Exploring Techniques and Countermeasures Against Browser Tracking: A Comprehensive Survey

Considering the scale of online privacy threats, it is crucial to investigate the effectiveness of current means of protecting users against these malicious methods. This paper examines recently developed techniques for preventing websites from tracking users' browsing habits without consent. We review tracking techniques based on client storage, such as cookies, including but not limited to supercookies and third-party cookies, in addition to HTML5 storage. We also present an advanced technique known as fingerprinting. The latter does not require storage on the device, like cookies, making it more difficult to bypass. Particular attention is given to behavioral tracking tools like mouse tracking. We talk about the legal rules and regulations that are currently in place. We also explain how it is possible to defend against them with the privacy protections of browsers (Firefox, Safari, and others.) and some extensions (uBlock Origin, AdBlock Plus, among others.) while examining the limits of these solutions.