Cover Your Tracks, developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is a browser testing tool that helps users understand their online privacy risks by evaluating how their browser behaves when interacting with websites. It specifically focuses on browser fingerprinting and tracking, showing how identifiable your browser is to third-party trackers. The tool provides insights into the data your browser leaks and how resistant it is to modern tracking technologies.
This article explores how the Cover Your Tracks tool works, its testing process, and its significance in protecting your online privacy.
What Is Cover Your Tracks?
Cover Your Tracks is an online tool designed to demonstrate how websites can track you based on your browser configuration and settings. It evaluates the effectiveness of your browser’s privacy defenses against trackers and browser fingerprinting. The tool also provides practical recommendations to enhance your privacy.
The tool is a successor to EFF’s Panopticlick, which was one of the first projects to bring attention to browser fingerprinting.
How Cover Your Tracks Works
Cover Your Tracks runs a series of tests to analyze how websites can extract unique identifiers from your browser and track your activities across the internet. Here’s a step-by-step explanation of how the tool works:
1. Data Collection
When you visit the Cover Your Tracks website and run the test, it starts by collecting the data your browser shares during regular web activity. This data includes:
- HTTP Headers: Information such as your user agent, language preferences, and encoding settings.
- Browser Metadata: The name, version, and rendering engine of your browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, or Safari).
- Operating System: The type and version of your device’s operating system (e.g., Windows, macOS, or Linux).
- Plugins and Extensions: Details about any active browser plugins or extensions.
- Screen and Display Properties: Your screen resolution, color depth, and pixel density.
- Time Zone and Language: The local time zone and language preferences configured in your browser.
2. Fingerprinting Tests
The tool performs fingerprinting tests to determine how unique your browser is compared to others. These tests focus on the following:
- Canvas Fingerprinting: The tool uses the HTML5 canvas element to generate a graphic, which is rendered differently depending on your browser, graphics card, and operating system. The result is hashed to create a unique identifier.
- WebGL Fingerprinting: It tests the WebGL API to analyze your browser’s graphics processing capabilities. Variations in hardware and driver settings contribute to your fingerprint.
- Font Fingerprinting: The tool identifies the fonts installed on your system, which can make your browser more identifiable.
- Audio Fingerprinting: Cover Your Tracks tests how your browser generates and processes audio signals to create another unique data point.
- Browser and JavaScript Capabilities: It evaluates which JavaScript functions your browser supports and how they behave, as this can reveal specific details about your browser’s configuration.
3. Tracker Simulation
Cover Your Tracks also simulates common tracking methods to test how your browser interacts with them. This includes:
- Cookie-Based Tracking: It checks how your browser handles first-party and third-party cookies, which are commonly used for session management and tracking.
- Supercookies and Storage: The tool tests for the use of browser storage mechanisms like localStorage, sessionStorage, and IndexedDB, which can be used for persistent tracking.
- Tracking Pixels: It evaluates how your browser handles small, invisible tracking pixels embedded in websites.
4. Data Analysis and Scoring
After completing the tests, Cover Your Tracks provides a detailed report on your browser’s privacy and tracking resistance. The report includes:
- Tracking Protection Score: A summary of how well your browser is protected against trackers. This score is based on the privacy settings, extensions, and features active in your browser.
- Fingerprint Uniqueness: An evaluation of how unique your browser fingerprint is compared to others in the database. If your fingerprint is highly unique, it’s easier for websites to track you.
- Data Breakdown: A detailed list of the information collected from your browser during the tests.
Key Features of Cover Your Tracks
- Browser Fingerprinting Analysis
The tool demonstrates how websites can use your browser’s configuration to create a unique identifier, even without cookies or other traditional tracking methods. - Tracking Resistance Evaluation
Cover Your Tracks evaluates whether your browser blocks or allows tracking scripts, third-party cookies, and other trackers. - Comparison with Other Browsers
It provides insights into how common or unique your browser fingerprint is compared to others in its database. - Privacy Recommendations
The tool offers practical tips to enhance your browser’s privacy settings, such as enabling tracking protection or installing privacy-focused extensions.
How to Use Cover Your Tracks to Improve Privacy
Here’s how you can use Cover Your Tracks to enhance your online privacy:
- Run the Test: Visit the Cover Your Tracks website and initiate the test to analyze your browser’s behavior.
- Review the Report: Examine the results to identify privacy vulnerabilities, such as unique fingerprinting attributes or poor tracker resistance.
- Adjust Your Settings: Use the recommendations provided to improve your browser’s privacy. For example:
- Enable tracking protection in your browser.
- Disable third-party cookies.
- Use privacy-focused browsers like Brave or Firefox.
- Install Privacy Extensions: Add extensions like Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, or HTTPS Everywhere to block trackers and enhance security.
- Test Again: Revisit Cover Your Tracks to confirm that your changes have improved your browser’s privacy and tracking resistance.
Why Is Cover Your Tracks Important?
Tracking technologies are constantly evolving, and browser fingerprinting has become one of the most effective ways to track users across the internet. Unlike cookies, which users can delete, fingerprints are harder to detect or block.
Cover Your Tracks raises awareness about these advanced tracking methods and helps users understand how much data their browser leaks. By providing actionable insights and recommendations, it empowers users to take control of their online privacy.
Conclusion
The Cover Your Tracks tool is an invaluable resource for anyone concerned about online privacy. It highlights the vulnerabilities in your browser’s configuration, demonstrates how websites track you, and offers solutions to reduce your exposure to fingerprinting and tracking.
By regularly testing your browser with Cover Your Tracks and implementing its recommendations, you can significantly improve your privacy and stay ahead of invasive tracking technologies in the ever-evolving digital landscape.