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It's also heavily used in fraud prevention, blocking malicious actors, and on gambling websites.


Is it actually effective at that kind of stuff though? Changing your user agent and screen size to get through a system like that seems very easy.


There is more to it than user-agent and screen size. There are tools out there like fraudfox that are intended to provide a way of masking the information. Last I was involved/interested it could reveal quite a bit of specific information. Typically, advanced fraudsters are capable of beating the systems. There are just too many tools available. Even blocking the trackers with noscript/privacy plug-ins can result in a block. Whatever comes out on the anti-fraud side is commonly just a temporary roadblock. The balance between convenience and security for most companies leans towards convenience.




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