8 ms·

Looks like everyone - vulnerable population or not - should be using VPN when viewing pornographic content.[1] [1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2

Looks like everyone - vulnerable population or not - should be using VPN when viewing pornographic content.[1] [1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/07/why-you-need-to-use-a-vpn-to-stop-google-and-facebook-from-tracking-your-porn-habits/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/07/why-you-n...

andrepd 7y ago
s/pornographic content/any content/g
craftyguy 7y ago
While I don't disagree with using a VPN as you suggest, I would be wary of using an advertisement by a VPN company as a supporting source for that claim.
- liability 7y ago
  I think if you use a VPN that doesn't have any of your personal information of file for billing or infrastructure purposes (like your residential ISP does) then at the very least the shady logging VPN will have a dossier on you that doesn't include your name, street address, bank or credit card numbers, etc. Even if the VPN is otherwise a bunch of Mafia scum datamining you as hard as they can, you're still better off than if you were raw-dogging on Comcast. However I think those VPN companies that throw around suspicious abouts of cash advertising all ask for credit cards or similar. I would never do business with one of them, it's pointless. I also hate NordVPN's YouTube advertising campaign in particular, in which they pay YouTube creators to mislead their audience. Suggesting among other things that connections to your bank's website are unencrypted if you aren't using a VPN.
CiPHPerCoder 7y ago
VPNs don't help here. https://panopticlick.eff.org https://panopticlick.eff.org https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29 https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
- fragsworth 7y ago
  According to panopticlick, Chrome is 100% secure in incognito mode.
  - some_furry 7y ago
    That's really cool! Who knew Chrome was doing so well? The second article CiPHPerCoder linked seems to be more focused on the VPN marketing aspect. A more interactive approach might be https://faq.dhol.es/@Soatok/cryptography/which-vpn-service-will-protect-me-from-hackers https://faq.dhol.es/@Soatok/cryptography/which-vpn-service-w...
  - DesiLurker 7y ago
    its because google wants exclusive access to your browsing data.
  - Forbo 7y ago
    Are there differences in how Chrome and Chromium handle incognito? Chromium appears to have a pretty unique fingerprint. https://ibb.co/9ZB3Yxr https://ibb.co/9ZB3Yxr
  - kube-system 7y ago
    What do you mean by 'secure'? I just ran panopticlick in a fresh installation of Chrome on Windows in incognito mode. It returned a near-unique fingerprint with >14 bits of estimated entropy. Of course, that makes total sense, because many of the factors that can identify your system have little to do with the browser, but are determined by the underlying system: fonts, display, date/time information, graphics fingerprints, etc.
  - FabHK 7y ago
    Hmm, according to panopticlick, my Chrome provides about 70 bits of identifying information. There are about 2^33 people. I don't feel incognito.
    - mastre_ 7y ago
FabHK 7y ago
That's very incomplete advice (on the blog of a VPN provider). A VPN alone won't give you any protection from being tracked either, you need both that and incognito mode (or a separate browser), and should probably throw ad/tracking blockers in the mix as well.
simion314 7y ago
I don't think a VPN is enough, it will mask your location but there are so many ways your browser can be fingerprinted so you would need to have fingerprint resistant browser profile, maybe with JS off is possible.
- gruez 7y ago
  >so you would need to have fingerprint resistant browser profile easy. use firefox, open about:config, and set privacy.resistFingerprinting => true.
  - _gtly 7y ago
    Easy to enable, but in practice not much help yet: For me, at least, I enabled resistFingerprinting and tested on https://panopticlick.eff.org https://panopticlick.eff.org. A unique fingerprint was still present. Test it yourself.
    - gruez 7y ago
      Right, that's why the setting is called resist fingerprinting. You still need to take other precautions like not full screening. A while ago I tested resistfingerprinting with a few machines and they all have the same fingerprint, so at least it's better than nothing. I tested with my browser and it was unique as well. It seems to be caused by high dpi monitor breaking the window size rounding logic. Retrying with high dpi disabled results in Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors tested in the past 45 days, only one in 5551.36 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours. Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 12.44 bits of identifying information. Maybe having resistfingerprinting is a fingerprinting datapoint itself?
    - saxonww 7y ago
