, the higher the accuracy will be proportional to it.
Due to the unique fingerprint of each device, tools used for fingerprinting can return almost absolute accuracy.
Fingerprinting provides accurate results, making it useful for fraud detection. It is also the most commonly used method for tracking users and alerting suspicious behavior of impersonators.
The device's fingerprint allows websites and applications to know how many users have accessed their website and what they have done on it. Therefore, it is very useful in controlling user profiles.
Can device fingerprinting detect device tampering?
Most devices that use fingerprint technology can detect fake devices. With the latest fingerprinting tools, they will issue warnings when they see suspicious signs.
To overcome the detection barriers of fingerprinting tools, fraudsters need to use various software to fake real information. For example, the Mimic browser creates fake parameters that are similar to real parameters, making it difficult for fingerprinting tools to detect.
To be safe and target long-term goals, imposters will create a virtual environment with real parameters to avoid being tracked.
Why is device fingerprint used?
To prevent malicious individuals from stealing accounts, payment fraud, misusing bonuses, or other issues, companies use device fingerprinting for authentication tools and rely on them to solve many difficult problems. Below are three devices fingerprinting case usage:
E-commerce fraud: Sellers can use device fingerprints to capture consumer behavior and create appropriate and effective advertising policies.
Bank fraud: For the banking industry, using device fingerprints helps limit asset theft, money laundering, or simply logging in from different addresses with confusing IPs.
Advertising and tracking data: Device fingerprinting used for advertising purposes is widely applied by advertisers and has great effectiveness.
How Hidemyacc helps hide real fingerprints on the device
Collecting fingerprints on devices is completely allowed by the government, but from the perspective of users, all private activities are being monitored and this has raised concerns about privacy rights. To protect personal information, many users have turned to antidetect browser software, and Hidemyacc is one of the best software programs that help users create accounts with modified parameters compared to real parameters.
The Hidemyacc antidetect software supports users in changing browser parameters such as WebGL, and Canvas fingerprint, ... and can even restore accounts created on the application when they are blocked.
Regardless of the position, each party has arguments for using device fingerprints appropriately for themselves. But above all, use them for legal purposes.
