Browser Fingerprinting: A survey

TL;DR

This survey provides an accessible overview of browser fingerprinting, explaining its mechanisms, analyzing related work, and categorizing defense solutions while highlighting ongoing challenges in the field.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive, organized overview of browser fingerprinting research, serving as an entry point for newcomers and summarizing current defense strategies and challenges.

Findings

Modern fingerprints are composed of diverse browser attributes.

Various defense solutions are categorized and analyzed.

Significant challenges remain in effectively countering fingerprinting.

Abstract

With this paper, we survey the research performed in the domain of browser fingerprinting, while providing an accessible entry point to newcomers in the field. We explain how this technique works and where it stems from. We analyze the related work in detail to understand the composition of modern fingerprints and see how this technique is currently used online. We systematize existing defense solutions into different categories and detail the current challenges yet to overcome.