Traced: A Real-Time Browser Fingerprint Detection and Spoofing Extension for Chromium

Browser fingerprinting has emerged as the dominant tracking mechanism on the modern web, replacing cookie-based tracking as privacy regulations and browser restrictions have made cookies increasingly difficult to deploy. Unlike cookies, fingerprinting requires no storage on the user's device and cannot be cleared by the user. This paper presents Traced, a Chromium browser extension that detects fingerprinting attempts in real time and actively spoofs browser APIs to feed trackers false data. We describe the architecture, the APIs intercepted, the spoofing methodology, the whitelist system for trusted sites, and the results of testing against the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cover Your Tracks fingerprint evaluation tool. Traced is freely available on the Chrome Web Store at https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/traced/pjkgmpckbccpakebjhaijdbboplahpgo

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-05-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20343412
Primary Topic
Biometric Identification and Security
Type
preprint
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preprint

Traced: A Real-Time Browser Fingerprint Detection and Spoofing Extension for Chromium

jonathan williams
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Biometric Identification and Security
preprint

Traced: A Real-Time Browser Fingerprint Detection and Spoofing Extension for Chromium

jonathan williams
preprint en

Abstract

Browser fingerprinting has emerged as the dominant tracking mechanism on the modern web, replacing cookie-based tracking as privacy regulations and browser restrictions have made cookies increasingly difficult to deploy. Unlike cookies, fingerprinting requires no storage on the user's device and cannot be cleared by the user. This paper presents Traced, a Chromium browser extension that detects fingerprinting attempts in real time and actively spoofs browser APIs to feed trackers false data. We describe the architecture, the APIs intercepted, the spoofing methodology, the whitelist system for trusted sites, and the results of testing against the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cover Your Tracks fingerprint evaluation tool. Traced is freely available on the Chrome Web Store at https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/traced/pjkgmpckbccpakebjhaijdbboplahpgo

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Biometric Identification and Security
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