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The more privacy, the more of a unique fingerprint your browser has, the less privacy. Check out panoptoclick[1], to see your fingerprint. Someone should make

The more privacy, the more of a unique fingerprint your browser has, the less privacy. Check out panoptoclick[1], to see your fingerprint. Someone should make a series of common groups, and those who care should stick to just those. [1] https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/

Freak_NL 11y ago
Considering the amount of variables that contribute to the browser fingerprint, you would be forced to conclude that the only way to prevent being so unique is to run a browser in a vanilla VM (although the OS is already a variable in itself). I think this is a topic that gets discussed by (for example) the Firefox developers, but I get the feeling that this is one of the hardest problems to fix. I would like to see a browser mode akin to the privacy mode most browsers feature that reduces the number of identifying variables (at the cost of features). So instead of telling the world that my time zone is CET and I prefer English (GB) as language, it would select a random time zone and locale (although this does inconveniently mean that sites might suddenly serve me content in Portuguese). Come to think of it, TOR Browser probably does a couple of these things. Disabling Javascript is surely the biggest factor, although that does make the modern web pretty much unusable.
- newscracker 11y ago
  > Considering the amount of variables that contribute to the browser fingerprint, you would be forced to conclude that the only way to prevent being so unique is to run a browser in a vanilla VM (although the OS is already a variable in itself). It'd have to be more like a VM running the OS with the highest market share (Windows), the browser with the highest market share (Internet Explorer), with the most common language used, with the most common time zone of users of the site you're accessing (varies by site and time of day), etc. Anything else and you could stand out in the crowd. Using Linux or OS X, for example, really make fingerprinting easier for sites, which is quite disturbing. Randomizing the values of certain attributes, as you've described, may help a lot if more people adopt it and make fingerprinting a futile exercise to those using it. :) If the people doing the fingerprinting see millions being successfully tracked with just a handful they're unable to track, they wouldn't even care. It's kinda like ad blocking. A few do it and it's not seen as a problem. If the majority does it, then the sites take notice. For a larger scale effect, browser makers should get into this. Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft and Google, in that order (with Opera somewhere in the middle), may be interested in thwarting browser fingerprinting.
  - pmontra 11y ago
    Mozilla yes, Apple and Microsoft maybe but I'm unsure, Google I don't think so. They're the ones selling the most ads.
- rogeryu 11y ago
  Maybe you need to turn it around and change the fingerprint every minute? Would that help?
  - Freak_NL 11y ago
    A lot of factors that make up the total fingerprint have an influence on how sites react to your browser, so I would have it change per-session and per-domain to prevent weirdness.
rogeryu 11y ago
I like your idea, but wouldn't it be easier to create a constantly changing unique fingerprint?
mynewtb 11y ago
Your fingerprint might become more unique but at least only 2 instead of 60 sites get to inspect it.

Freak_NL 11y ago

Considering the amount of variables that contribute to the browser fingerprint, you would be forced to conclude that the only way to prevent being so unique is to run a browser in a vanilla VM (although the OS is already a variable in itself). I think this is a topic that gets discussed by (for example) the Firefox developers, but I get the feeling that this is one of the hardest problems to fix. I would like to see a browser mode akin to the privacy mode most browsers feature that reduces the number of identifying variables (at the cost of features). So instead of telling the world that my time zone is CET and I prefer English (GB) as language, it would select a random time zone and locale (although this does inconveniently mean that sites might suddenly serve me content in Portuguese). Come to think of it, TOR Browser probably does a couple of these things. Disabling Javascript is surely the biggest factor, although that does make the modern web pretty much unusable.

newscracker 11y ago
> Considering the amount of variables that contribute to the browser fingerprint, you would be forced to conclude that the only way to prevent being so unique is to run a browser in a vanilla VM (although the OS is already a variable in itself). It'd have to be more like a VM running the OS with the highest market share (Windows), the browser with the highest market share (Internet Explorer), with the most common language used, with the most common time zone of users of the site you're accessing (varies by site and time of day), etc. Anything else and you could stand out in the crowd. Using Linux or OS X, for example, really make fingerprinting easier for sites, which is quite disturbing. Randomizing the values of certain attributes, as you've described, may help a lot if more people adopt it and make fingerprinting a futile exercise to those using it. :) If the people doing the fingerprinting see millions being successfully tracked with just a handful they're unable to track, they wouldn't even care. It's kinda like ad blocking. A few do it and it's not seen as a problem. If the majority does it, then the sites take notice. For a larger scale effect, browser makers should get into this. Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft and Google, in that order (with Opera somewhere in the middle), may be interested in thwarting browser fingerprinting.
- pmontra 11y ago
  Mozilla yes, Apple and Microsoft maybe but I'm unsure, Google I don't think so. They're the ones selling the most ads.
rogeryu 11y ago
Maybe you need to turn it around and change the fingerprint every minute? Would that help?
- Freak_NL 11y ago
  A lot of factors that make up the total fingerprint have an influence on how sites react to your browser, so I would have it change per-session and per-domain to prevent weirdness.

rogeryu 11y ago

I like your idea, but wouldn't it be easier to create a constantly changing unique fingerprint?

mynewtb 11y ago

Your fingerprint might become more unique but at least only 2 instead of 60 sites get to inspect it.