John Mateer – Medium: “You’re browsing the internet without a care in the world — why shouldn’t you? You’re internet savvy, after all. You take your privacy seriously. That’s why you pay $20 a month for a rotating VPN. Surfshark, NordVPN, Google One — ever heard of them? You’re ahead of the game. But you didn’t stop there. No, you went the extra mile. You use DuckDuckGo, clear your cookies religiously, enable Private Relay on your phone, and, for good measure, you casually browse with TOR. You’re basically a ghost online — a clever, untraceable phantom. Except… you’re not. That VPN subscription? A glorified digital paperweight. Private Relay? It was never as secure as you thought. DuckDuckGo? Surfshark? TOR? You’re not fooling anyone. You’re not invisible. You’re not hidden…”

Fingerprinting is exactly as it sounds – completely unique to you, just like your fingerprint. Websites don’t only perceive your IP address; they analyze everything about your device to create a unique profile. Your browser version, operating system, which fonts are installed in it, the screen resolution, hardware details, time zone, and even the color depth of your screen-all these constitute information. Put them altogether, and you will get a profile so unique that the possibility of tracking you all over the internet without cookies or anything on your device becomes very real…”