Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
1–10 of 154 posts
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#2Resist! Use adblockers, disable cookies which live over the session by default, turn off JS if you can. When we get to critical mass, the advertising networks will come back with a new deal.
I wonder if we can come up with a widely adopt(able|ed) fingerprint that we can mask ourselves with, do any of these identifying bits actually make the web more usable for us?
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#3Resist! Use adblockers, disable cookies which live over the session by default, turn off JS if you can. When we get to critical mass, the advertising networks will come back with a new deal. I wonder if we can come up with a widely adopt(able|ed) fingerprint that we can mask ourselves with, do any of these identifying bits actually make the web more usable for us?
When we get to critical mass? More like "if". I doubt the majority (crushing majority even) of active web browsers will ever get to that length. Especially noscript, which makes some sites completely useless.
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#4Tried their sandbox site from firefox and chrome on my Mac. They were able to calculate same 'Computer fingerprint'. Looks impressive from tech perspective.. though bad for privacy
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#5Resist! Use adblockers, disable cookies which live over the session by default, turn off JS if you can. When we get to critical mass, the advertising networks will come back with a new deal. I wonder if we can come up with a widely adopt(able|ed) fingerprint that we can mask ourselves with, do any of these identifying bits actually make the web more usable for us?
As stated in the article, the Tor Browser Bundle seems a good candidate of a widely adopted fingerprint.
But it's just Tor of course, not browsers in general.
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#6I'd imagine for most home users the combination of the following is enough to track them across multiple browsers:
{ip, device pixel ratio, screen resolution, time zone}
You can then identify more unique browser features to track them across multiple locations. Even if it's not completely unique, you can build up a network graph that's probably good enough for most things - people living in the same house probably have similar interests.
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#7I'd imagine for most home users the combination of the following is enough to track them across multiple browsers: {ip, device pixel ratio, screen resolution, time zone} You can then identify more unique browser features to track them across multiple locations. Even if it's not completely unique, you can build up a network graph that's probably good enough for most things - people living in the same house probably ha…
I imagine you could have a browser plugin that randomized the values that javascript sees for those, except for sites where they matter? (Very few, I'd guess).
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#8Random idea: Couldn't browsers have two modes of browsing, one lightweight one where only the most basic of JS features are enabled by default (this is something that 99% of websites actually need) and the full version where everything is enabled. The lightweight one is the default state and the users can manually switch to full version. Or even better use logistic regression or a neural network to decide when a website genuinely needs advanced features and when it's just to track you.
As a bonus the lightweight mode would also probably render much faster?
How realistic is this? What would be the downside?
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#9Random idea: Couldn't browsers have two modes of browsing, one lightweight one where only the most basic of JS features are enabled by default (this is something that 99% of websites actually need) and the full version where everything is enabled. The lightweight one is the default state and the users can manually switch to full version. Or even better use logistic regression or a neural network to decide when a webs…
This is why I use uMatrix.
Re: Websites can now fingerprint a device when multiple browser instances are used
#10[deleted]