Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
EFF is an org that I'd run to join if they had a position I could fill. I've been on their side since the 90s, when I was too young to tell if I was choosing the right side because I didn't understand everything they advocated because I was a kid. They are the ACLU of the internet.
If you are trying to obfuscate instead of poisoning your data, you are doing it wrong. You can't be identified if your fingerprint is always different.
Fingerprinting panic is some bullshit created by brave browser, a bloated shitware than installs a lot of unnecessary crap on your device, including their own advertisement engine.
Easiest answer would be: Use a common OS, with a common browser, and no add-ons.
The moment you start using something different to Windows, Android, iOS or macOS with Safari, Chrome or Firefox, you're probably already in the 5 % (just my uninformed estimate). Add-ons also increase this value drastically.
Long story short: The sad truth is, the moment you're interested in online-prviacy, you're very unique.
Is there no way to spoof that I'm using one of those without actually using them?
Spoofing is a whole hell of a lot easier said than done. Content delivery networks like Akamai, Cloudflare, etc. all know exactly how different versions of different browsers present themselves, and will catch the tiniest mistake.
When a browser requests a web page it sends a series of headers, which identify both itself and the request it’s making. But virtually every browser sends a slightly different set of headers, and in different orders. So Akamai, for example can tell that you are using Chrome solely by what headers are in the request and the order they are in, even if you spoof your User-Agent string to look like Firefox.
So to successfully spoof a connection you need to decide how you want to present yourself (do I really want them to think I’m using Opera when I’m using Firefox, or do I just want to randomize things to keep them guessing). In the first case you need to be very careful to ensure your browser sends requests that exactly matches how Opera sends them. One header, or even one character out of place can be enough for these companies to recognize you’re spoofing your connection.
One of the points of Libre Wolf is to make you unique, but each session should be unique.
You can find some additional setting tweaks here: https://librewolf.net/docs/settings/
The "letterboxing" feature is an additional uniqueness feature you could consider enabling.
I'm particular you could check your result in this experiment: https://fpresearch.httpjames.space/
Try it in both normal and in a private tab, then record those results, reopen Libre Wolf, and try again.
Can you explain what I'm supposed to be looking for in that .space link? What's the server code and client code? Am I trying to see if the emojis and number at the bottom changes when I reopen the site?
So server code is your fingerprint based on what a server is able to see. This would be your fingerprint with JS disabled, essential. Client code is the JS generated fingerprint.
So, if I have the same client code and a different server code, I'm followable only as long as I have JS enabled?
So .... Again, what is the point of this test, lol. What am i looking for? It seems like no one actually knows what the hell this test is showing, lol. Idk why it was posted if no one knows what it's showing? Do you know what I'm supposed to be looking for?
The test is simply showing two fingerprints for your browser. One, the server fingerprint, is one that any tracker can see. The other, the client fingerprint, is what can be used if you have Javascript enabled.
Instead of inundating you with test results, this one is simple - check to see if your fingerprints change between browsing sessions. If they don't change, that means you can be tracked. In which case you can mess with settings and try again.
Mine appears to change each time between browser sessions on a semi-hardened firefox. No clue what the bottom section means though.
The bottom result (the % certain one) is just a fuzzy match of similar fingerprints AFAICT.
So should both the server and client codes change each time you reopen a new browser session? Or just the client?
Both should if your goal is to not have a reusable fingerprint (which for a privacy focus would be). Server should change more frequently since it has access to less information about the browser. Server based fingerprinting is fairly unreliable, client side uses Javascript to generate more bits of unique data.
librewolf hopefully supports changing user agents. if not, uninstall it
You’re unique and everyone loves you.
Essentially using Linux with Librewolf and various browser addons is making you unique, since there are not many similar fingerprints.
To my knowledge Librewolf spoofs useragent to Windows by default
Useragent doesn't do much as your browser navigator settings expose the real OS
It does as well as setting your locale to en-us, timezone to utc and giving random output from canvas every time.
Edit: You can also enable a fixed size for you window. More precisely the area which is visible to content (and also to javascript). https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#what-are-the-most-common-downsides-of-rfp-resist-fingerprinting
Oh I have noticed the timezone change, some websites were misbehaving because of it
It can still tell you're on Linux via WebGL
It seems to me with JavaScript it doesn't work
Using Tor Browser with default settings is probably the least time consuming way of reducing a site's ability to uniquely identify you.
isn't mullvad browser a better choice than librewolf? (i use both)
They are pretty much equal. See https://privacytests.org/
yes, except for the "DNS privacy tests" they seem to be equal on privacytests.org
Is it? I haven't heard much about mullvad browser.
It's basically Tor Browser without using the Tor network.
Less unique is equal to what majority of other's do.
So
- Windows
- Chrome (stock settings, maybe some addons like grammarly)
- No VPN
I know you're saying to use widely-used extensions, but for privacy-conscious users I wouldn't suggest grammarly
well. as another said, one is pretty unique the moment they seek online privacy. this is the sad reality of it. You want to blend in, less unique? Ditch privacy is a way to go. Is this a shit choice, of course it is. The otherway around is embrace the uniquess on every refresh of the page. However, I still have a hard time to beat some very sophisticated fingerprinting engines. Or you can disable Javascript and you won't be fingerprint-able at all along a VPN.
Sure I after with that first point. But actively feeding all of your typed text to a corporate owned server isn't the only way to so that.
I mean...VM, run Tor as a container within the VM, and don't change any default settings. Amiright guys?
If you're gonna put this much effort in you may as well just use tails or qubes OS
Use a computer that you bought off the shelf at a big box store. Don't add any hardware, software, fonts, or change any settings. Use MS Edge with no extensions, and clear your cookies and cache after each session.
That will make you about as generic as possible.
Use MS Edge
Use Chrome. Edge is a minority browser (has a market share of ~10 %). Using chrome though gives all your data to google ( so not recommended).
I was thinking Edge becaudse that comes stock with every new system you buy; Chrome is something you have to install proactively. But yeah, you're probably right. You eith look anonymous because your system looks generic, or you have some small degree of privacy without anonymity. It's a shitty choice to make.