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Most of websites put some restrictions on how to use their services; the following paragraphs are taken from “Terms of Service” of such website:

  • Only one account per computer is allowed to view ads. If more than one account in a single computer view ads, all of those accounts will be permanently suspended.

  • User can only use a maximum of 3 distinct computers in a 10 days period to view ads. Any attempt to use more than that in that defined period will cause an account suspension.

Question:

No problem with such rules, they must be respected. But I want to know how can servers recognize a specific computer! Is there a computer fingerprint that would be transferred through HTTP connection and can identify each computer?

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  • $\begingroup$ The latter could be done with ordinary cookies (assuming users do not take the effort to copy cookies between computers, use a shared file system, or otherwise share the data). While the browser information (user agent string) and IP address provides some information, I suspect scripting would be needed to get CPU info, MAC address, etc. Forging such an identity is not especially difficult. See also: How do I uniquely identify computers visiting my web site? $\endgroup$
    – Paul A. Clayton
    Apr 25, 2016 at 16:42

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