Fingerprint
Telling your own profiles apart
- 6
- Fields that make two profiles one machine
- 5
- Fields counted one by one
- None
- Browsers opened to answer
- Every one on this computer
- Profiles compared
Why a twin is the worst tell
A proxy changes where a profile comes from, not what the machine behind it says about itself.
Two profiles reporting one screen, one core count, one memory size and one card are linked, and separate cookies do not undo that.
A platform need not prove the two belong together. It reads the coincidence, and one across six values at once is the kind it acts on.
Six fields make a machine
Two profiles are one machine when all six agree. The clock stands on its own line and does not enter that verdict.
Pixel ratio and platform decide a twin without appearing in the list below. You never edit the platform at all, and the ratio follows the panels that template really ships with.
| Field | Makes a twin | Counted one by one |
|---|---|---|
| Screen size | Yes | Yes |
| Cores | Yes | Yes |
| Memory | Yes | Yes |
| Graphics card | Yes | Yes |
| Pixel ratio | Yes | No |
| Platform | Yes | No |
| Time zone | No | Yes |
A real reading
A field only this profile holds separates it. A field the whole crowd shares separates nobody, and the list shows which is which.
Shared with ten means ten other profiles report that value. The smaller the number, the more the field separates.
- Screen 1280x800
- shared with 11 of the other 99
- Cores 4
- shared with 2
- Memory 4 GB
- shared with 4
- Graphics card ANGLE (Intel Inc., Intel(R) Iris(TM) Plus Graphics 640, OpenGL 4.1)
- shared with 8
- Time zone Asia/Tokyo
- shared with 1
An example reading on the macOS template.
What a hundred profiles add up to
The numbers below are measured: three hundred draws of a hundred profiles per template, with no proxy.
Different machines out of 100 is how many distinct computers the hundred describe. Largest identical group is the biggest pile sharing one of them, and a profile inside that pile meets the rest of it as twins.
Your own hundred lands somewhere in the range: it is a draw, not a constant.
| Template | Different machines out of 100 | Usually | Largest identical group |
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS | 61..80 | 70 | 3..8 (usually 4) |
| Windows | 70..88 | 79 | 2..7 (usually 3) |
| Linux | 67..87 | 78 | 2..6 (usually 3) |
| Android phone | 17..20 | 20 | 7..19 (usually 11) |
| Android tablet | 7..7 | 7 | 16..26 (usually 19) |
The clock is counted apart
The exit country decides the time zone AND the language list: a proxy moves both fields, not one. You see them reported apart because they follow the country rather than the draw.
Only seven countries out of 114 carry a spread of zones. Behind the other 107 a hundred profiles land on one zone and one language list, and that is the honest ceiling of these two fields.
- 100 profiles behind proxies from one country with a spread
- 2 to 4 time zones, every one of them real there
- The same hundred behind a country without one
- 1 zone and 1 language list, shared by all of them
- Countries carrying a clock and a language list
- 114, of which 7 carry more than one zone
Counted on three hundred sets of a hundred profiles.
What to do with a twin
The report shows the values a launch would use, hand-picked ones included. The exception is the exit country: it comes from the profile record and stays empty until the first launch or the first press of the proxy check. Edit a field and the number moves straight away.
Fix a twin on the profile you have not spent yet, not on the one already carrying an account.
- 1
Change one field by hand
The Change values lists offer only what that template's real machines report, and screen and card are where the choice is widest: nine panels and ten cards on the Mac.
- 2
Press the button again
You get the new number from the profile itself, so nothing has to be opened for it.
- 3
Or start a fresh profile
A different profile number draws a different machine, and an account with no history behind it loses nothing by moving.
A profile already in use is a poor place to experiment
What this does not do
- It compares your profiles with each other and with nothing else. How common that machine is out on the internet is never asked, and a rare one is a tell of its own.
- It is not a forecast of blocks. Two profiles separable here can still be tied by one payment card, one proxy, borrowed cookies or your working rhythm, none of it read here.
- The number holds only profiles on this computer, and only ones outside the recycle bin. Profiles a colleague keeps on another machine are not in it.
- The clock is reported field by field and stays out of the twin verdict. Two profiles can be named twins with different time zones.
How to check
The report is one function, and a stand holds the diversity behind its numbers.
- Every profile on this computer is compared and twins are named
- apps/desktop/src/main/main.js · apps/desktop/src/main/manager-preload.js
- Six fields decide a twin and five are counted one by one
- apps/desktop/src/main/main.js · apps/desktop/src/manager/renderer.js · packages/shared/test/подпись-устройства-одна.js
- A hundred desktop profiles hold at least fifteen language lists and fifteen time zones
- apps/desktop/test/fingerprint-consistency.js
- Clocks and languages spread instead of following the owner
- packages/shared/src/index.js · apps/desktop/test/fingerprint-consistency.js
- How many machines a hundred profiles add up to, and how big the largest identical group gets
- packages/shared/scripts/различимость.js
Questions
- Does it open a browser to answer?
- No. A profile's machine follows from its number and template, so the answer covers all of them at once.
- How many twins are too many?
- One is already a link between two accounts. The panel turns amber at one or two and red at three, because a group on one machine reads as one person.
- Why does memory always look shared?
- Chrome reports at most 8 GB whatever the machine holds, so memory separates almost nobody. The card and the screen do the work.
- Two profiles on one phone model, is that bad?
- Far less than on a desktop. There are 22 handsets in the pool, and real phone traffic repeats models the same way.
- Does a proxy country change the answer?
- Not the count of machines: the zone never enters the twin verdict. It does replace the clock and the language list.
Count your own machines
Open the fingerprint window of any profile and press Compare with other profiles.