Cover Your Tracks
Tool Description : A privacy-testing tool from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that checks how identifiable your browser and device are online.
Cover Your Tracks
Quick Overview
What it does
Tests your browser’s privacy and fingerprinting resistance.
How to use it
Visit the site, run the test, and review the results to understand how exposed or unique your browser appears.
Cost
Free.
Account required
No.
Cookies
Minimal/session cookies.
Ownership
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Use in Reporting
Useful for digital privacy assessments, cyber awareness training, investigative methodology discussions, and documenting browser fingerprinting risks during online investigations.
What does Cover Your Tracks do?
Cover Your Tracks analyses your browser fingerprint, tracker blocking, and privacy protections to show how easy it may be for websites, advertisers, or investigators to recognise you across the web.
It checks whether your browser blocks trackers, blocks ads, and whether your setup makes you unique or identifiable online by comparing your fingerprint against a large dataset of other browsers.
The lowdown: This tool is essentially a ‘privacy mirror.’ It shows what websites can quietly learn about you without you typing anything in.
How to Use:
1. Open the site and click ‘Test your browser’ to begin the scan.
2. Review the fingerprinting results.
As you can see, the results are explained in beginner-friendly terms with explanations of what each metric is and what it means for you:
3. Adjust your settings and retest.
Cost
Data Processing
Account Required:
Cookies:
Minimal/session cookies.
Use in Reporting
Use in Reporting
Cover Your Tracks can support reporting and research by:
Demonstrating browser fingerprinting risks.
Showing how websites identify users beyond cookies.
Supporting cyber awareness briefings.
Explaining digital surveillance techniques.
Validating OPSEC/privacy setups before investigations.
Illustrating online tracking methods in training material.
Capabilities
Limitations
Tests browser fingerprint uniqueness.
Browser uniqueness can change frequently.
Highlights fingerprinting vulnerabilities.
Some extensions can ironically make fingerprints more unique.
Detects tracker blocking effectiveness and ad blocking behaviour.
Results are only a snapshot in time.
Compares your setup against other browsers.
Focused on browser-level privacy rather than full device anonymity.
Fast and beginner-friendly.
Cannot detect every tracking method.
Summary
Cover Your Tracks is a simple but powerful privacy awareness tool that reveals how identifiable your browser really is online. It’s a valuable checkpoint for understanding digital exposure, testing browser hardening, and improving operational security before conducting sensitive research and embarking on the OSINT workflow.
Ownership
Cover Your Tracks is owned and operated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation — a U.S. based non-profit organisation focused on digital privacy, civil liberties, and online rights. The organisation was founded in 1990 by digital rights activists John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor, and John Gilmore.
Ethical Considerations
Privacy testing should support legitimate security and research purposes.
Investigators should avoid assuming anonymity based solely on browser tests.
Fingerprinting awareness should be used responsibly and legally.
OPSEC tools should not be used to facilitate unlawful activity.
Be cautious when testing from sensitive environments tied to real identities.
Related Tools:
AmIUnique
TorBrowser
Sources
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
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