Canvas Fingerprinting

Canvas fingerprinting is a common method used to identify you when browsing the web. This method works by using HTML5 and JavaScript to draw a picture. You can’t see this picture. But once your browser renders it, the binary code used to generate the pixels creates a digital signature that is completely or largely different from signatures created on other computers when drawing the same image.

And that’s why it’s called a signature – because it can be pretty closely matched the next time an advertiser – or someone else – sees that same signature on another web page, they can pretty closely guess it is you.

The truth about Canvas fingerprinting is that the fingerprints aren’t always unique. Therefore Canvas fingerprinting is just one technique that is usually used in combination with others to really zero-in and identify you.

To fight fingerprinting though, you can inject “noise” into the digital signature we referenced above. And that’s how we do it in Ghost.

To protect yourself against Canvas fingerprinting in Ghost Browser go to Menu –> Settings –> Advanced –> Privacy, then toggle the option to ‘Enable Canvas Noising’.