Google said it was too hard to target ads to people
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Came across this article and it got me thinking, are there any simple ways to defeat advanced tracking methods (fingerprinting, tracking pixels, etc.)?
Obviously you could go the Tor on a virtual machine route, or a non persistent set up like TAILS, but what about a browser that's able to give say, a 80% solution?
I work in the security industry and am always looking for the solution that is simple enough that its palatable to a client (not asking to change your whole lifestyle, just push this button) but also relatively effective.
targeted ads are stupid anyway, i dont want to hear about stuff i could look up myself if i need something. Constant ads are even more stupid because its just stuffing their stupid corporate shit down our throats.
There should be one opt in ad service that collects all the possible ads and you then just browse it like a catalog or something if you want to find ideas what to buy.
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Came across this article and it got me thinking, are there any simple ways to defeat advanced tracking methods (fingerprinting, tracking pixels, etc.)?
Obviously you could go the Tor on a virtual machine route, or a non persistent set up like TAILS, but what about a browser that's able to give say, a 80% solution?
I work in the security industry and am always looking for the solution that is simple enough that its palatable to a client (not asking to change your whole lifestyle, just push this button) but also relatively effective.
i use uMatrix (by the same author as uBlock Origin), which essentially allows very granular control over what dynamic content to allow:
per domain and subdomain you can allow script, xhr, media, frames, cookies, images, css, and other things
so you can say, for example, on lemm.ee deny any scripts from google.com from loading and deny any xhr (so analytics can’t work even if the script is hosted elsewhere)
this stops a lot of fingerprinting in its tracks (except when you need to allow eg reCAPTCHA), but it does break pretty much every website until you go and allow only known good things (like scripts and xhr to the sites own domain)
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Came across this article and it got me thinking, are there any simple ways to defeat advanced tracking methods (fingerprinting, tracking pixels, etc.)?
Obviously you could go the Tor on a virtual machine route, or a non persistent set up like TAILS, but what about a browser that's able to give say, a 80% solution?
I work in the security industry and am always looking for the solution that is simple enough that its palatable to a client (not asking to change your whole lifestyle, just push this button) but also relatively effective.
Check out EFF cover your tracks: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
The results are very interesting. For me, the most unique thing about my browser was that I had two system languages, and so the accept-language header was very unique.
I now use vanadium (graphene OS), which simply sends made up values for a lot of headers, and so makes fingerprinting harder.
In general, you should try to be as "normal" as possible, use standard settings for everything, just accept English, etc..
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Exactly, Google even advocated against the use of more intrusive tracking technology like fingerprinting stating it was too intrusive, I'll be the first to say I'm pro capitalist (if you can work hard and get rich, power to you), but when you are willing to invade the literal physical privacy of people who do not even want your products, it calls into question the legitimacy of your company.
Being pro-capitalist on this website is gonna make you stick out like a sore thumb
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Exactly, Google even advocated against the use of more intrusive tracking technology like fingerprinting stating it was too intrusive, I'll be the first to say I'm pro capitalist (if you can work hard and get rich, power to you), but when you are willing to invade the literal physical privacy of people who do not even want your products, it calls into question the legitimacy of your company.
I love capitalists stepping on me
Uhh, okay?
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Exactly, Google even advocated against the use of more intrusive tracking technology like fingerprinting stating it was too intrusive, I'll be the first to say I'm pro capitalist (if you can work hard and get rich, power to you), but when you are willing to invade the literal physical privacy of people who do not even want your products, it calls into question the legitimacy of your company.
What a bunch of BS.
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Exactly, Google even advocated against the use of more intrusive tracking technology like fingerprinting stating it was too intrusive, I'll be the first to say I'm pro capitalist (if you can work hard and get rich, power to you), but when you are willing to invade the literal physical privacy of people who do not even want your products, it calls into question the legitimacy of your company.
Lmao this guy thinks hard work is what makes people rich instead of massive amounts of exploitation in an inherently exploitative economic system....
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Lmao this guy thinks hard work is what makes people rich instead of massive amounts of exploitation in an inherently exploitative economic system....
I think you're missing the point of a free market, I'm not advocating for exploiting people, I'm simply agreeing with the concept of having a good idea or a strong work ethic to generate your own wealth, WITHOUT exploiting peoples' civil liberties. The part I disagree with as is illustrated by massive corporations like Google, is when they center their business model around the concept of stealing and marketing peoples' personal information. There are in fact ways you can make a living without negatively impacting others.
