Introduction

Online privacy is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital age. With the rise of data breaches, identity theft, and online tracking, it’s essential to take steps to protect your personal information while browsing the web. One tool that can help with this is SessionBox, a browser extension and a software solution that allows you to use one browser with multiple active sessions per site

But before we explain what SessionBox is and how our solution works, let’s first understand what browser fingerprinting is and why it’s a threat to your online privacy.

Table of Contents

• What is Browser Fingerprinting?
• Why Does Browser Fingerprinting Pose a Threat?
• Types of Browser Fingerprinting
• What is SessionBox?
• How Does SessionBox Ensure Secure Browsing?
• Use Cases for SessionBox
• FAQ

What is Browser Fingerprinting?

Browser fingerprinting is a process of collecting metadata available through browsers to identify specific users. By using these techniques, websites track online browsing habits and purchase patterns to deliver ads and promotions that align with users’ interests.

Browser fingerprinting usually happens through a simple three-step process:

Trackers identify details about you, like your browser extensions, used fonts, and screen resolution.

Based on this set of details, they assign a code that becomes your browser fingerprint. Websites use this code to add more identifiers to you and invade your privacy.

Browser fingerprinting methods vary tremendously. It’s one of the reasons why they are so difficult to combat. There are new fingerprinting methods being developed regularly, as well as new solutions to address these innovative techniques.

As you can see, there are many ways websites can collect information about your browser and device. According to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a unique fingerprint can be identified in 83.6% of all browsers. Moreover, 94.2% of websites that had JavaScript enabled discovered a unique fingerprint as well, even excluding cookies!

Why Does Browser Fingerprinting Pose a Threat?

Personalized ads may not sound like a terrible thing, and in essence, they are not. The primary issue with browser fingerprinting is that it usually poses a threat to online privacy.

Almost every website that implements browser fingerprinting either don’t ask for user’s consent when fingerprinting their browser or does so in a very misleading manner. Chances are you can’t recall a website ever asking permission to track your information. In case there’s any notification at all, it’s usually buried in the site’s Terms of Service, written in the smallest font you could imagine. Usually, it goes like this: “By using our website you agree that we will save the digital signature of your machine.”

Don’t worry, if you didn’t understand it. You’re not alone. Most users have no idea what it means. Since it doesn’t come with any real explanation of what the possible consequences may be, few who manage to see it never think twice about it.

Agreeing to these terms can result in higher prices based on your location, mass information leaks due to hacker attacks, and other disadvantages that are not immediately obvious to consumers.

Browser fingerprinting can also bypass some of the common privacy measures that users take, such as using a proxy, a VPN or the Tor network. These tools can hide your IP address and location, but they cannot hide every detail about your device and browser. Therefore, websites can still identify and track you based on your browser fingerprint.

Types of Browser Fingerprinting

As mentioned earlier, there are many types of browser fingerprinting methods that websites can use to collect information about your browser and device. Some of the most common types are:

Browser plugins: These are external programs that run outside of the browser and can reveal information about your system and settings.

User agent header: This is a string that identifies your browser type, version, operating system, and other details.

Accept header: This is a string that indicates what types of content your browser can accept from the server.

Connection header: This is a string that specifies what options your browser supports for the connection.

Encoding header: This is a string that specifies what types of encoding your browser can handle for the content.

Language header: This is a string that specifies what languages your browser prefers for the content.

List of plugins: This is a list of plugins installed on your browser, such as Java.

Platform: This is a string that indicates what OS your browser runs on.

Cookies preferences: This is a boolean value that indicates whether your browser allows or blocks cookies.

Do Not Track preferences: This is a boolean value that indicates whether your browser requests websites not to track you.

Timezone: This is a string that indicates what timezone your browser uses.

Screen resolution and color depth: These are numeric values that indicate the size and quality of your screen display.

Use of local storage: This is a boolean value that indicates whether your browser supports local storage, which is a way to store data on your device.

Use of session storage: This is a boolean value that indicates whether your browser supports session storage, which is a way to store data for the current session only.

Picture rendered with HTML Canvas element: This is an image that is generated by drawing on a canvas element in your browser, which can reveal subtle differences in rendering engines and graphics cards.

Picture rendered with WebGL: This is an image that is generated by using WebGL, which is a technology for rendering 3D graphics in your browser, which can reveal information about your hardware and drivers.

These are just some examples of how websites can collect information about your browser and device. There are many more methods being developed regularly.

What is SessionBox?

SessionBox is a browser extension and a software that makes it easy to use websites with multiple accounts at the same time. With SessionBox, you can create an independent tab with a click of a button and log into multiple accounts on the same site simultaneously. There’s no need for secondary browsers or private sessions - SessionBox handles everything for you.

SessionBox can be used for various situations where you need to use multiple accounts on the same website simultaneously.

For example:

Social media managers can use SessionBox to manage multiple client accounts on the same platform without having to log in and out.

Online marketers can use SessionBox to test ads and landing pages with different accounts.

Customer support representatives can use SessionBox to manage multiple support tickets on the same platform.

These are just a few examples of how SessionBox can be used to improve productivity and efficiency while ensuring secure browsing.

How Does SessionBox Ensure Secure Browsing?

SessionBox takes several measures to ensure secure browsing. First, your sessions are securely synchronized between your devices using your SessionBox account. This means you can start a session on one device and continue it on another without worrying about your information being compromised.

Additionally, tabs managed by SessionBox do not use shared storage, and variables are handled by the extension or in the cloud. This means that other tabs and websites cannot monitor your activity, protecting your privacy while you browse.

SessionBox also helps you avoid browser fingerprinting by creating different fingerprints for each session. This way, websites cannot link your sessions together or identify you based on your browser fingerprinting.

FAQs

What is SessionBox?

SessionBox is a browser extension that allows you to use one browser with multiple active sessions per site.

How does SessionBox ensure secure browsing?

SessionBox ensures secure browsing by securely synchronizing your sessions between devices, managing tabs in a way that prevents other tabs and websites from monitoring your activity, and creating different fingerprints for each session.

Is SessionBox free?

A free trial is available.

I hope this updated article helps you understand the importance of online privacy, what browser fingerprinting is and how it poses a threat, and how SessionBox can help ensure secure browsing. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!