Starting with version 1.93, Brave rolls out new default protections against GPU and graphics-driver fingerprinting on desktop and Android. The browser now de-identifies WebGL vendor and renderer strings to a single generic value shared by all users, empties WebGPU adapter descriptors (vendor, architecture, device), and injects per-session, per-site randomization into the list of supported WebGL extensions. Brave found in a crawl that most top sites use these APIs almost exclusively for fingerprinting rather than rendering. Sites can be exempted individually if breakage occurs, and users can disable the protections via Shields.
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What does Brave browser version 1.93 change about WebGL fingerprinting protection?
Brave 1.93 replaces the WebGL vendor and renderer strings with a single generic string identical across all Brave users, and injects randomization into the list of supported WebGL extensions so hash-based fingerprinters see a different value per session, per site (eTLD+1), and per storage area. These protections are on by default on desktop and Android, rolling out in phases. Track browser privacy releases like this one alongside other dev-relevant changes on daily.dev.
How does Brave protect against WebGPU adapter fingerprinting?
Brave empties out the WebGPU adapter descriptors, meaning properties like vendor, architecture, and device (for example vendor 'apple', architecture 'metal-3') no longer expose identifying hardware details to websites. Future work planned includes randomizing WebGPU's supported extensions list as well, since that remains an active fingerprinting vector. Developers weighing privacy-preserving API design can follow updates like this via daily.dev.
Can websites still detect specific GPU hardware through WebGL debug strings in Brave?
No, starting in Brave version 1.93 the WebGL debug renderer info extension, which previously returned strings like 'ANGLE (Apple, ANGLE Metal Renderer: Apple M5 Max)', now returns a single generic vendor and renderer string shared by every Brave user. This extension was originally created by Google Chrome for Google Maps before becoming available to all sites and heavily used for fingerprinting. daily.dev helps developers keep up with browser API changes that affect fingerprinting-reliant code.