      Check and make sure it's the same fingerprint across multiple runs. I installed CanvasBlocker, and one of the things it does is fake results for a handful of API calls. So while Panopticlick reports a unique fingerprint each time, it looks (to me, based on their results) like a different browser each time. In particular, the two most specific categories they track are canvas and webgl hashes. Those are changing every time, which I believe makes them less useful as tracking information; the next-most-specific thing is a list of fonts, which is almost two orders of magnitude less specific.
larrymcp 7y ago
I read the link you provided, but there wasn't any "OMG yes" light-bulb moment in that article. Do I care if Google & Facebook track my viewing habits? I'm not sure I understand what the potential harm to me might be.
- tiborsaas 7y ago
  It might be problematic in countries where certain kind of sexual orientation is punishable even with death. If you don't live in those countries, then I don't see much problem with GA in these sites as well.
  - gist 7y ago
    Are you claiming that in those countries there have been cases where people are identified and rounded up with some mass sweep identification by online viewing habits?
    - rhcom2 7y ago
      If being outed means possible death than with this info it's only a data leak away.
  - avian 7y ago
    > If you don't live in those countries, then I don't see much problem with GA in these sites as well. Countries can change. There are plenty of examples in history.
- toyg 7y ago
  It is relevant if your porn habits can be used against you (blackmail, public shaming, strict indecency laws, etc).
- JudgeWapner 7y ago
  I was recently googling friends' names and looking at the results from find-people sites. It's already creepy enough that they have "related to:" and then a list of family members of that person. But the most recent concern was one site already has a "reputation score" like china has already implemented. I checked a few friends who had criminal convictions and, voila, their "score" ranked lower (and of course you can pay the site to remove your entry or whatever, aka a racket). Porn viewing could easily be ranked into the "score" in a negatively-impactful way and lead to job/social discrimination.
tiborsaas 7y ago
But most importantly, close the incognito mode once you finished consuming the content, don't just close the lid of your machine. The next day at work might be a bit more awkward than what Google does with your aggregated data :) Also ask your girlfriend / boyfriend to tag imgur links with NSFW :)
toyg 7y ago
VPN protection from site-level tracking is basically nonexistent. Browser fingerprinting is widespread and bypasses anything a VPN might offer. VPN is effective against network-level issues, not against browser-based tracking - it's a different level in the stack.
- everdrive 7y ago
  VPN in a VM, then, or on a different PC altogether.
- ryacko 7y ago
  Virtual machines have the same virtualized graphics drivers, if everyone used virtual machines for browsing and deleted cookies and cache, web tracking would be restrict to IP-based.
  - toyg 7y ago
    There are still several bits of data, like plugin support, touch support, platform, language, screen size, and timezone, that have to be actively manipulated if you want to reduce the likelihood of unique tracking.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - jimijazz 7y ago
      are there any browsers that obscure these properties to sites?
      - toyg 7y ago
        Not that I know of -- there are just browsers that don't send out some stuff because they don't have the capability to detect it. You could do some more header-stripping with extensions and proxies, but in the end, like with cookies, this is stuff that a website might need to actually work properly.
      - 7y ago
octosphere 7y ago
A VPN might be handy for bypassing the near-future UK porn block / age verification system[0] (by spoofing your geo-location). I imagine tech savvy teens/children are already investigating VPNs in light of the recent articles which outline the system. [0] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-uk-wired-explains https://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-uk-wired-explains [0] https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk Here's the important bit from the article where children will need to bypass: > From the launch date in July, porn websites will have to show anyone visiting from a UK IP address a landing page that doesn't show any explicit content.
- meruru 7y ago
  >Each age-checking company has a variety of different ways people can prove they're old enough to view porn. These include using SMS, credit card data, passport information, or driving licence details. There are other options that include face scanning and the blockchain. This is so going to result on a ton of teens with credit cards. Just look at what is already happening with mobile games. Sounds like a boom for the porn industry. Sure enough, MindGeek is already on it: >The most well-known of these is AgeID, designed by MindGeek

andrepd 7y ago

s/pornographic content/any content/g

craftyguy 7y ago

While I don't disagree with using a VPN as you suggest, I would be wary of using an advertisement by a VPN company as a supporting source for that claim.

