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On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

blog.lukaszolejnik.com

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Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#31

Post by dewey »

timtom123 wrote: post #24
dewey wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any widespread recent security issues that were only affecting Safari and Firefox? That sounds like scaremongering to me.

Yes, there was a big one for FF in Oct https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-9680

And Chrome had one with severity "High" just three days ago, browsers will always have security issues that seem to be patched reasonably fast in the big three. Might as well pick one that's not part of the monoculture by a big advertising company, depending on your threat model of course.

https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2025/01/stable-channel...

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#32

Post by NemoNobody »

xnx wrote: post #15

This seems like nothing. Had Google ever enforced or even inspected its ad partners for use of fingerprinting? My assumption is that every site that knows how to do fingerprinting is doing fingerprinting and probably deanonymizing against a shared signature database.

Exactly. There is not anon browsing bc of a browser - you have to do a lot more than a browser to be anon online these days.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#33

Post by jqpabc123 »

NemoNobody wrote: post #8
iLoveOncall wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, Brave, the browser that highjacks websites to inject their own referral code, that's the right browser to use for privacy conscious people.

Well, I don't know what they do with it bc I do not see ads on Brave Browser - it's an entirely different Internet.

They use it for BAT tokens. You can "opt-in" to viewing some ads in exchange for crypto.

Don't opt-in and enjoy an ad free experience.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#34

Post by fidotron »

Hizonner wrote: post #28

What is with everybody suggesting this or that browser? They're all going to be fingerprintable. Using a less common browser just makes that easier... not that it will ever be hard. You might get some relief from some tracking, including via fingerprinting, by using comprehensive ad and tracking blockers. Or you might not, since CDNs are still probably going to track you.

It is because Google want a situation where they have a monopoly over being able to track web users, and Chrome is a major part of that.

Because that is so blatantly anti competitive the adtech industry manipulates it into a sort of war of opaque identifiers (“user resettable device identifiers”) , attached to things like Roku, smart TV and phones, which then can be passed along with bid requests for ads and later used to effectively target people even on other devices in the same household, conveniently only by some players in the adtech world who then charge more.

Breaking the Chrome monoculture will not solve this problem by itself, but it is a necessary step in getting there.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#35

Post by fsflover »

NemoNobody wrote: post #32
xnx wrote: post #15

This seems like nothing. Had Google ever enforced or even inspected its ad partners for use of fingerprinting? My assumption is that every site that knows how to do fingerprinting is doing fingerprinting and probably deanonymizing against a shared signature database.

Exactly. There is not anon browsing bc of a browser - you have to do a lot more than a browser to be anon online these days.

How about the Tor Browser?

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#36

Post by fsflover »

tholdem wrote: post #12
dewey wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simplest solution is Firefox or Safari, not another Chromium browser or niche Firefox Fork.

If security is not that important, Firefox or Safari. If you care about security, Chromium.

Using Firefox on Qubes OS. Show me any good attack vector affecting me.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#37

Post by iLoveOncall »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #33
NemoNobody wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don't know what they do with it bc I do not see ads on Brave Browser - it's an entirely different Internet.

They use it for BAT tokens. You can "opt-in" to viewing some ads in exchange for crypto. Don't opt-in and enjoy an ad free experience.

No, it's not that.

Brave was caught inserting their own referral code in signup forms on websites. This is basically exactly what Honey is doing and under fire for right now.

Brave basically does a man-in-the-middle attack on those websites. This goes MUCH further than just a privacy issue, it's a security issue.

I don't care about privacy, it doesn't exist, and I use Chrome. But I won't compromise my security by using a browser that is happy to pirate the pages I view.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#38

Post by iLoveOncall »

NemoNobody wrote: post #29
LightBug1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your suggestion? Genuine question. I'm on Firefox.

Fr, ignore these people and try Brave Browser. I care less about privacy than I do an annoying Internet. There NO ADS with Brave Browser - like I just DO NOT SEE ADS anywhere on the Internet. Anyone that has been using Chrome can't possibly care about privacy anyways and they can't know what I mean about ads online.

> There NO ADS with Brave Browser - like I just DO NOT SEE ADS anywhere on the Internet.

There are no ads with any browser provided that you press one button and install a browser extension that blocks them.

Brave isn't an issue regarding privacy, it's a security issue, see what I said on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42656123.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#39

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

Dalewyn wrote: post #25
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but I should be able to swap in any JavaScript engine I desire or use one provided by the system. Browsers are far too bloated.

Playing Devil's Advocate, maybe browsers are still too incomplete. Once browsers are the operating system, everyone can simply speak Chrome and be done with it. The success of Electron strongly suggests both devs and users want to singularize on Chrome, so why not take it to the logical conclusion? Chrome is the abstraction layer to WindowsMacOSiOSLinuxAndroidBSDx86ARMRISC-Vspaghettisoup.

Electron is only successful because it saves development time compared to native applications, not because it's good for users.

Re: On Google’s Policy Change Towards Fingerprinting

#40

Post by NemoNobody »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #33
NemoNobody wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don't know what they do with it bc I do not see ads on Brave Browser - it's an entirely different Internet.

They use it for BAT tokens. You can "opt-in" to viewing some ads in exchange for crypto. Don't opt-in and enjoy an ad free experience.

Oh, I suppose I do see some ads. Every now and then there will be a little popup recommending something - occasionally it's something even relevant. It's funny bc those ads are from Brave but they don't use the Browser, they come thru as desktop notifications and I only see them there. I do have an ad blocker that has always been on also, so I maybe augmenting the Brave experience a little but I just don't see ads online.

I use Edge occasionally - which is far superior to Google and I don't kno how ppl deal with browsing the Internet like that, it's wildly frustrating.

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