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Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#41

Post by ali_af »

illumin8 wrote: post #35
iamNumber4 wrote: post #2

I would suggest the following when connecting to this site. 1. use a dedicated browser, and only use that browser for this site. 2. utilize private mode if you don't want to dedicate a browser only for this site 3. use different profiles in your normal daily browser. for example firefox, and chrome allows you to have multiple profiles. Create a new profile to use when going to this site. 4. analyze the javascript and…

Why isn't there a browser that provides a sandbox or container for every website I visit? I want cookies to persist between visits for obvious reasons, but I think its absurd that breadcrumbs are so easily reachable and used for building an advertising profile on me. I want every website I visit to act as if I have a dedicated computer just for browsing that one site, and have zero knowledge of anything else I do on…

Safari sandboxes each tab so you could simply dedicate each one to a specific website.

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#42

Post by illumin8 »

gh02t wrote: post #40
illumin8 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't there a browser that provides a sandbox or container for every website I visit? I want cookies to persist between visits for obvious reasons, but I think its absurd that breadcrumbs are so easily reachable and used for building an advertising profile on me. I want every website I visit to act as if I have a dedicated computer just for browsing that one site, and have zero knowledge of anything else I do on…

That's basically what Firefox Containers does. https://medium.com/firefox-test-pilot/firefox-containers-are...

Nice! I'll check it out!

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#43

Post by sf_rob »

bwl wrote: post #7
kristoff_it wrote: post #3

Use Firefox Containers and live happy. https://testpilot.firefox.com/experiments/containers/

Great advice, and Containers has actually graduated from experiments to a full release. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

The add-on still has functionality / faster iteration that isn't quite baked into the release version.

If you want to be more aggressive, you can also toggle the configs privacy.resistFingerprinting and privacy.trackingprotection.enabled which will probably break some websites.

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#44

Post by liberte82 »

iamNumber4 wrote: post #2

I would suggest the following when connecting to this site. 1. use a dedicated browser, and only use that browser for this site. 2. utilize private mode if you don't want to dedicate a browser only for this site 3. use different profiles in your normal daily browser. for example firefox, and chrome allows you to have multiple profiles. Create a new profile to use when going to this site. 4. analyze the javascript and…

With that level of rigor, you're certain to be flagged as a bot. ;)

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#45

Post by SerLava »

dzdt wrote: post #19
iamNumber4 wrote: post #2

I would suggest the following when connecting to this site. 1. use a dedicated browser, and only use that browser for this site. 2. utilize private mode if you don't want to dedicate a browser only for this site 3. use different profiles in your normal daily browser. for example firefox, and chrome allows you to have multiple profiles. Create a new profile to use when going to this site. 4. analyze the javascript and…

You trust the credit union with your money, but don't trust them with a fingerprint of your browser identity?

Uh... yes. They're not allowed to give random companies all your money.

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#46

Post by Capira »

captaincrowbar wrote: post #33
pwython wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny enough, the only thing that got wrong was it saying I wasn't logged into HN.

Same for me. Maybe something changed about HN since the demo was written?

they blacklisted /identicon.ico as goto value in their redirect url. It still works with /y18.gif though.

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#47

Post by Turing_Machine »

Capira wrote: post #14

Sounds like they copy pasted my demo into production: https://robinlinus.github.io/socialmedia-leak/

Nice work.

I already had Privacy Badger and had disabled third-party cookies, but it's good to have confirmation that it's working. I'm showing up as not logged into anything, even though I am, in fact, logged into six of those services (including HN, obviously).

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#48

Post by [deleted] »

sn9 wrote: post #39
Capira wrote: post #14

Sounds like they copy pasted my demo into production: https://robinlinus.github.io/socialmedia-leak/

Weird. It thinks I'm logged in to Facebook and Flickr, which I'm definitely not (I checked). I am logged in to HN and it didn't catch that.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#49

Post by WillyOnWheels »

soared wrote: post #5
iamNumber4 wrote: post #2

I would suggest the following when connecting to this site. 1. use a dedicated browser, and only use that browser for this site. 2. utilize private mode if you don't want to dedicate a browser only for this site 3. use different profiles in your normal daily browser. for example firefox, and chrome allows you to have multiple profiles. Create a new profile to use when going to this site. 4. analyze the javascript and…

Without blacklisting a bunch of 3rd party scripts using a different browser or even device would be useless. Once you log in to your account, this new browser/device is automatically linked to all your old browsers/devices, so there is no difference. From 2015: https://adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/when-evaluating...

I use a different computer for every single website.

Re: Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?

#50

Post by scarface74 »

saberworks wrote: post #12

I'm usually completely against using "apps" for anything, but does using an app (on mobile) protect against this type of thing? Does an embedded web view have access to the things you're logged into in your main browser on your phone? So does using my credit union app to access my account protect me from them getting all this info from my phone browser?

The typical embedded WebView is even less secure. The app containing the webview can see everything that you do within it -- including capturing login information for other sites.

At least with iOS, Apple introduced an out of process Safari View Controller that can share cookies, logins, etc with Safari inside an app, but doesn't allow the app to intercept what you are doing

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