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| Cover Your Tracks |
I Used 'Cover Your Tracks' to See What's Following Me Online
Cover Your Tracks is a free privacy auditing tool created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit focused on digital rights. The site tests your browser's ability to block ads, tracking scripts, and fingerprinting mechanisms.
Here's how it works:
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It simulates common online tracking methods, including visible ads, hidden beacons, and scripts from domains that honor “Do Not Track” policies.
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It then evaluates how your browser handles these elements and calculates a browser fingerprint uniqueness score.
The more unique your browser appears in the test, the easier it is for third-party trackers to follow your activity across the web—even without cookies.
How Does It Measure Online Privacy?
The tool focuses on two major aspects of web tracking:
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Tracking Protection
It checks if your browser blocks:-
Display ads that contain tracking scripts.
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Invisible trackers (like beacons or pixels).
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Scripts from "Do Not Track"-compliant domains.
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Browser Fingerprinting
This is where things get tricky. Even if you block trackers, your browser’s unique configuration—like your fonts, extensions, language, screen size, and time zone—can identify you.
A browser that blocks everything but has a unique fingerprint? Still trackable.
My Results: Strong Ad Blocking, Weak Fingerprint Protection
I’ve always taken privacy seriously—Safari with all tracking protection settings turned on, plus AdGuard as an additional layer. Confident in my setup, I ran the Cover Your Tracks test.
Here’s what I found:
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✅ Tracking Ads Blocked
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✅ Invisible Trackers Blocked
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❌ Browser Fingerprinting: Highly Unique
While my browser effectively blocked tracking scripts, its fingerprint stood out. According to EFF’s database, my setup was completely unique among over 250,000 browsers tested in the last 45 days.
That means: I can still be tracked across sites just by my browser’s fingerprint. Yikes.
I Tried Firefox with uBlock Origin — Was It Better?
Next, I fired up Firefox, armed with uBlock Origin and all privacy protections turned on.
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✅ Strong tracking protection
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✅ Slightly less unique fingerprint
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🟡 Still very trackable
Firefox was better than Safari in terms of fingerprint uniqueness, but it wasn’t a miracle fix. My fingerprint was still among only 1 in 125,000 browsers.
Can You Really Avoid Browser Fingerprinting?
Here’s the harsh truth: completely avoiding fingerprinting is nearly impossible. The more privacy extensions and settings you use, the more unique your setup becomes.
EFF calls it a privacy paradox:
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The more trackers you block, the more websites you break.
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The more unique your fingerprint becomes, the easier it is to identify you.
Best Practices to Improve Online Privacy:
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🧅 Use the Tor Browser for high-anonymity browsing.
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🧩 Install advanced privacy extensions like Privacy Badger, NoScript, or Disconnect (works best with Firefox).
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⚙️ Disable JavaScript on sensitive sites, but beware—it may break functionality.
Even Tor isn’t perfect. In “Safer” mode, it still gave me a unique fingerprint. In “Safest” mode, the test broke altogether because JavaScript was disabled.
You’re Never Truly Invisible Online
Cover Your Tracks is a sobering reminder that online anonymity is fragile. While modern browsers and privacy tools are helpful, fingerprinting is a powerful tool for surveillance and online tracking.
If privacy matters to you:
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Be intentional with your browser setup.
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Use privacy-first browsers like Tor or Brave.
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Consider using VPNs and tracker-blocking extensions.
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Regularly audit your setup with tools like Cover Your Tracks.
🔒Your browser might block ads and trackers, but unless it blends into the crowd, you’re still visible.
Want to Test Your Own Browser?
Visit Cover Your Tracks and see how your setup compares.
