Digital fingerprint

It is the widest of these words. The browser is one layer of it, the network is another, and the account you sign in to carries a third that no browser setting reaches.

A digital fingerprint is everything a service can learn about you without asking, from the device up to the way you behave.

The four layers

The phrase covers far more than one browser. A service that wants to recognise a returning person reads whatever is cheapest first and works upward from there.

The device
Screen, graphics chip, cores, memory and fonts. Read in a few milliseconds and needing no permission at all.
The network
The exit address, the network it belongs to and the reputation that network carries. This is the layer a proxy moves.
The account
Email, phone, card, payout details and documents. A platform compares these against every other account it already holds.
The behaviour
Typing pace, working hours, the order of clicks and how long a page is read. No browser setting touches any of it.

What this page can read

These four values belong to the first layer and are read in your browser right now. Nothing here is sent anywhere.

지금 이 순간의 기기

User agent: 사용 중인 기기에서 측정하는 중
Time zone: 사용 중인 기기에서 측정하는 중
Screen: 사용 중인 기기에서 측정하는 중
CPU cores: 사용 중인 기기에서 측정하는 중

브라우저에서 읽어 여기에 표시합니다. 어디에도 전송하지 않습니다.

Which layers a profile covers

Two of the four belong to the tool. The device values are derived from the profile seed and produced inside the engine, so the document, a frame and a worker answer the same numbers.

The exit is the second. Each profile can leave through an address of its own, and the clock and the language then follow that address rather than your computer.

Which layers stay yours

The account layer and the behaviour layer sit outside any browser. A card used twice or one document behind two sign-ups is a link made where no engine reaches.

Working hours and pace cross every boundary a tool can draw. That half of the problem is planned rather than configured, and the plan stays yours.

Often confused with

Browser fingerprint
The narrower word for the first layer alone. Everything about the network, the account and the behaviour sits outside it.
Cookies
Storage on your side, which you can clear. A fingerprint is recomputed on every visit and there is nothing to clear.
Your IP address
One reading inside the network layer. It says where traffic comes out rather than which machine sent it.
A tracking identifier
A value a service assigns and writes down. A fingerprint is derived from what the visitor already is.

Where to look for each layer

The panel above covers the first layer for the browser you are reading this in. Inside the app a profile runs a longer self-test against the engine it launched.

Read two profiles side by side. Then open the leak check in each of them, because the network layer answers in a different place.

What this does not do

It does not make you anonymous. Three of the four layers stay where they were, and the account layer closes more accounts than the device layer does.
It does not cover how you behave. Pace, working hours and the order of your actions are read by the platform itself, and nothing described on this page changes any of them.
It does not separate payment and identity ties. One card or one document behind two accounts is a link made outside the browser entirely.
It does not unwind a link already drawn. Two accounts that shared a profile stay joined in the platform's records long after the profile itself changes.

Check it

Each claim above is one place in the code and one stand.

Where a profile's device values come from: packages/shared/src/index.js
Each profile is launched against a data directory of its own: apps/desktop/src/lib/forkEngine.js
The parts of one fingerprint have to agree with each other: apps/desktop/test/fingerprint-consistency.js
The clock and the language follow the exit address: apps/desktop/src/lib/exitGeo.js · apps/desktop/test/exit-geo.js

Questions

Is this the same as a browser fingerprint?: No, and the difference is worth keeping. The browser one is a single layer of this, while the wider phrase also covers the network, the account and the way you act.
Does a VPN change it?: It moves the network layer and leaves the rest alone. The device values are produced on your machine and the account ties live on the platform.
Can I delete mine?: There is nothing stored to delete. Every layer is derived on demand from what your machine, your network and your account already are.
How many values are there?: There is no fixed number, and that is the point. The self-test inside the app reports 29 measurements, and the device layer is only part of them.
Which layer does a tool never reach?: The account layer and the behaviour layer. A shared card, a reused document or a familiar working rhythm is read by the platform itself.

Next to this

See which layers your profile answers

The self-test runs inside a profile and reports every device check by name, green and red alike.

Download ARMANOS Fingerprint and its editor