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I have wondered whether disabling WebGL will make me more or less unique, I fiddled around with https://panopticlick.eff.org/ to see what would happen.

If I keep it enabled I am 1/205.66, with me being 1/465611.25 browsers visiting. However, if I disable it my WebGL hash is 1/5.74, but my browser is all of a sudden 1/1,862,446.

This seems extremely odd to me unless there is some very specific parameter that others who normally disable it have that I don't have. Alternatively, I have entered the site several times now without removing the fingerprint could my own visits make me appear "less unique"?

My goal is essentially for my fingerprint to be as common as possible, will disabling WebGL improve or reduce that?

Edit: Follow-up question what os and browsers typically have webgl disabled?

no nein
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  • imho, anything opt-in you do that the hulking masses don't will increase your special-ness. – dandavis Jul 20 '18 at 17:07
  • yeah the problem is just that most WebGL fingerprints are unique, which means that a lot of people have close to unique fingerprints without doing anything – no nein Jul 20 '18 at 17:11
  • @nonein Regarding your follow up, I don't believe any mainstream OSes or browsers have it disabled. Tor Browser and OSes which use it do, however. – forest Dec 05 '18 at 04:21

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Panopticlick is not a comprehensive browser fingerprinting analysis tool. In fact, it is pretty poor and only exists to raise awareness about fingerprinting. For example, it doesn't do the extensive WebGL fingerprinting was touched by recent research papers. Because of that, it does't take into account the fact that WebGL can be used to identify an individual system with nearly 100% accuracy, effectively bringing your anonymity set down to exactly one individual: you. The same is true for techniques such as AudioContext fingerprinting, which Panopticlick likewise does not use. This behavior results in the site mistakenly concluding the disabling WebGL decreases your anonymity set.

Browser fingerprinting is a complex topic, and no one service can tell you exactly how unique your system is. Currently, the most effective way to mitigate browser fingerprinting is to use the Tor Browser, which strives to have a uniform fingerprint among all its users. It will disable features that can potentially allow cross-browser fingerprinting, such as AudioContext fingerprinting and WebGL fingerprinting.

forest
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