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by Perceptes 2570 days ago
Similar results for me. Does anyone know if it's possible to turn off WebGL, and if so, how? AFAIK I never use it for anything and I'd rather have increased anonymity. (Assuming disabling it prevents it from being used for fingerprinting.)

Edit: Answering my own question. In `about:config`, change the `webgl.disabled` preference from `false` to `true`. This reduced the "bits of identifying information" from WebGL from 11.26 to 2.56.

Edit 2: Apparently the CanvasBlocker add-on is a better solution as it randomizes the data used for fingerprinting on each read, and works for several exploitable APIs, not just WebGL. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/canvasblocker...

1 comments

CanvasBlocker actually increases your track-ability because the consistent factor is now that you have a changing canvas fingerprint (which almost no one does).

This is why Safari tries to give a universal canvas fingerprint so you can "blend in" with other users.

I agree that a universal canvas fingerprint is better in principle, but practically who is going to write a script to search for all visitors who only differ by their canvas fingerprint and then identify them as one browser because the fingerprints are non-standard?
Practically, it requires little more work than creating a canvas fingerprint framework itself! If someone puts in the effort to write a framework that tracks you via canvas fingerprints, it’s little more work to add to the script with another one that performs a simple diff to find people trying to evade it.
> who is going to write a script to search for all visitors who only differ by their canvas fingerprint and then identify them as one browser because the fingerprints are non-standard?

Anyone who wants to sell ads to the technically-inclined and privacy-conscious? In any case, I wouldn't be surprised if a simple ML picked up on this pattern.