I sure didn&#x27;t intend to be argumentative, and as I said, I do think you are right, the fingerprinting example is flawed just as you point out.<p>I was only considering the calculations in the abstract, as representing how such algorithms might be used by a real entity attempting to track its users.  I was putting myself in the place of the tracker and imagining how I&#x27;d deal with the issues you brought up.  I certainly <i>do not and never have</i> done any such thing on the servers I run in real life.<p>A year or so ago when I was first aware of the Panopticlick site, I was impressed with how easy it was to more or less uniquely identify my browser.  I tried numerous ways to make it less unique.  Best I could do at the time was reduce the &quot;entropy&quot; from 22 to 15 or so. Even though I knew these results were hypothetical, it was still educational.<p>So the Panopticlick site makes its point even if it&#x27;s not 100% accurate.  How much it scares people is hard to say, but probably not a lot.  Bottom line is I&#x27;ve been aware that fingerprinting could be happening, but also not a whole lot to do to reduce my browser&#x27;s uniqueness.  Obviously, it hasn&#x27;t stopped me from getting on the web anyway.