this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Advertisers track you with device fingerprinting and behaviour profiling now. Firefox doesn't do much to obscure the more advanced methods of tracking.
Don't all the advanced ways rely on JavaScript?
Lots do. But do you know anyone that turns JS off anymore? Platforms don't care if they miss the odd user for this - because almost no one will be missed.
"Anymore"? I've never met a single soul who knows this is even possible. I myself don't even know how to do it if I wanted to.
I do use NoScript, which does this on a site-by-site basis, but even that is considered extremely niche. I've never met another NoScripter in the wild.
Am I in the wild? I use it.
The people who I've tried to get on NoScript seem to have the brain capacity of goldfish. If the site doesn't instantly work, it's as if the sky has fallen and there is no way to convince them to pay attention to which scripts are actually needed.
It's a rare breed that is willing to put up with toggling different scripts on and off. I'll also acknowledge that too many people (including me) are in a giant rush. For work-type stuff, I have the laptop without noscript, because sometimes I do need something to work absolutely right now.
You don't think you are being a tad judgemental?
People whose lives revolve around fashion probably think you dress like shit.
People who love food probably think you eat like shit.
People who love cars probably think you are a shit driver.
You probably love computers and care about privacy, and you are shitting on regular users(assumption, admittedly) for not being invested.
They had something that was working, you present noscript, thing no longer works. If you are not invested, how are you going to see the appeal of extra work?
I go hard with DNS-based ad blocking and I’m constantly confirming it works by checking the network tab in developer tools. I’m basically only seeing first party scripts and CDN assets — 99% of websites load all the tracking garbage from third-party domains that can be easily blocked.
Not all but most, yes. But TBF, sites that still function with JS disabled tend to have the least intrusive telemetry, and might pre-date big data altogether.
Regardless, unless the extent of a page’s analytics is a “you are the #th visitor” counter, all countermeasures must remain active.
It's not much but they try a whole lot more than most.