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"But companies found another way to uniquely identify you across different sessions and websites without using cookies or other persistent storage. It’s called

"But companies found another way to uniquely identify you across different sessions and websites without using cookies or other persistent storage. It’s called web fingerprinting. Fingerprinting is a more sophisticated approach to identify a user among millions of others. It works by studying your web browser and hardware configuration. Many websites use a fingerprinting library to generate a unique ID. This library collects data from multiple JavaScript APIs offered by your web browser. For example, websites can see web browser version, number of CPUs on your device, screen size, number of touchpoints, video/audio codecs, operating system and many other details that you would not want a typical news website to see." My "rugged" browser for regular browsing has plug-ins that randomize all this data.

RiverCrochet 1y ago
what plugins do you use/recommend?
- Beijinger 1y ago
  You could try these: Browser Plugs Fingerprint Privacy Randomizer Clear URLs [I don't care about cockies] Privacy Badger Random User-Agent Switcher Temporary Containers uBlock Origin Canvas Blocker NoScript Font Fingerprint Defender Not all sites will work with it. For banking and plan ticket booking, I always recommend a separate, but major (e.g. Chrome) browser without any plug-ins.
  - gruez 1y ago
    >Random User-Agent Switcher Don't bother. User agent spoofing is easily detectable and it's trivial to figure out your real user-agent based on js implementation differences or TLS fingerprinting. All this does is get you banned/flagged by security vendors, on top of sticking out like a sore thumb. >Canvas Blocker >Font Fingerprint Defender Also easy to easy to detect because randomized values will put you in the bucket of "uses privacy extension" users, which is probably a smaller bucket than whatever hardware profile you're on (eg. macbook pro m3 14").
    - Beijinger 1y ago
      Maybe. >>Random User-Agent Switcher >Don't bother. User agent spoofing is easily detectable and it's trivial to figure out your real user-agent based on js implementation differences or TLS fingerprinting. JS is blocked by default on my browser. >Canvas Blocker >Font Fingerprint Defender > Also easy to easy to detect because randomized values will put you in the bucket of "uses privacy extension" Hm. How are they going to detect it is randomized? They would have to identify me first again as the same user and then conclude I randomize these values.
      - gruez 1y ago
        >JS is blocked by default on my browser. The major browsers can still be differentiated via default headers and TLS fingerprints, none of which requires js. Moreover if they're inconsistent you'd get flagged with "spoofs user agent", which makes you more identifiable than something like "firefox on mac". >Hm. How are they going to detect it is randomized? They would have to identify me first again as the same user and then conclude I randomize these values. Because a given canvas/font metrics value should return the same result given the same graphics hardware/font set. If you randomize the results it basically guarantees that your fingerprint has never been seen before. This might seem like a good thing (because you're randomized every time), but any competent fingerprinting implementation is just going to flag you as "spoofs canvas/font information". The point isn't necessarily to identify you as any particular user, it's to use the fact you're spoofing canvas/font/user-agent to fingerprint you further.
  - RiverCrochet 1y ago
    Thanks! IMHO The portable versions of Chrome or Firefox are great when you want a completely separate browser instance.
rafram 1y ago
This most likely makes you more identifiable, not less, until a critical mass of people are using a browser with the exact same randomness properties.
- graemep 1y ago
  I can see this as an argument for avoiding unusual properties, but how can they identify you using random properties? Even if it is just one user doing this how can they match the fingerprints? Also, its unusual enough that its unlikely they will bother trying.
  - rafram 1y ago
    The fact that the properties are randomized (and which properties are randomized) identifies the extension that you’re using, and if that extension has like 10 users, that uniquely identifies you across sites. All of this is overkill anyway unless you actually think you’re up against a determined actor targeting you personally. If you are, they will bother trying.
    - bigbuppo 1y ago
      Go hang out with people that actually work in marketing and advertising and see if that changes your views.
    - graemep 1y ago
      > The fact that the properties are randomized (and which properties are randomized) identifies the extension that you’re using, and if that extension has like 10 users, that uniquely identifies you across sites. How do they know they are randomised rather than actual properties?
- Beijinger 1y ago
  Yes. It makes me unique. Every visit. If I visit the site 10 times, you have 10 unique IDs.
  - 1y ago

RiverCrochet 1y ago

what plugins do you use/recommend?

