It would be nice to hammer a manually created fingerprint into the browser and share that fingerprint around. When everyone has the same fingerprint, no one can be uniquely identified. Could we make such a thing possible?
this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Not really. The "fingerprint" is not one thing, it's many, e.g. what fonts are installed, what extensions are used, screen size, results of drawing on a canvas, etc... Most of this stuff is also in some way related to the regular operation of a website, so many of these can't be blocked.
You could maybe spoof all these things, but some websites may stop behaving correctly.
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This is called Tor
No it isn't.
And this is really important. If you go on Google tracked websites without tor, Google will still know it's you when you use tor, even if you've cleared all your cookies.
Tor means people don't know your IP address. It doesn't protect against other channels of privacy attack.
Yes, it is.. Tor prevents against fingerprinting as well. It isn't just relay plumbing to protect your IP.. This can easily be tested on any fingerprinting site with default config of Tor demonstrating a low entropy https://blog.torproject.org/browser-fingerprinting-introduction-and-challenges-ahead/
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But why would any browser accept access to those metadata so freely? I get that programming languages can find out about the environment they are operating in, but why would a browser agree to something like reading installed fonts or extensions without asking the user first? I understand why Chrome does this, but all of the mayor ones and even Firefox?
Because the data used in browser fingerprinting is also used to render pages. Example: a site needs to know the size of browser window to properly fit all design elements.
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Firefox has built-in tracking protection.
I know that it has that in theory, but my Firefox just reached a lower score on https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ (which was posted in this threat, thanks!) than a Safari. Firefox has good tracking protection but has an absolute unique fingerprint, was 100% identifiable as the first on the site, as to Safari, which scored a bit less in tracking but had a not unique fingerprint.
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We need Richard Hendricks and his new internet asap
What's this about? Fill me in? 🙏
He was the main character on Silicon Valley
Oh okay. I should pick that show up again, finish what I started.
Thanks!
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new? isn't this at least like a decade old method of tracking?
Which is why I had hoped the EU would ban all forms of fingerprinting and non-essential data tracking. But they somehow got lobbied into selecting cookies as the only possible mechanism that can be used, leaving ample room to track using other methods.
How would that even be enforced?
same way other regulations are enforced: fines
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We're all gonna need to use whonix for basic shit now
Using Mullvad Browser + Mullvad VPN could mitigate this a little bit. Because if you use it as intended (don’t modify Mullvad browser after installation) , all Mullvad users would have the same browser fingerprint and IPs from the same pool.
The problem is it's all or nothing. You must foil IP address, fingerprint, and cookies - all three at once.
Mullvad browser might make your fingerprint look similar to other users, but it's not common is the problem. Test it with the EFF Cover your tracks site.
its captcha v3, its the same thing reddit uses to catch bots and ban evaders, apparently its expensive for reddit so they only mostly use it for ban waves.