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Virtual machines have the same virtualized graphics drivers, if everyone used virtual machines for browsing and deleted cookies and cache, web tracking would be

by 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.
  - BlackListed 7y ago
    The TOR browser if probably your best bet for this, even if you don't use TOR to browse.
    - ryacko 7y ago
      Yes, but it is trivial to distinguish usage of Tor browser as commonly distributed and Tor browser in TAILS, by default one comes with an additional plug-in.
  - kube-system 7y ago
    To do this well, you have to take special care with how exactly you obscure them. If your browser refuses to report those values, or sends junk values, then you might actually make the problem worse. It's the internet version of this: https://xkcd.com/1105/ https://xkcd.com/1105/
  - jwatt 7y ago
    Firefox has various privacy.resistFingerprinting preferences that can be flipped by extensions (or manually). Expect some sites to break though. Edit: Oh, apparently there's built-in UI now: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting-with-firefox/ https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting...
mirimir 7y ago
Yes. And using a VPN in a dedicated VM isolates activity well from the host machine and ISP uplink. There's still the risk that VPN providers will share information with adversaries. And so it's better to use nested VPN chains, which distributes over multiple providers. The matter of virtual graphics drivers cuts both ways, however. Multiple VMs in a host that use the same virtual graphics driver have the same WebGL fingerprint. So if you want multiple fully compartmentalized VMs on a given host, they must use different virtual graphics drivers. That is, Windows vs macOS vs Debian family vs vs Red Hat family vs BSD family etc.

by 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.
- BlackListed 7y ago
  The TOR browser if probably your best bet for this, even if you don't use TOR to browse.
  - ryacko 7y ago
    Yes, but it is trivial to distinguish usage of Tor browser as commonly distributed and Tor browser in TAILS, by default one comes with an additional plug-in.
- kube-system 7y ago
  To do this well, you have to take special care with how exactly you obscure them. If your browser refuses to report those values, or sends junk values, then you might actually make the problem worse. It's the internet version of this: https://xkcd.com/1105/ https://xkcd.com/1105/
- jwatt 7y ago
  Firefox has various privacy.resistFingerprinting preferences that can be flipped by extensions (or manually). Expect some sites to break though. Edit: Oh, apparently there's built-in UI now: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting-with-firefox/ https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting...

mirimir 7y ago

Yes. And using a VPN in a dedicated VM isolates activity well from the host machine and ISP uplink. There's still the risk that VPN providers will share information with adversaries. And so it's better to use nested VPN chains, which distributes over multiple providers. The matter of virtual graphics drivers cuts both ways, however. Multiple VMs in a host that use the same virtual graphics driver have the same WebGL fingerprint. So if you want multiple fully compartmentalized VMs on a given host, they must use different virtual graphics drivers. That is, Windows vs macOS vs Debian family vs vs Red Hat family vs BSD family etc.