this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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Privacy
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If your fingerprint is unique, that means you can't be confused for someone else.
That is literally the opposite of anti-fingerprinting.
You want to look like 1000's of other people, so they can't prove it was you that visited a particular site and use that information against you.
If it's unique every time it means they can't create a consistent fingerprint for you.
A UUID assigned to each user is unique, but that's not useful for tracking unless you can ensure each user keeps the same number across visits.
The idea with anti-fingerprinting is the idea that no matter who you are or what your setup is, the fingerprint is created, it matches many, many other browsers
Imagine a sea of people in Guy Fawkes masks.
No, the idea is that you can't be traced via fingerprinting.
Both strategies accomplish that.
The issueI have with the "always unique" plan is that if they can determine your browser was associated with some set of unique IDs, then they can track you. Imagine a TOTP where the keys were leaked so the adversary can determine the entire set of possible codes.
If everyone's fingerprints always match each other's, then you have plausible deniability.
The only scenario in which this could happen would leave both strategies equally vulnerable.