What Every Website Learns About You Without Asking
Your rough location, your device, your graphics card, even every key you press. See what a single page visit gives away, and how to give away less.
You open a web page. You don't sign in, you don't click anything, you don't accept a single pop-up. The page still knows a surprising amount about you, and so does every ad and tracking script inside it.
We built a free page that shows you exactly what your own visit gives away: What Does My Browser Reveal? It runs in your browser and keeps nothing. Here's what it shows and why it matters.
What the website's server sees
Before a page even loads, the server receives your IP address. From that, anyone can look up your internet provider and a rough location, usually the right city and sometimes closer. Your browser also sends the languages you read and a short ID string describing your browser and system.
The tool's "Your connection" box shows you this list. It also checks whether your IP's time zone matches your device clock. When they don't match, sites often take it as a sign you're using a VPN.
What the page itself can read
Once the page is open, its code can read far more without asking permission:
- Your device: system, browser and version, CPU threads, roughly how much memory you have, and often the exact graphics card.
- Your screen: its size, pixel density, how much space your taskbar takes up, and whether you have more than one monitor.
- Your setup: time zone, languages, number and date formats, installed fonts, dark mode, and on some browsers your battery level.
- Whether you have a camera, microphone and speakers, even before you allow access to any of them.
Fingerprinting: recognized without cookies
None of those details identifies you on its own. Together they often do. Combining them into one ID is called browser fingerprinting, and it can recognize the same browser across sites even after you clear cookies or open a private window.
Two tricks do a lot of the work. The page quietly draws a hidden picture and processes a silent sound. Tiny differences in your graphics chip, drivers and fonts make the results nearly unique to your device. The tool shows whether your browser lets these through or blocks them.
At the top of the page you'll see an estimate like "1 in 28,000,000": roughly how few browsers share your exact combination. It's worked out on your device from published research on how common each trait is. There's no database of visitors to compare you against.
Every key you press
This part surprises most people. While a page is open and in front, it can see every key you press on it: which key, when, and how long you held it. Try typing a fake password into the demo box on the tool page. The dots hide it from people looking over your shoulder, but the page rebuilt every letter.
Your typing rhythm is personal enough that some companies use it to recognize people. The good news: a page can't see keys typed in other tabs or other apps, or while it isn't the window in front.
How to give away less
- Hide your IP and location with a trustworthy VPN or Tor Browser. Nothing else changes what the server sees.
- Use a browser that resists fingerprinting: Firefox with Strict tracking protection, Brave, Safari or Tor Browser.
- Blend in. Unusual fonts, odd window sizes and lots of extensions make you rarer. Keep your browser up to date.
- Block trackers with a content blocker. Most fingerprinting happens inside ad and tracking scripts.
- Turn on Global Privacy Control if your browser has it. In some US states, sites must treat it as an opt-out of selling your data.
- Say no to permission pop-ups you don't need.
Then reload the page and compare your score.
