🪟 Glasshouse — Privacy Explorer

A live, in-browser look at what any website can learn about you the moment you visit — on any device (yes, including this phone), no app, no install.

Runs entirely in your browser · sends nothing anywhere

The idea

Most privacy advice is abstract. Glasshouse explains a thing, then demonstrates it on you — so it stops being theoretical. Tap each Show me button below. Everything happens locally; this page makes no network calls of its own.

1 · Your browser has a unique signature

You don't need cookies to be tracked. The exact mix of your screen, fonts, GPU, timezone and settings is often unique enough to single you out across sites — silently. Here's yours, computed live:

🧒 Like you're 5: Everyone wears a different mix of hat, socks and shoes. Even with no name tag, people spot you just by your outfit. Your browser wears an outfit too — and websites recognise it.

2 · The invisible canvas test

Sites can ask your browser to draw a hidden image, then read it back. Tiny differences in your GPU/driver/OS can make the result reliably you — a classic cookieless trick. It works fully in Chrome; Safari, Firefox and Brave now add noise to defeat it, so on those you may get a different result each run. Let's see yours:

🧒 Like you're 5: We ask your computer to doodle a tiny picture. It draws it just a little differently than everyone else — like handwriting. So the doodle alone whispers "this is you."

3 · Your graphics card is talking

Through WebGL, a page can often read the name of your GPU — another identifier you never agreed to share. Chrome shows the exact model; Safari reports just "Apple GPU" and Firefox generalizes it to limit this. Here's what this page can see:

🧒 Like you're 5: Your computer has a part that draws games and videos. When a website asks, it shouts its exact brand name across the room — like telling a stranger which toy you own.

4 · The local-network leak (WebRTC)

The WebRTC feature used for video calls once leaked your device's local network address. Most current browsers now mask it as a random .local name, so a raw-IP leak is the uncommon, misconfigured case today (and this only ever exposed your local address, not your public/VPN IP). Let's see what yours shows:

🧒 Like you're 5: Your device has a secret house number on your home network. This trick can peek at it through the window — even when you thought the curtains (your VPN) were shut.

5 · Things that remember you

Cookies aren't the only memory. Let's write a marker to your browser's storage right now, then read it back — proof that a site can recognise a returning you:

🧒 Like you're 5: A website sticks a tiny sticky note on you. Next time you visit it reads the note and goes "oh, it's you again!" — even though you never told it your name.

6 · The ambient signals you broadcast

Just by loading, this page learns a surprising amount — no permission prompts involved. Here's the raw picture:

🧒 Like you're 5: The moment you walk in, the website already notices your shoe size, the language you speak and what time it is where you live — without ever asking.

7 · A day in your life, scripted from the data above

Each probe alone feels harmless. Stitched together, they're a profile — and profiles get used. Walk through your day one scene at a time, built from the exact values you saw above. At each step you get a choice — watch how the machine absorbs it either way. (Tip: run the probes above first so it's truly yours.)

🧒 Like you're 5: Lots of little clues about you get glued together into one big sticker that says "this person." Then companies use the sticker to sell you things and change your mind — and you never handed it over.

Opens full-screen — close it anytime to come back here.