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VPN protection from site-level tracking is basically nonexistent. Browser fingerprinting is widespread and bypasses anything a VPN might offer. VPN is effective against network-level issues, not against browser-based tracking - it's a different level in the stack.
Does Brave impact that?
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Given the bandwidth porn has consumed since literally the beginning of the internet, I think it's fair to say that they can be credited with significant technology gains too. As a recent (but maybe not too important) example, PH created hover-to-autoplay-gif for video thumbnails and then YouTube copied it.
Is that why YouTube thumbnails seem to focus on segments with a woman wearing little clothing, even though it’s a small part of the video?
That algo basically cuts off women’s heads and leaves just their cleavage.
Obviously we had to adjust it to try and avoid that, but even today you’ll see thumbnails on Reddit that are just cleavage.
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I’ve met their head of data science. They’re doing all that stuff and have been for many years. Porn has always been leaders in technology. They were the first to embrace home video and can arguably be credited for VHS winning over BetaMax despite being inferior, because it was cheaper and all the porn was VHS only.
> I’ve met their head of data science. They’re doing all that stuff and have been for many years. This sounds very much in violation of GDPR. Are they just betting on people being too embarrassed to take them to court?
Looks like everyone - vulnerable population or not - should be using VPN when viewing pornographic content.[1] [1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/07/why-you-n...
VPN protection from site-level tracking is basically nonexistent. Browser fingerprinting is widespread and bypasses anything a VPN might offer. VPN is effective against network-level issues, not against browser-based tracking - it's a different level in the stack.
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Virtual machines have the same virtualized graphics drivers, if everyone used virtual machines for browsing and deleted cookies and cache, web tracking would be restrict to IP-based.
There are still several bits of data, like plugin support, touch support, platform, language, screen size, and timezone, that have to be actively manipulated if you want to reduce the likelihood of unique tracking.
Looks like everyone - vulnerable population or not - should be using VPN when viewing pornographic content.[1] [1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/07/why-you-n...
A VPN might be handy for bypassing the near-future UK porn block / age verification system[0] (by spoofing your geo-location). I imagine tech savvy teens/children are already investigating VPNs in light of the recent articles which outline the system. [0] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-uk-wired-explains [0] https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk Here's the important bit from the article where children wi…
This is so going to result on a ton of teens with credit cards. Just look at what is already happening with mobile games. Sounds like a boom for the porn industry. Sure enough, MindGeek is already on it:
>The most well-known of these is AgeID, designed by MindGeek
The hentai sites I tend to use are pretty good in this regard I think. Most of them even work with no JS. E.g. https://danbooru.donmai.us https://e-hentai.org Edit: I tried visiting them without adblock and I'm actually surprised they didn't even have ads.
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There are still several bits of data, like plugin support, touch support, platform, language, screen size, and timezone, that have to be actively manipulated if you want to reduce the likelihood of unique tracking.
are there any browsers that obscure these properties to sites?
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VPNs don't help here. https://panopticlick.eff.org https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
According to panopticlick, Chrome is 100% secure in incognito mode.
Of course, that makes total sense, because many of the factors that can identify your system have little to do with the browser, but are determined by the underlying system: fonts, display, date/time information, graphics fingerprints, etc.
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>so you would need to have fingerprint resistant browser profile easy. use firefox, open about:config, and set privacy.resistFingerprinting => true.
As others said it is not as easy, you probably need a special browser profile that is very "extreme" with the privacy settings. I would suggest not over selling that Firefox setting.