Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data • Hacker News Board

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#21

Post by threepipeproblm » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:23 PM UTC

jstapels wrote: post #3

Not to sound pessimistic, but as more and more people get forced into metered bandwidth, how is using a plugin that generates extra random traffic "sticking it to the 'man'"? Edit: Yes, I know this is supposed to mask your actual viewing habits. But security through obscurity has never really panned out for anyone in the end.

Is 'it uses bandwidth' really a valid criticism of this? I would say no.

It's also not really "security by obscurity", which I believe refers to situations where techniques uses to secure a system are kept quiet in the hopes no one will figure them out. Here we have a system that is already breached and the point is to defeat analysis. Most analytic techniques I can think of would be defeated by the right kind of "noise", despite the fact that there may awareness that the noise is in there.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#22

Post by dullgiulio » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:24 PM UTC

accountface wrote: post #10

Doesn't seem like the best idea when it comes to environmental sustainability.

Very marginal effect, especially if you factor in the impact of Bitcoin and the other crypto currencies.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#23

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:24 PM UTC

accountface wrote: post #10

Doesn't seem like the best idea when it comes to environmental sustainability.

[deleted]

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#24

Post by siegecraft » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:25 PM UTC

codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

Put it where it will have the most impact / get adopted, then that can cultivate a desire to have it for other browsers, and someone may get motivated to write those versions.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#25

Post by gingerbread-man » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:25 PM UTC

codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

Google has actually blocked similar "noise generation" apps from the Chrome Store in the past. As I recall, there were a few extensions out there that would 'click' on every ad displayed. Obviously that would have created serious problems for Google, so they nixed it.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#26

Post by liotier » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:26 PM UTC

Distributed spidering for a community-fed search engine index would provide comparable end-user benefits while being considerably more socially useful.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#27

Post by sneak » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:27 PM UTC

codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

If you have specific privacy complaints about Chrome, spill it. Content-free finger pointing like this isn't constructive.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#28

Post by danbruc » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:28 PM UTC

iask wrote: post #6

An interesting way to look at this, but wouldn't it be possible to pluck this pattern out from relevant data?

It most likely is because it is incredible hard to create realistic fake traffic. The moment you start using such a tool is probably very easy to detect due to a sudden jump in traffic. Then you can use prior data to figure out what you were actually doing - sites you visit, times you are active times, how you switch between sites, how long you stay on sites, and so on. Randomly following links will show very different distributions.

You have to fake your browsing behavior with pretty high accuracy but if you do that, you defeat the entire purpose, you just created a copy of your browsing behavior. Maybe if there is no prior knowledge of your browsing behavior and the fake traffic is human-like enough, but even in that case it seems not too unlikely that one could separate the two traffic sources. If you want to hide your browsing behavior, the fake traffic must be different from yours. But if there is a difference, the difference can potentially be exploited to separate the sources.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#29

Post by untog » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:29 PM UTC

codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

Presumably because Chrome has a dominant market share. Meet people where they are.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#30

Post by edem » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 1:31 PM UTC

How is this supposed to work? If I click on `Start` it loads a page then nothing happens. I have to click `Start` repeatedly to make it visit new pages despite that it says it is `Running`.