What Is Browser Spoofing? Everything You Need to Know
Your browser reveals more about you than you might think using a technique known as browser fingerprinting, which can pinpoint who you are with surprising accuracy.
Research shows that, out of half a million browser fingerprints studied, a staggering 74% of desktop devices were distinct enough to be singled out.
This precision in tracking has raised eyebrows among internet users seeking to maintain their privacy and fight invasive tracking.
But you’re not powerless. Browser spoofing has got your back. This blog explores what is browser spoofing and how to spoof browser fingerprints to evade profiling by websites.
However, before we start, we should know what browser fingerprinting is. Here’s a brief overview.
What is Browser Fingerprinting?
Browser fingerprinting is a technique websites use to gather a wide range of information about your web browser and device to create your unique digital fingerprint.
When you request a webpage, your web browser shares information with websites that include device and software attributes such as operating system, installed languages, timezone, screen resolution, fonts, browser version, extensions, and User-Agent string, among others.
While some information, such as HTTP headers, is used for content negotiation, most are collected solely to create your browser fingerprint.
Each person's combination of these details is unique enough that websites can use this fingerprint to tell who's who without needing their personal information. For example, a study found that the likelihood of two matching exactly among hundreds of thousands of browser fingerprints was extremely slim.
Browser fingerprints have serious implications for privacy-concerned users. The detailed information collected can be sold to advertisers or government agencies and potentially fall into the hands of cybercriminals.
Despite being a robust tracking technique there are ways to avoid browser fingerprinting to some extent. One of the most effective of those methods is browser spoofing. What is browser spoofing and how does it help bypass browser fingerprinting? Let’s find out in detail.
What is Browser Spoofing?
Browser spoofing serves as a countermeasure to browser fingerprinting. It deliberately sends false information about your browser and computer to websites.
For example, if you're using a browser spoofing tool, it might tell a website that you're using a different type of browser or operating system than you actually are. This technique is called user agent spoofing. The browser fingerprint spoofing tool might also alter details about your screen size or the fonts installed on your computer.
The goal of browser spoofing is to make your online fingerprint less unique and more difficult for websites to track. It achieves this through obfuscation, which mixes in false details to make it harder for websites to recognize and follow you around the internet.
When you employ browser fingerprint spoofing, websites see a made-up browser fingerprint instead of your true one. Some tools like AdsPower - an anti-finger browser - offer a feature that automatically generates a random browser fingerprint just by clicking a button.
Why Spoof Browser Fingerprint?
Users typically have the following motives when they are spoofing browser fingerprints:
To Bypass Content Restrictions
Some online content, like news, streaming services, or retail specials, may be restricted based on a user's geographical location or device type. By spoofing browser fingerprints to appear as though they are accessing the web from a different location or using a different device, users can bypass these restrictions and access the content that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
To Stay Anonymous
Many users dislike being monitored as they surf the web, whether by marketing companies, data brokers, or potentially even malicious actors. Browser spoofing helps mask their online activities by preventing trackers from linking their current behavior to previous sessions.
This disruption helps maintain anonymity and can also reduce targeted advertising, which is often seen as intrusive.
To Avoid Bot Detection
Many websites implement measures to block or limit access to their data by detecting and blocking bots. Using browser fingerprint spoofing, web scraping bots can mimic the behavior of real human users and make it harder for websites to distinguish them from legitimate traffic.
For example, a bot can spoof its user agent to appear as a human who is using a commonly used browser. This tricks the website's anti-bot system into treating the bot's requests as originating from a real browser, thus avoiding detection.
Additionally, since many bot detection algorithms can identify a bot through the speed of page requests or the absence of mouse movements, browser spoofing can be combined with techniques such as request delays to reduce detection chances and scrape websites without getting blocked.
How To Spoof Browser Fingerprint?
Browser fingerprinting is a strong tracking method and cannot be fought against using one or two techniques. It takes a suite of browser spoofing measures to gain control of your fingerprint’s uniqueness. Even then, you cannot fully prevent browser fingerprinting. Rather, you can reduce the uniqueness to some extent.
Here are a few browser spoofing measures to have in place to combat browser fingerprinting.
User Agent Spoofing
The user-agent string tells a website what device and browser you’re using. By changing this string, you can make a website believe you're browsing from a different device or browser. This is one of the simplest forms of spoofing and can be achieved through browser extensions or scripts.
IP Address Spoofing
Since your IP address can reveal your geographical location, spoofing it can make you appear to be accessing the internet from a different place. This is often done using VPNs or proxy servers, which act as alternate routes between your computer and the Internet.
Canvas Fingerprinting Protection
Websites can use canvas fingerprinting to draw invisible images in the browser and track you using the unique way your browser renders them. To avoid canvas fingerprinting, spoofing techniques add noise to the canvas rendering process or return a uniform image.
WebRTC Leak Prevention
WebRTC is a technology that enables web applications to perform certain types of direct peer-to-peer communication. However, it can accidentally reveal your real IP address, even if you're using a VPN. Disabling or spoofing WebRTC requests helps maintain the anonymity of your IP address.
Timezone Spoofing
Your computer's timezone also contributes to your digital fingerprint. By spoofing the timezone, you can make it appear like you're accessing the web from a different region.
Font and Plugin Spoofing
The list of fonts and plugins installed on your computer can be quite unique and used for tracking through plugin and font fingerprinting. Spoofing these by reporting a common or randomized list of fonts and plugins can further reduce your fingerprinting’s uniqueness.
Employing all these techniques using different tools and extensions will only get you so far. After downloading the browser extensions for these techniques, your browser fingerprint may become even more unique.
So, how to spoof browser fingerprint more efficiently you may ask? Don’t worry, we have a better solution for you.
An All-In-One Solution For Browser Spoofing!
Websites fingerprint your browser by secretly running coding scripts when you visit their web pages. These scripts ask for a range of information, which your browser willingly returns. If there has to be an efficient browser spoofing solution, it must be supported by the browser.
That's where AdsPower comes in. It is a dedicated anti-fingerprint browser designed to protect your digital fingerprint. Unlike regular browsers, which expose your device and software information to trackers, AdsPower disguises your identity by feeding fake data to tracking scripts.
It offers browser spoofing settings that let you modify several fingerprinting attributes. AdsPower puts the control back in your hands by letting you customize details such as your User Agent, timezone, language, fonts, and screen resolution to name a few.
It also addresses potential WebRTC leaks and enables proxy usage for more solid browser spoofing.
AdsPower is compatible with major operating systems including macOS, Windows, and Linux. You can download the setup for your respective OS from the official website.
What makes AdsPower the best anti-fingerprint browser is the fact that you get an efficient browser spoofing tool while also enjoying the most affordable pricing on the market, starting at just $4.5 per month.
So, sign up for free today and regain control of your browser fingerprint.
