Fingerprints are the new cookies
- ID
- 34433
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 12 Oct 2026, 6:33 AM
- Fetched
- 12 Oct 2026, 2:56 PM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://royfish.dev/fingerprints-are-the-new-cookies
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 6.0
- Created
- 12 Oct 2026, 2:56 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coderssaas_founders
What happened
The essay argues device fingerprinting is replacing third-party cookies as the adtech identity layer, tracing Google’s cookie-deprecation arc from a 2019 pledge to kill cookies, to a Privacy Sandbox that drew antitrust concerns and saw low adoption, to keeping cookies and promising—but not delivering—IP masking only in authenticated incognito. It claims Google ad products can now use device fingerprinting, and the HN thread drew 248 points and 120 comments; the excerpt cuts off before explaining fingerprinting mechanics.
Why it matters
If you embed ad/analytics scripts or make privacy claims, this is a prompt to check whether your cookie-consent and incognito assumptions still match how browsers and ad platforms identify users. The piece is opinion and gives no implementation details or citations, so treat the “fingerprinting in ad products” claim as a discussion signal, not a verified spec.
Discussion angle
Should builders treat cookie consent and incognito as weak privacy boundaries if fingerprinting is allowed in major ad products, and what should change when choosing analytics or ad SDKs?