Which statement correctly differentiates cookies from device fingerprinting?

• A. Cookies store data on your device; fingerprinting uses device signals to identify you.
• B. Fingerprinting stores cookies on the device.
• C. Cookies store small text data on your device, while fingerprinting collects device-specific signals to identify you.
• D. Both methods identify users in exactly the same way.

Answer: (C)

The key idea is how each technique identifies you. Cookies are small text data stored directly on your device by a website, which the site can read on future visits. Fingerprinting, on the other hand, doesn’t rely on storing data in your browser; instead it gathers a set of device- and browser-specific signals (like browser version, time zone, screen resolution, installed fonts and plugins, language, hardware concurrency, etc.) to create a unique fingerprint that can identify you across sites, even without cookies.

That’s why the statement that cookies store small text data on your device while fingerprinting collects device-specific signals to identify you is the best fit. It crisply contrasts what is stored (text data versus signals) and how identification happens (readable data you’ve stored versus a composited fingerprint from signals). The other options either oversimplify or misrepresent how fingerprinting works or how cookies function, and they imply the same method of identification for both, which isn’t accurate.