Glossary · Scraping & automation
Browser fingerprinting
Identifying a visitor from the combination of subtle browser and device traits, a layer of detection that survives changing your IP.
Browser fingerprinting builds an identity out of details you do not think of as identifying: screen size, fonts, time zone, graphics rendering quirks, the exact set of supported features. Individually mundane, together they are distinctive enough to recognise the same browser across visits, no cookie required.
It matters to proxy users because it operates above the network. You can change your IP on every request and still present the same fingerprint, and a site that correlates the two sees one persistent visitor wearing different addresses, which is often more suspicious than a stable address would have been.
This is why serious automation pairs proxies with fingerprint management, anti-detect browsers, randomised or consistent profiles, whichever the task needs. The address is one axis of identity; the fingerprint is another, and defeating detection means attending to both.
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