Company
Date Published
Author
Shahed Nasser
Word count
1722
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Browser fingerprinting involves collecting data from a user's hardware and software to create a unique identifier for their device, helping businesses enhance user experience and protect against fraud. It is particularly effective in preventing various forms of online abuse, such as spam, fraudulent reviews, account fraud, and unauthorized access to localized content. The article reviews several NPM packages for browser fingerprinting, including Fingerprint, get-browser-fingerprint, ClientJS, and Browser Fingerprint, highlighting their ease of use, update frequency, download statistics, size, and detection accuracy. The Fingerprint package, both in its open-source and Pro versions, is noted for its high identification accuracy and comprehensive features, while get-browser-fingerprint offers a lightweight alternative with limited incognito mode detection capabilities. ClientJS is a popular choice with strong detection abilities, including in incognito mode, despite its larger size. Browser Fingerprint focuses on session identification rather than true fingerprinting, with mixed detection results across different browsers. The article emphasizes the importance of considering package size, client-server monitoring capabilities, and accuracy when choosing a fingerprinting solution.