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I'm an engineer. I have created some websites. I have worked at an personalized ad startup (criteo) I have read on crypto, own some. Despite it I have exact

I'm an engineer. I have created some websites. I have worked at an personalized ad startup (criteo) I have read on crypto, own some. Despite it I have exactly ZERO F** IDEA of what privacy means and entails in context to web browsing. Last thing i read was that 'anonymous' stuff were actually not anonymous, and that anyway someone could track you even across IP. And yeah also there's the NSA it knows anything about you anyway. Could someone ELI5 ?

globular-toast 3y ago
This is why education matters.
tenebrisalietum 3y ago
> what privacy means and entails in context to web browsing The most private browsing you can have is when no other party besides you (A) and the site you are bringing up (B) are part of the communication. - TLS, formerly SSL, provides transport security - meaning eavesdroppers that might be listening in to A and B above will only see encrypted data. - DoH provides transport security for the system that resolves DNS names to IP addresses (needed for your browser to connect to a site). DNS is distributed and not authenticated by design, meaning the DNS server your browser talks to could be redirected or intercepted. DoH prevents at least your ISP or public Wi-Fi network provider from doing that. So those are things that increase privacy. The following decrease privacy. - Web sites themselves run code (Javascript) which can communicate back with the server in the background. - Javascript and HTML cookies allow websites to store arbitrary data on your computer - not typically too much data, but enough to store a unique identifier that can be used to recognize you. Other data your browser provides to Javascript, such as screen resolution, installed fonts, and mouse events, can also be used. - Websites often import code from other servers - such as gathering metrics, delivering ads, etc. The code these servers run often reports data back to them and stores their own persistent data such as cookies, etc. Adblocking is a popular way to reduce this impact. These are ways "tracking across your IP" can be done. This persistent data can also be used to correlate your visits, so that, even if you are not logged in to a site (e.g. anonymous), the website can still know who you are. None of the above really addresses what a website does with basic statistics and information it collects after it is transmitted and has made it completely out of the browser. In most cases you've given this data voluntarily and it's needed to conduct a service, such as purchase history from an e-commerce site. That's really a separate privacy thing and not possible to directly address using browser technologies.
mixmastamyk 3y ago
Defaults matter. Not loading ads, logging keystrokes, and broadcasting metrics on startup would be a good start.

globular-toast 3y ago

This is why education matters.

tenebrisalietum 3y ago

> what privacy means and entails in context to web browsing The most private browsing you can have is when no other party besides you (A) and the site you are bringing up (B) are part of the communication. - TLS, formerly SSL, provides transport security - meaning eavesdroppers that might be listening in to A and B above will only see encrypted data. - DoH provides transport security for the system that resolves DNS names to IP addresses (needed for your browser to connect to a site). DNS is distributed and not authenticated by design, meaning the DNS server your browser talks to could be redirected or intercepted. DoH prevents at least your ISP or public Wi-Fi network provider from doing that. So those are things that increase privacy. The following decrease privacy. - Web sites themselves run code (Javascript) which can communicate back with the server in the background. - Javascript and HTML cookies allow websites to store arbitrary data on your computer - not typically too much data, but enough to store a unique identifier that can be used to recognize you. Other data your browser provides to Javascript, such as screen resolution, installed fonts, and mouse events, can also be used. - Websites often import code from other servers - such as gathering metrics, delivering ads, etc. The code these servers run often reports data back to them and stores their own persistent data such as cookies, etc. Adblocking is a popular way to reduce this impact. These are ways "tracking across your IP" can be done. This persistent data can also be used to correlate your visits, so that, even if you are not logged in to a site (e.g. anonymous), the website can still know who you are. None of the above really addresses what a website does with basic statistics and information it collects after it is transmitted and has made it completely out of the browser. In most cases you've given this data voluntarily and it's needed to conduct a service, such as purchase history from an e-commerce site. That's really a separate privacy thing and not possible to directly address using browser technologies.

mixmastamyk 3y ago

Defaults matter. Not loading ads, logging keystrokes, and broadcasting metrics on startup would be a good start.