Beijinger 1y ago
You could try these: Browser Plugs Fingerprint Privacy Randomizer Clear URLs [I don't care about cockies] Privacy Badger Random User-Agent Switcher Temporary Containers uBlock Origin Canvas Blocker NoScript Font Fingerprint Defender Not all sites will work with it. For banking and plan ticket booking, I always recommend a separate, but major (e.g. Chrome) browser without any plug-ins.
- gruez 1y ago
  >Random User-Agent Switcher Don't bother. User agent spoofing is easily detectable and it's trivial to figure out your real user-agent based on js implementation differences or TLS fingerprinting. All this does is get you banned/flagged by security vendors, on top of sticking out like a sore thumb. >Canvas Blocker >Font Fingerprint Defender Also easy to easy to detect because randomized values will put you in the bucket of "uses privacy extension" users, which is probably a smaller bucket than whatever hardware profile you're on (eg. macbook pro m3 14").
  - Beijinger 1y ago
    Maybe. >>Random User-Agent Switcher >Don't bother. User agent spoofing is easily detectable and it's trivial to figure out your real user-agent based on js implementation differences or TLS fingerprinting. JS is blocked by default on my browser. >Canvas Blocker >Font Fingerprint Defender > Also easy to easy to detect because randomized values will put you in the bucket of "uses privacy extension" Hm. How are they going to detect it is randomized? They would have to identify me first again as the same user and then conclude I randomize these values.
    - gruez 1y ago
      >JS is blocked by default on my browser. The major browsers can still be differentiated via default headers and TLS fingerprints, none of which requires js. Moreover if they're inconsistent you'd get flagged with "spoofs user agent", which makes you more identifiable than something like "firefox on mac". >Hm. How are they going to detect it is randomized? They would have to identify me first again as the same user and then conclude I randomize these values. Because a given canvas/font metrics value should return the same result given the same graphics hardware/font set. If you randomize the results it basically guarantees that your fingerprint has never been seen before. This might seem like a good thing (because you're randomized every time), but any competent fingerprinting implementation is just going to flag you as "spoofs canvas/font information". The point isn't necessarily to identify you as any particular user, it's to use the fact you're spoofing canvas/font/user-agent to fingerprint you further.
- RiverCrochet 1y ago
  Thanks! IMHO The portable versions of Chrome or Firefox are great when you want a completely separate browser instance.

rafram 1y ago

This most likely makes you more identifiable, not less, until a critical mass of people are using a browser with the exact same randomness properties.

graemep 1y ago
I can see this as an argument for avoiding unusual properties, but how can they identify you using random properties? Even if it is just one user doing this how can they match the fingerprints? Also, its unusual enough that its unlikely they will bother trying.
- rafram 1y ago
  The fact that the properties are randomized (and which properties are randomized) identifies the extension that you’re using, and if that extension has like 10 users, that uniquely identifies you across sites. All of this is overkill anyway unless you actually think you’re up against a determined actor targeting you personally. If you are, they will bother trying.
  - bigbuppo 1y ago
    Go hang out with people that actually work in marketing and advertising and see if that changes your views.
  - graemep 1y ago
    > The fact that the properties are randomized (and which properties are randomized) identifies the extension that you’re using, and if that extension has like 10 users, that uniquely identifies you across sites. How do they know they are randomised rather than actual properties?
Beijinger 1y ago
Yes. It makes me unique. Every visit. If I visit the site 10 times, you have 10 unique IDs.
- 1y ago