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Check out EFF cover your tracks: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
The results are very interesting. For me, the most unique thing about my browser was that I had two system languages, and so the accept-language header was very unique.
I now use vanadium (graphene OS), which simply sends made up values for a lot of headers, and so makes fingerprinting harder.
In general, you should try to be as "normal" as possible, use standard settings for everything, just accept English, etc..
Vanadium on Graphene is actually what I use as well haha, its just hard to convince people who already have enough on their plate with their actual jobs to make the lifestyle switch without it being viewed as very burdensome.
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i use uMatrix (by the same author as uBlock Origin), which essentially allows very granular control over what dynamic content to allow:
per domain and subdomain you can allow script, xhr, media, frames, cookies, images, css, and other things
so you can say, for example, on lemm.ee deny any scripts from google.com from loading and deny any xhr (so analytics can’t work even if the script is hosted elsewhere)
this stops a lot of fingerprinting in its tracks (except when you need to allow eg reCAPTCHA), but it does break pretty much every website until you go and allow only known good things (like scripts and xhr to the sites own domain)
This looks to be an excellent tool, thanks for sharing and have a good one.
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This looks to be an excellent tool, thanks for sharing and have a good one.
you’re welcome! you too!
it should be noted though that it hasn’t been updated since 2021, and its repo has been archived (i’m not sure of the reasons). it still works great, but it’s not going to get any updates
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I think you're missing the point of a free market, I'm not advocating for exploiting people, I'm simply agreeing with the concept of having a good idea or a strong work ethic to generate your own wealth, WITHOUT exploiting peoples' civil liberties. The part I disagree with as is illustrated by massive corporations like Google, is when they center their business model around the concept of stealing and marketing peoples' personal information. There are in fact ways you can make a living without negatively impacting others.
So you like capitalism: the prequel and all the lies they say to get the soul crushing machine ready, but disagree with post-capitalist aka the actual soul crushing machine.. crushing soul?
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you’re welcome! you too!
it should be noted though that it hasn’t been updated since 2021, and its repo has been archived (i’m not sure of the reasons). it still works great, but it’s not going to get any updates
I wouldn't have known, it's very granular and not for the faint of heart (or technically limited.) Just what OP asked for!
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Google:
They've been asking us not to track them with cookies, so we're tracking them with fingerprints
Surely the gdpr has something to say about this. Or did the US forget the rest of the wold exists again?
Thats why their ToS is different in the EU.
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you’re welcome! you too!
it should be noted though that it hasn’t been updated since 2021, and its repo has been archived (i’m not sure of the reasons). it still works great, but it’s not going to get any updates
Its functionality is pretty much built into uBlock Origin now, see https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dynamic-filtering.
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Came across this article and it got me thinking, are there any simple ways to defeat advanced tracking methods (fingerprinting, tracking pixels, etc.)?
Obviously you could go the Tor on a virtual machine route, or a non persistent set up like TAILS, but what about a browser that's able to give say, a 80% solution?
I work in the security industry and am always looking for the solution that is simple enough that its palatable to a client (not asking to change your whole lifestyle, just push this button) but also relatively effective.
Wouldn’t tails be just as trackable as say a browser that clears all its cookies?
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I think you're missing the point of a free market, I'm not advocating for exploiting people, I'm simply agreeing with the concept of having a good idea or a strong work ethic to generate your own wealth, WITHOUT exploiting peoples' civil liberties. The part I disagree with as is illustrated by massive corporations like Google, is when they center their business model around the concept of stealing and marketing peoples' personal information. There are in fact ways you can make a living without negatively impacting others.
Capitalism always involves exploiting people, and free market ideals exacerbate the issue.
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Being pro-capitalist on this website is gonna make you stick out like a sore thumb
Exactly, and we wouldn't want people with different opinions, experiences or mindsets on this website would we.
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Thats why their ToS is different in the EU.
Could I use a VPN to some place in the EU in order to have the different ToS
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Check out EFF cover your tracks: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
The results are very interesting. For me, the most unique thing about my browser was that I had two system languages, and so the accept-language header was very unique.
I now use vanadium (graphene OS), which simply sends made up values for a lot of headers, and so makes fingerprinting harder.
In general, you should try to be as "normal" as possible, use standard settings for everything, just accept English, etc..
That's a very interesting site, thank you!
It looks like the screen size is the most identifying info for me, followed by the webGL hash. Not much can be done about those on mobile right?