The only real advantage you gain is being able to watch things outside your region. Without lots of work, you’re pretty easily traceable on the modern internet.
I remember in 1996 my neighbor was in one of these fancy new things on the internet called a "chat room".
He got into an arguement with someone. It got heated. Until the other guy threatened to show up at my neighbors house.
My neighbor scoffed and laughed.
Then the guy put in my neighbors real address. To this day, that still scares me. And back then internet crime wasn't taken seriously. In fact doxxing back then may not yet have even been a crime.
FYI:
https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/doxxing-free-speech-and-first-amendment
In the US, "doxxing" laws are pretty much state-by-state and many may be violating the first amendment.
Today, yes. In 1996 "doxxing" wasn't a term. The internet was so new to people that nobody knew what it could even do.
I'll give you a great example. I remember watching a news report fall of 2000, where K*B Toys was trying this untested idea. Could they use the internet to sell things? The experts said no, and that the internet was a fad. It simply wasn't a medium you could use for commercial things......ebay aside.
In 1996 Google didn't even exist yet. I don't think Amazon was even a bookstore yet. The internet in those days was primitive, and the wild west of the technology realm.
Most vendors are not going to trace you like that. They can, but it’s actually kind of nontrivial and not “easy.”
I’m more thinking about government. I gave up on trying to avoid ad tracking forever ago. But if you think a VPN keeps you safe posting “anonymously”, it doesn’t. That’s more what I’m referring to.
The other major advantage is your ISP can't build a profile on you. Considering they know who you are and where you live, that's a pretty important air gap to me.
If the NSA wants you, they will get you. But I can hide from most of you with just a little email relay and a VPN
I can hide from everyone, I just walk into the woods.
Heeeeey. Former kid, current adult, and future crazy old man here. Quick question. Do they still have 1 box of communal porn in the woods? Every woods had one when I was a kid, but I haven't been in the woods ever since we had to kill that bear.
Just wondering if woods porn is still a thing.
No, we're more into woods erotic geocaching these days.
It's always kind of funny when the Technology folks wade into well-researched and well-worn Privacy territory.
Do you want to not wave a giant flag of your activity to Google, Meta, MS, and your ISP when you do literally anything online? Either use a VPN and Mullvad (or Librewolf, but YMMV) browser, OR a VPN and Tor OR Tor with an https bridge if paying for a VPN will make you a target (Tor bridges are not for casuals, save them for those in genuine need).
VPN locations need to be changed. Frequently. Router level VPN at home becomes your "This is me" location, then make use of VPNs on each device when you want an extra layer of obfuscation.
There's not a lot of middle ground at this point, and it's not difficult.
Does that mean my ISP can still detect if I'm going to websites they don't approve of if I'm using Mullvad as my VPN but using Firefox as my browser?
No, with a VPN the only thing your ISP sees is you connecting to a VPN server IP.
But browser finger printing, on the other hand, can identify you to every website you visit, due to info your browser hands over to every website... Such as OS version, Resolution, installed Plugins, browser settings, geolocation info, etc..which is often unique enough to identify you out of the whole of the internet.
Ironically, locking your browser down with more security features/settings/plugins often makes you more identifiable. Cause capitalism is god damned sure they are gonna track you and monetize the hell out of your information, whether its via your name, your user name, or just your digital fingerprint.
Your ISP can’t tell who you are contacting if you are using a VPN, but websites will track you by other means.
Router level VPN at home becomes your "This is me" location
You and a thousand other people.
Yeah, but fingerprinting is effective by cross referencing.
There are 1,000 people with the IP 1.2.3.4
There are 500 people with the IP 1.2.3.4 using Firefox
There are 25 people with the IP 1.2.3.4 using Firefox with a 1440p screen
There are 2 people with the IP 1.2.3.4 using Firefox with the dark reader extension with a 1440p screen at 75Hz
etc.
So rotating the IP can screw with that.
I'm not looking to be anonymous, I want access to Stargate Atlantis that Amazon Prime is geo blocking from me.
For that, VPN works as advertised.
Yep. That's how I watch F1 too.
Does anyone know if Firefox's claimed Anti fingerprinting technology is any good?
it's useless. test it out with creepjs
here is a fingerprinting test you can trust https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
fingerprinting is nasty, i suggest canvas blocker extension because it gives them fake readouts
Librewolf + uBlock Origin + Privacy Badger + containerise
For the comedy extra point, a user agent switcher can actively lie about your browser & OS.
Using a browser like Librewolf is, itself a unique identifier bc not enough people are using it.
EFF has a tool that lets you check your “uniqueness” and bc I used a lesser known browser, it was easier to track me.
Not that I mean you shouldn’t use it. I just wanted to clarify that it doesn’t make you safe from ads. :(
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ is the EFF tool.
My results say that I have strong protections against tracking, and that my browser is unique. It's as good as I can get.
The agent switcher also tells the world my Librewolf on Linux is Chrome on Windows.
Isn't it a bad thing to be unique in this context? If my browser is 1 in a million, that means that a tracker can pick me out of a lineup of a million users, no? That's why a captcha can verify you as human simply by checking a box, because it can identify your unique browser as associated with human activity.
If I'm not mistaken, we want the opposite. We want our browsers to be as generic as possible if we don't want to be tracked.
Thanks for linking it! I should have done that. And if LibreWolf is showing as Chrome on Windows, then you’re good!
Pfft, I have 12 firewalls, good luck decrypting these. 🤓
I'll just get 3 hackers to my keyboard, just wait.
I bought a used laptop from a yard sale and only use public Wi-Fi and never use the laptop for anything with my name on it.
Pfft amateur, I break into my local Applbee’s after 2AM and use their POS terminal browser to look at used cars.
Applebee's at 2AM which leaves a physical trail? Noob. I strap meshtastic nodes on wild dogs, using them as a Internet relay at 1-2kb a second, to look at manga leaks.
What a pointless article.
Every time I use that site it says I am unique. So is that good? Surely if I was trackable, it would match me against the previous times I'd been there.
Or maybe the site is just spouting a load of clickbaity nonsense?
Until someone invents real-life Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics from the cyberpunk genre, where doing shit you dont like leads them to have their equipment destroyed with electricity surge, nothing you do online is private nor is there any consequences from them enumerating everything about you to sell or use maliciously.
Does anonymous mode browsing+VPN improve this? I would think it would
Part of the reason Tor is good is because it generates the same fingerprint for all users (part of the reason you shouldn’t install additional extensions on it, by the way). Mullvad browser tries to do this but without the Tor network.
You can't hide or get rid of the browser fingerprint, but some addons can help to randomize it so it looks like you're using a different device every time you visit a site.
Personally, I don’t care if a site can fingerprint me. As long as they can’t tie that fingerprint to a rich data set.
So I make sure that each domain gets a different fingerprint response. That means that a site can validate that I’m still the same user, but any XSS attempting fingerprint based data exchange just gets garbage.
Some, but only if you're using a very common device (i.e. Dell Latitude) with Windows. Browser fingerprinting gives up hardware specs, so hiding by blending in only works when your hardware is hard to pin down.
Use a browser that hides hardware specs, like Mullvad or Libreworlf. Even Brave is ok.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
