Understanding Burst’s Cookieless Tracking: How Fingerprinting Works

In the context of online privacy and data tracking, Burst Statistics offers a cookieless method to track website visitors. This approach is centered around a technique known as fingerprinting. This article will explain how Burst utilizes fingerprinting for tracking, emphasizing its privacy-focused nature.

How Burst Tracks Website Visitors Without Cookies

Fingerprinting is the primary method used by Burst to identify and track website visitors. This technique does not rely on traditional cookies. Instead, it gathers a combination of device and browser information such as browser type, operating system, and device settings. This collected data is used to create a unique identifier or ‘fingerprint’ for each visitor. Think of it as creating a unique ID based on your computer’s attributes.

Burst’s Fingerprinting Process

In Burst’s approach, the data collected for fingerprinting is compiled into a unified object. This object is then converted into a unique hash, acting as a digital fingerprint for each visitor. By comparing these fingerprints with those stored in its database, Burst can differentiate between new and returning visitors.

Privacy Considerations in Burst’s Tracking

A notable aspect of Burst’s fingerprinting process is the irreversible nature of the hash. The fingerprint, once created, cannot be converted back into its original data, ensuring that no directly identifiable personal information is retained.

Explaining Hashes in Simple Terms

A hash functions like a digital signature for data. It is generated by passing the original data through a hash function, which produces a short, fixed-size string of characters unique to that data. The sensitivity of hashes to even minor changes in the original data makes them useful for checking data integrity and comparing data sets.

Comparison with cookies

Both the ID stored in the cookie and the hash derived from the fingerprint are saved indefinitely in the statistics database unless the website administrator deletes the statistics data, either manually or through automated settings.

Unlike cookies, which are stored on the user’s computer with a defined expiration (e.g., one month), a fingerprint represents a combination of several characteristics of the user’s system. This fingerprint remains consistent as long as the system does not change, effectively giving it an indefinite lifetime. To ensure privacy, the fingerprint is encoded into a hash. This hash is irreversible, meaning it cannot be traced back to the user unless the original system characteristics are already known and hashed for comparison.

In summary, both the cookie ID and the fingerprint hash are stored indefinitely on the server. However, the cookie on the user’s device has an expiration date, while the fingerprint hash acts as a persistent signature. To enhance privacy, the fingerprint is hashed, making it impossible to trace back to the user without access to the original system fingerprint.

Both approaches have their own advantage: cookies give users more control over their data, as the user can choose to delete a cookie at any moment, while a fingerprint can never be deleted. On the other hand, fingerprints are not stored on the user’s computer, and can’t be traced back to the user unless you have the original data from the computer at hand.

Conclusion

Burst Statistics’ method of using fingerprinting for web analytics offers a privacy-conscious alternative to traditional cookie-based tracking. This approach aligns with the growing emphasis on online privacy, providing a way to track website activity without storing personal information.