Browser Fingerprinting vs. Cookies: Which Is Worse?

Cookies are well known by now — most people have learned to delete them regularly or at least click „Reject“ on the cookie banner. But browser fingerprinting is the far greater threat to your privacy — and most people do not even know it exists.

Cookies: The Known Evil

Cookies are small text files that websites store on your device. There are different types:

• First-Party Cookies: Set by the website you are visiting. They store things like login data or shopping cart contents. Generally useful and harmless.
• Third-Party Cookies: Set by third parties (ad networks). They track you across different websites. These are the problematic cookies.
• Zombie Cookies: Particularly persistent cookies that restore themselves after deletion — for example via Flash storage or ETags.

Cookies have one crucial advantage for users: you can see, control, and delete them. And the GDPR requires websites to obtain your consent.

Browser Fingerprinting: The Invisible Threat

Unlike cookies, fingerprinting leaves no traces on your device. There is nothing to delete, nothing to block, and no cookie banner to warn you. Your fingerprint is automatically generated from your system configuration — it is calculated in real time with every single page visit.

While you must actively consent to cookies (GDPR), fingerprinting happens silently in the background. The website queries your system and stores the result on its servers — you never notice a thing.

The Big Comparison

Why Fingerprinting Is the Greater Threat

Cookies at least give you the illusion of control. You see the cookie banner, you click „Reject“, you regularly delete your cookies. You feel protected.

Browser fingerprinting completely escapes your control. You cannot delete your fingerprint because it is not stored anywhere on your device — it is recalculated on every page visit. It is like someone taking a photo of you while you think you are standing behind a wall.

The Legal Situation

The GDPR regulates cookies clearly: tracking cookies require informed consent. That is why there is a cookie banner on every website.

For browser fingerprinting, no comparable regulation exists. While the ePrivacy Regulation, which was supposed to explicitly regulate fingerprinting, has failed to reach agreement for years. In practice, this means: companies actively exploit the gap.

How Cookies and Fingerprinting Work Together

In practice, most tracking services use both simultaneously. Cookies serve as the primary identifier. When the cookies are deleted, the fingerprint acts as a backup:

• Step 1: Website sets a tracking cookie with a unique ID.
• Step 2: Simultaneously, a browser fingerprint is calculated and linked to the cookie ID.
• Step 3: You delete your cookies.
• Step 4: On your next visit, the website recognizes your fingerprint, restores the link, and sets a new cookie with the old ID.

This technique is called Cookie Respawning or „Zombie Cookies“ — and it makes deleting cookies practically useless.

Protection Strategies

Conclusion: What Should You Do?

Deleting cookies and rejecting cookie banners is a good first step — but it is not enough. To protect yourself from the invisible threat of fingerprinting as well, you need additional measures.

Our tip: Switch to a browser like Brave that addresses both threats. And test your current setup with the TrakMe.net Fingerprint Test — the results might surprise you.