On the internet, it’s easy to feel anonymous. If you don’t log in, no one can see who you are; you can even switch to incognito mode. The more savvy user would say that’s not really enough. To be anonymous, you need to clear your cookies and use a privacy-oriented browser.

But new research shows even that doesn’t work anymore. Websites are still tracking you — silently, persistently, and without your consent — by reading your browser’s unique “fingerprint.”

  • who@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    The most effective single mitigation against browser fingerprinting is to disable scripts. Unfortunately, many sites these days are needlessly built to be unusable without scripts.

    The next best thing is to disable scripts on most sites, use the important others with uBlock Origin, and ask site owners to make script-free functionality a priority in their development plans.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    No one follows the rules

    This is why ordinary people should feel a duty to use adblockers, poison AI/data collection whenever possible, and to use alternative methods of protecting privacy (i.e. pirate rather than using streaming services).

    If we can’t be respected, then we should give no respect to organizations and governments who ignore privacy as a basic human right.

  • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    Privacy is one of those things that has to be collective to be effective. It doesn’t matter if you put on a hat, a cloak, shades, and a fake beard when you go out of your home if you are the only one doing it, they’ll just identify you as the person in a cloak, hat, shades, and a fake beard.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      NoScript

      It will be annoying to use AT FIRST. One you have it set up for all your sites it won’t be so bad.

      • anon5621@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        No script cannot protect u from on websites which require js for work and thus it cannot protect u from creepjs things and so it required to spoof everything from resolution to os fingerprints

        • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Yes, but it blocks many external scripts from running in the first plce. Like, a LOT. Some websites try to pull from 20 external sites when only one or two are needed to run the site’s functionality. You get fine control, and also get the no-JS experience first.

    • Flagstaff@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      Thanks, maybe CanvasBlocker will be less breaking than JShelter. By the way, I recommend AdNauseam, which is a uBlock Origin fork that clicks the ads before hiding them (and without loading their results, so it takes no extra data) to confound advertisers with garbage data.