Why would two browsers with the exact same user agent (ie same, version, same OS, same arch) yield two different renditions of an audio fingerprint?
But the point of fingerprinting is that practically no two "browsers" are the same:
- browser software and exact version
- installed plugins
- size of browser window
- OS software and exact version (think of patches!)
- language
- time zone
- screen resolution
- ...
- (and all the stuff mentioned in the submitted article!)
> They wouldn't.
The `AudioContext` API exposes several details about the host which may depend on the hardware (sound card, sound chip), software stack (OS, on Linux e.g. PulseAudio vs. ALSA), sound driver and its versions, and connected periphery (speakers? headphones?).
Additionally, the audio API is used to generate a sound (which is muted before being played, but still generated before). Sound is hard, and so the browser vendors don't necessarily generate the "sound bits" themselves but ask the OS to so. Which might in fact ask its sound system to do so. Which might ask its sound driver...
Some of these properties are fairly common or likely to change often. But chances are that combined they give you more bits of information then say the simple user agent string (which is shared by thousands - if not more! - other browsers).
If you'd find some things do change too often to be relied upon you could either take that into account, or simply don't use that specific fingerprinting technique.