The Hardware Interrogation
Modern laptops and tablets contain a variety of physical hardware sensors, including ambient light sensors, accelerometers, and gyroscopes. Google Chrome features a specific API that allows websites to tap directly into these sensors. A website can detect if you are sitting in a dark room or physically tilting your laptop. While this enables experimental browser-based games, it also provides advertising networks with another vector to fingerprint your specific machine based on its unique hardware profile. To ensure your physical environment remains completely private, you must force Chrome to lock out all sensor access.
How to Block Sensor Access Globally
You can permanently sever the browser’s connection to your physical hardware via the Site Settings.
- Open the Google Chrome desktop browser.
- Click the three vertical dots (⋮) in the top right corner and select Settings.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Privacy and security.
- In the main window, click on Site settings.
- Scroll down to the bottom and click to expand Additional permissions.
- Click on Sensors (or Motion or light sensors).
- Under the “Default behavior” heading, select the radio button for “Don’t allow sites to use your device’s sensors.”
Absolute Isolation
The change takes effect instantly. Google Chrome will completely sever its internal connection to the Windows or macOS sensor driver stack. The browser will instantly auto-reject every single request from any website attempting to read your ambient light levels or gyroscope data. You will never see a permission pop-up, and you can browse the internet with the absolute guarantee that websites are blind to the physical orientation of your device.