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Incognito mode is mostly useless as an actual privacy tool. You're still exposing a substantial amount of information. The most basic would be your IP. Most IPs

by rjf72 7y ago

Incognito mode is mostly useless as an actual privacy tool. You're still exposing a substantial amount of information. The most basic would be your IP. Most IPs are of course dynamic, but there are two factors here: 1) The IP only changes when your lease expires or you manually renew it. This is not a normal part of starting an incognito session. Google has a confirmed identity (such as by being logged into a Google service) of tantalor at IP x. A few seconds later IP x shows up at SteamyHotPornSite.com that's running Google analytics or otherwise providing tracking for Google - a recent study of 22,484 porn sites found Google trackers present on 74% [1]). That's 100% tantalor. 2) Even in cases where the IP does change, it's constrained to within a group. As most dynamic IPs are also geomapped, it's often a relatively small group. Now what information is exposed during incognito can be cross-referenced against a very small group of potentials. You can likely hit near 100% on this as well. And that's just one datum, though granted it's quite a useful one! Incognito should be seen as a tool that does little more than disable any cookies you have and automatically [kind of - depends on your OS] deletes your local browsing history. [1] - https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-quietly-tracking-porn-you-watch-2019-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-quietly-trac...

singron 7y ago
Re dynamic IPs: you may often get the same IP again on renewal. You might have more luck if you randomize MAC addresses, but it's certainly possible that they will keep giving the same IP to a given subscriber until they have their own reason to reallocate addresses (e.g. maybe so that a crashlooping router doesn't exhaust available leases for other subscribers). E.g. from this ad tech company[0] specializing in IP tracking (take it with a grain of salt): > In fact our research has discovered many homes that have theoretically dynamic IP’s, but have held the same IP for multiple years. Because of this recursive reassignment the typical location targeted by El Toro has held the same IP address for 7 months. 0: https://www.eltoro.com/how-long-does-an-ip-address-stay-attached-to-a-home-or-business/ https://www.eltoro.com/how-long-does-an-ip-address-stay-atta...
giancarlostoro 7y ago
I wonder if the paid version of FireFox will feature per FireFox container IPs per their VPN service I've heard they intend of integrating into the paid FireFox. I would pay good money for that level of detail. I do mostly hope they eventually own and maintain their own VPN provider though (if not outright buy out whoever they partner with).

by rjf72 7y ago

singron 7y ago

Re dynamic IPs: you may often get the same IP again on renewal. You might have more luck if you randomize MAC addresses, but it's certainly possible that they will keep giving the same IP to a given subscriber until they have their own reason to reallocate addresses (e.g. maybe so that a crashlooping router doesn't exhaust available leases for other subscribers). E.g. from this ad tech company[0] specializing in IP tracking (take it with a grain of salt): > In fact our research has discovered many homes that have theoretically dynamic IP’s, but have held the same IP for multiple years. Because of this recursive reassignment the typical location targeted by El Toro has held the same IP address for 7 months. 0: https://www.eltoro.com/how-long-does-an-ip-address-stay-attached-to-a-home-or-business/ https://www.eltoro.com/how-long-does-an-ip-address-stay-atta...

giancarlostoro 7y ago

I wonder if the paid version of FireFox will feature per FireFox container IPs per their VPN service I've heard they intend of integrating into the paid FireFox. I would pay good money for that level of detail. I do mostly hope they eventually own and maintain their own VPN provider though (if not outright buy out whoever they partner with).