What Your Browser Tells Every Website
No login, no permission prompt, no cookies. This is what a page can read the moment it loads — gathered live, on this page, right now.
Why a website can see all this
None of this is a hack. Every item comes from something a browser has to share, or chooses to share, so that pages work properly.
- Your IP address is how the page’s data gets back to you. Every server you connect to receives it, and databases map addresses to a rough location and the network that owns them. See what your IP address reveals.
- Browser, system and device type come from the user agent and related browser features, which sites use to serve the right version of a page.
- Screen size, pixel density, language and timezone let pages lay themselves out, show the right language, and display times correctly.
- Graphics chip, CPU cores and memory are exposed so games, video and 3D content can adapt to your hardware. Browsers round some of these values to make them less precise.
- The page you came from (the referrer) is sent when you follow a link, although most browsers now trim it to just the site name.
Each item on its own is ordinary: millions of people use Chrome on Windows with a 1920 × 1080 screen. The privacy problem appears when they’re combined.
From ordinary details to a fingerprint
A browser fingerprint is a combination of many small details — hardware, settings, fonts, how your device draws graphics — that together can be distinctive enough to recognise the same browser again. Unlike a cookie, there’s nothing stored on your device to delete, and private browsing doesn’t change most of it.
The fingerprint card in the demo is deliberately simple: it draws a small hidden image and hashes the result, because tiny differences in graphics hardware, drivers and fonts change the output. Real fingerprinting scripts combine dozens of signals like this. On its own, this demo hash isn’t unique — plenty of identical devices will produce the same value. For a measured view of how exposed your browser is, run the Privacy Exposure Score, which checks WebRTC leaks, fingerprinting surface and the timezone signal and explains each result.
Who actually uses this information
| Who | What they use it for |
|---|---|
| The site itself | Layout, language, security checks, and spotting fraud such as stolen-card purchases |
| Analytics tools | Counting visitors and working out which devices and countries they use |
| Advertising and tracking scripts | Recognising browsers across sites, sometimes combining fingerprints with cookies and logins |
| Anti-bot services | Telling real browsers apart from automated ones |
The concern isn’t one site seeing your screen size. It’s that tracking companies run scripts on huge numbers of sites and can link visits together into a profile — and that profile can be joined with what you share when you log in or buy something.
What a page can’t see without asking
- Your precise location. GPS-level location needs a permission prompt. IP location is usually only accurate to a city or region, and sometimes wrong — see how accurate IP geolocation is.
- Your name, email or accounts — unless you’re logged in to that site or type them in.
- Your files, camera, microphone or contacts — all need explicit permission.
- Your browsing history on other sites — browsers block direct access to it.
The timezone tell
The demo compares the timezone your device reports with the timezone expected for your IP address. If you use a VPN, those often don’t match: your address says Amsterdam while your clock says Bucharest. Sites that care about VPN use can spot exactly that mismatch. It’s harmless for most people, but worth knowing if you use a VPN to appear somewhere else.
How to reduce what you give away
The PureVPN and Bitdefender buttons are affiliate links: ExamineIP may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure.
Also turn on Global Privacy Control if your browser supports it. It tells sites you don’t want your data sold or shared, and some laws — including in California and Colorado — require sites to honour it. The older Do Not Track signal is being removed from browsers because almost nobody respected it.
Frequently asked questions
Does private or incognito mode hide any of this?
Very little. Private mode stops your browser saving history and clears cookies when you close it, but your IP address, device details and most fingerprinting signals stay the same. See does incognito mode hide your IP?
Why is my location wrong?
IP location comes from databases, not GPS. It often points to your provider’s regional hub, a nearby city, or wherever your VPN server is. See why your IP shows the wrong location.
If I use a VPN, does this page still see my device?
Yes. The IP address, location and network change to the VPN server’s; everything else in the demo stays the same. Run the VPN leak test to check your real address isn’t slipping through.
Is it illegal for sites to collect this?
Not in itself — much of it is needed to show a page. Using it to track you is regulated in many places: in the EU, fingerprinting for tracking generally needs the same consent as tracking cookies.
Why does the count differ between browsers?
Some browsers don’t expose certain details at all — Firefox and Safari hide the connection type, for example — so there’s less to show.