liability 7y ago
I think if you use a VPN that doesn't have any of your personal information of file for billing or infrastructure purposes (like your residential ISP does) then at the very least the shady logging VPN will have a dossier on you that doesn't include your name, street address, bank or credit card numbers, etc. Even if the VPN is otherwise a bunch of Mafia scum datamining you as hard as they can, you're still better off than if you were raw-dogging on Comcast. However I think those VPN companies that throw around suspicious abouts of cash advertising all ask for credit cards or similar. I would never do business with one of them, it's pointless. I also hate NordVPN's YouTube advertising campaign in particular, in which they pay YouTube creators to mislead their audience. Suggesting among other things that connections to your bank's website are unencrypted if you aren't using a VPN.

CiPHPerCoder 7y ago

VPNs don't help here. https://panopticlick.eff.org https://panopticlick.eff.org https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29 https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

fragsworth 7y ago
According to panopticlick, Chrome is 100% secure in incognito mode.
- some_furry 7y ago
  That's really cool! Who knew Chrome was doing so well? The second article CiPHPerCoder linked seems to be more focused on the VPN marketing aspect. A more interactive approach might be https://faq.dhol.es/@Soatok/cryptography/which-vpn-service-will-protect-me-from-hackers https://faq.dhol.es/@Soatok/cryptography/which-vpn-service-w...
- DesiLurker 7y ago
  its because google wants exclusive access to your browsing data.
- Forbo 7y ago
  Are there differences in how Chrome and Chromium handle incognito? Chromium appears to have a pretty unique fingerprint. https://ibb.co/9ZB3Yxr https://ibb.co/9ZB3Yxr
- kube-system 7y ago
  What do you mean by 'secure'? I just ran panopticlick in a fresh installation of Chrome on Windows in incognito mode. It returned a near-unique fingerprint with >14 bits of estimated entropy. Of course, that makes total sense, because many of the factors that can identify your system have little to do with the browser, but are determined by the underlying system: fonts, display, date/time information, graphics fingerprints, etc.
- FabHK 7y ago
  Hmm, according to panopticlick, my Chrome provides about 70 bits of identifying information. There are about 2^33 people. I don't feel incognito.
  - mastre_ 7y ago

FabHK 7y ago

That's very incomplete advice (on the blog of a VPN provider). A VPN alone won't give you any protection from being tracked either, you need both that and incognito mode (or a separate browser), and should probably throw ad/tracking blockers in the mix as well.

simion314 7y ago

I don't think a VPN is enough, it will mask your location but there are so many ways your browser can be fingerprinted so you would need to have fingerprint resistant browser profile, maybe with JS off is possible.

gruez 7y ago
>so you would need to have fingerprint resistant browser profile easy. use firefox, open about:config, and set privacy.resistFingerprinting => true.
- _gtly 7y ago
  Easy to enable, but in practice not much help yet: For me, at least, I enabled resistFingerprinting and tested on https://panopticlick.eff.org https://panopticlick.eff.org. A unique fingerprint was still present. Test it yourself.
  - gruez 7y ago
    Right, that's why the setting is called resist fingerprinting. You still need to take other precautions like not full screening. A while ago I tested resistfingerprinting with a few machines and they all have the same fingerprint, so at least it's better than nothing. I tested with my browser and it was unique as well. It seems to be caused by high dpi monitor breaking the window size rounding logic. Retrying with high dpi disabled results in Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors tested in the past 45 days, only one in 5551.36 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours. Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 12.44 bits of identifying information. Maybe having resistfingerprinting is a fingerprinting datapoint itself?
  - saxonww 7y ago
    Check and make sure it's the same fingerprint across multiple runs. I installed CanvasBlocker, and one of the things it does is fake results for a handful of API calls. So while Panopticlick reports a unique fingerprint each time, it looks (to me, based on their results) like a different browser each time. In particular, the two most specific categories they track are canvas and webgl hashes. Those are changing every time, which I believe makes them less useful as tracking information; the next-most-specific thing is a list of fonts, which is almost two orders of magnitude less specific.

