The Benefits That Device Fingerprinting Has For Marketers
The invention of the internet provided marketers with many more options to reach out to their audience in various ways. Along with these new and exciting marketing opportunities came targeted advertising – which was impossible in traditional marketing. However, digital marketers need more data about their audiences, behaviors, and preferences to implement targeted advertising. How can advertisers collect this information in an environment that focuses on online privacy?
In this article, we’ll take a look at device fingerprinting – the new way to identify and track users. Even if you use a high-quality proxy provider like Smartproxy with reasonable proxy prices, there are still ways they can collect information. We’ll also be looking at what information makes up a fingerprint and how advertisers can use this information.
What Is Device Fingerprinting?
Device fingerprinting is a new technique used to identify users on the internet. It relies on a combination of different factors such as IP address, browser, device details, and more to create a unique device ID. This ID can then be used to track the user online and monitor their behaviors.
It originated as a way to prevent credit card fraud. E-commerce stores, banks, and other financial institutions would use this device ID to ensure that payments are made by the right person and can also identify devices used in fraudulent transactions.
However, marketers soon started seeing the potential of using this technique to track users and collect their data. With more users becoming aware of their online privacy, some older techniques, such as IP and cookie tracking, are becoming inaccurate and obsolete. Users are starting to use providers with reasonable proxy prices to hide their IPs and delete cookies more frequently.
Advantages Of Device Fingerprinting Over Cookies
The deteriorating use of tracking cookies is not that detrimental, especially considering that there’s another way that marketers can still get the information they need. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages device fingerprinting has over cookies:
● Cookies make ads recognizable and easier to block with ad-blockers
● Users can easily remove cookies
● Cookies are unreliable for tracking mobile devices
● Privacy regulations are clamping down on cookies
● Cookies are stored on devices, making it difficult to track users when they work on multiple devices
What Information Makes Up A Device Fingerprint?
A device fingerprint is made up of a wide range of data points. The more unique points added to a fingerprint, the more accurate the tracking will be. Just as the lines on your fingerprints are all different and unique, your various data points, such as your device details, IP address, and installed fonts, make up the unique ‘lines’ of your device fingerprint.
Some of the information that’s collected and forms part of your device fingerprint include:
● IP address
● Browser
● User Agent
● Device Information
● Cookies
● HTTP request headers
● Timezone
● Plugins and browser extensions
● Installed fonts
● Silverlight data
● List of mime-types
● Timestamp
This technique relies greatly on probability. What is the probability that multiple users will match your exact device specifications, browser and extensions, and more? This technique also makes it possible to continue tracking a user even if they use a provider with good proxy prices to change their IP, as there is still other information making up your fingerprint.
To avoid device fingerprint tracking altogether, you’ll need a multi-faceted approach that consists of using proxies, switching browsers and changing user agents, using private browsers, ad-blockers, and more. To avoid device fingerprint tracking altogether, you’ll need a multi-faceted approach that consists of using proxies, switching browsers and changing user agents, using private browsers, getting the best VPN, ad-blockers, and more.
How Is Device Fingerprinting Used For Marketing Purposes?
One of the primary uses of device fingerprinting when marketing is allowing advertisers to track users and understand their audience better. By collecting this information, marketers can create better user profiles to target with personalized ads.
By simply looking at your user agent, marketers can know whether you’re using an expensive Macbook Pro or an affordable smartphone. They can ascertain your earnings with your IP as this information correlates to your location. There are even APIs available that help them with this.
Another use of device fingerprinting that’s often used by marketers is for analytics. Device fingerprinting can be used to identify and report on unique or returning visitors. It can also be used to analyze the results of various ad campaigns and track their performance.
Why Is Device Fingerprinting Useful For Marketing?
The main benefit of device fingerprinting for marketing is that it allows marketers to create individual user profiles. These profiles are essential in successful targeted marketing campaigns, and with the vast amount of competition in digital advertising, personalized ads are the best way to ensure a successful campaign.
It also provides advertisers with multiple ways to group consumers together based on certain similarities in their profiles. This makes it easier to reach your intended audience with your campaigns.
Consumers expect a more personalized experience when browsing the internet, shopping online, or interacting with brands. By creating a unique profile of users based on device fingerprinting, you can offer this personalized interaction.
Final Thoughts
Device fingerprinting is a useful way for marketers to collect information on their target audience in order to improve their targeted marketing campaigns. Smart marketers can gain enough insights from this fingerprint so that pervasive tracking is no longer necessary.
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