larrymcp 7y ago

I read the link you provided, but there wasn't any "OMG yes" light-bulb moment in that article. Do I care if Google & Facebook track my viewing habits? I'm not sure I understand what the potential harm to me might be.

tiborsaas 7y ago
It might be problematic in countries where certain kind of sexual orientation is punishable even with death. If you don't live in those countries, then I don't see much problem with GA in these sites as well.
- gist 7y ago
  Are you claiming that in those countries there have been cases where people are identified and rounded up with some mass sweep identification by online viewing habits?
  - rhcom2 7y ago
    If being outed means possible death than with this info it's only a data leak away.
- avian 7y ago
  > If you don't live in those countries, then I don't see much problem with GA in these sites as well. Countries can change. There are plenty of examples in history.
toyg 7y ago
It is relevant if your porn habits can be used against you (blackmail, public shaming, strict indecency laws, etc).
JudgeWapner 7y ago
I was recently googling friends' names and looking at the results from find-people sites. It's already creepy enough that they have "related to:" and then a list of family members of that person. But the most recent concern was one site already has a "reputation score" like china has already implemented. I checked a few friends who had criminal convictions and, voila, their "score" ranked lower (and of course you can pay the site to remove your entry or whatever, aka a racket). Porn viewing could easily be ranked into the "score" in a negatively-impactful way and lead to job/social discrimination.

tiborsaas 7y ago

But most importantly, close the incognito mode once you finished consuming the content, don't just close the lid of your machine. The next day at work might be a bit more awkward than what Google does with your aggregated data :) Also ask your girlfriend / boyfriend to tag imgur links with NSFW :)

toyg 7y ago

VPN protection from site-level tracking is basically nonexistent. Browser fingerprinting is widespread and bypasses anything a VPN might offer. VPN is effective against network-level issues, not against browser-based tracking - it's a different level in the stack.

everdrive 7y ago
VPN in a VM, then, or on a different PC altogether.
ryacko 7y ago
Virtual machines have the same virtualized graphics drivers, if everyone used virtual machines for browsing and deleted cookies and cache, web tracking would be restrict to IP-based.
- toyg 7y ago
  There are still several bits of data, like plugin support, touch support, platform, language, screen size, and timezone, that have to be actively manipulated if you want to reduce the likelihood of unique tracking.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - jimijazz 7y ago
    are there any browsers that obscure these properties to sites?
    - toyg 7y ago
      Not that I know of -- there are just browsers that don't send out some stuff because they don't have the capability to detect it. You could do some more header-stripping with extensions and proxies, but in the end, like with cookies, this is stuff that a website might need to actually work properly.
    - 7y ago

octosphere 7y ago

A VPN might be handy for bypassing the near-future UK porn block / age verification system[0] (by spoofing your geo-location). I imagine tech savvy teens/children are already investigating VPNs in light of the recent articles which outline the system. [0] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-uk-wired-explains https://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-uk-wired-explains [0] https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk Here's the important bit from the article where children will need to bypass: > From the launch date in July, porn websites will have to show anyone visiting from a UK IP address a landing page that doesn't show any explicit content.

meruru 7y ago
>Each age-checking company has a variety of different ways people can prove they're old enough to view porn. These include using SMS, credit card data, passport information, or driving licence details. There are other options that include face scanning and the blockchain. This is so going to result on a ton of teens with credit cards. Just look at what is already happening with mobile games. Sounds like a boom for the porn industry. Sure enough, MindGeek is already on it: >The most well-known of these is AgeID, designed by MindGeek