305
TIL you can get much better online prices using a public library computer (feddit.online)
submitted 3 days ago by Jerry@feddit.online to c/til@lemmy.world
47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

TIL that you can get much lower online prices if you use a local library computer. Another reason to hate retailers.

Lora Kelley took a trip to the New York Public Library for us and compared prices against a personal iPhone. The results? A box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and a pack of toilet paper were nearly 20% cheaper on the library desktop.

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/nothing-personal/surveillance-dynamic-pricing-legal-groceries-tickets/

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[-] leanleft@lemmy.ml 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

go to https://www.bonappetit.com/ and watch the price suddenly jump!

bonappetit.com 4d.condenastdigital.com * block
bonappetit.com ads-static.conde.digital * block
bonappetit.com allure.com * block
bonappetit.com apis.google.com * block
bonappetit.com architecturaldigest.com * block
bonappetit.com bd1cec50-00d1-4ce9-9572-785857419a1e.edge.permutive.app * block
bonappetit.com cdn.gladly.com * block
bonappetit.com cntraveler.com * block
bonappetit.com conde.digital * block
bonappetit.com condenastdigital.com * block
bonappetit.com edge.permutive.app * block
bonappetit.com epicurious.com * block
bonappetit.com gladly.com * block
bonappetit.com glamour.com * block
bonappetit.com globalservices.conde.digital * block
bonappetit.com google.com * block
bonappetit.com gp-prod.conde.digital * block
bonappetit.com gq.com * block
bonappetit.com id-mapper-service.gp-prod.conde.digital * block
bonappetit.com lil.condenastdigital.com * block
bonappetit.com martech.condenastdigital.com * block
bonappetit.com newyorker.com * block
bonappetit.com permutive.app * block
bonappetit.com pitchfork.com * block
bonappetit.com privacy.condenastdigital.com * block
bonappetit.com self.com * block
bonappetit.com teenvogue.com * block
bonappetit.com vanityfair.com * block
bonappetit.com variants.conde.digital * block
bonappetit.com vogue.com * block
bonappetit.com wired.com * block
bonappetit.com www.allure.com * block
bonappetit.com www.architecturaldigest.com * block
bonappetit.com www.cntraveler.com * block
bonappetit.com www.epicurious.com * block
bonappetit.com www.glamour.com * block
bonappetit.com www.gq.com * block
bonappetit.com www.newyorker.com * block
bonappetit.com www.self.com * block
bonappetit.com www.teenvogue.com * block
bonappetit.com www.vanityfair.com * block
bonappetit.com www.vogue.com * block
bonappetit.com www.wired.com *  block

goddamnit. all i wanted was a muffin !
why are you counting my pockets so aggressively ?

[-] Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago

You guys are mostly missing the point, the library computers get cheaper prices than even a freshly installed no fingerprint computer because lots of poor people use them.

[-] 0ndead@infosec.pub 132 points 3 days ago

Clear your cookies people

[-] Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

You're missing the point, library computers are used by a lot of poor people so those computers have cookies and other fingerprinting that makes companies think the users of those machines can't afford normal prices so they get even lower prices than if you had completely cleared your chace cookies fresh device and all that.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 95 points 3 days ago

That doesn’t help anymore. These days they use device identifiers and IP addresses and all kinds of stuff like that to see if you’re the same person or not. I would imagine that in this case going to your own laptop or desktop would result in the same prices.

If you really want to hide try a browser like the Mullvad browser that specifically resizes and changes things used for fingerprinting.

[-] jtrek@startrek.website 60 points 3 days ago

Device finger printing should be illegal.

[-] FG_3479@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It's useful to stop ban evasion, but using it for personalised ads or prices should definitely be illegal.

[-] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago

Our government is run by sleeping 90 year olds. We should have a lot of laws right now that aren't on the books.

Musk is suing right now to make sure they don't make his illegal porn program illegal.

[-] 0ndead@infosec.pub 25 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
[-] dreamy 1 points 1 day ago

Mullvad Browser is free. It's just Tor Browser without Tor.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 43 points 3 days ago

Then choose a different one that does the same kind of fingerprinting protection, that’s why I said like Mullvad.

[-] Whirling_Ashandarei@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Heard good things about ivpn and am looking at them for my new one as my sub is running out shortly.

Funny that vpns are banned here.

[-] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 4 points 3 days ago

I absolutely adore IVPN and do highly recommend them but eventually switched to Mullvad for higher speeds. I also think IVPN isn’t IPv6 friendly if I remember correctly.

[-] axx@slrpnk.net 26 points 3 days ago

That's simplifying things to the point of being useless. Seriously, can't we have just a bit of nuance?

There are legit, actual neo-nazis out there. I don't have much sympathy for Daniel Berntsson, and he clearly has some shitty ideas and positions, but calling Mullvad browser a "Nazi supporting browser" because Mullvad's rich co-founder made a donation without telling the company is just conflating everything into a big muddy thought soup.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Linux's inventor said that AI coding tools are fine and helpful. Those tools are made by openai and the likes, which are run by some of the worst people in history, many of which are fascist supporters. Therefore, using that same logic, Linux is a fascist os that should be abolished.

-_- Seriously. I wish people would use their own brains to think critically and logically through these paths, and stop echoing into the chamber.

Edit.
Mulvad is not a fascist company or product just because a co-founder used his own money for fascist things.

[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

It's hard to say, but they do call for ethnic cleansing or "remigration" of citizens. That means concentration camps. What the US is doing now but worse. They also have socialist policies. So by combining nationalist and socialist (populist) policies, they are kinda reinventing Nazism. They are a serious threat.

It really is fucking sad because they were allies in the war against privacy, but you have to draw the line at ethnic cleansing.

[-] axx@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago

Who is "they" in your message here?

[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

They = Örebro Party - Wikipedia

Even though I do not trust wikipedia or the mainstream news articles they source, the part about remigration is pretty clear cut.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Well, also use privacy badger

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 18 points 3 days ago

This is why I have a botnet of poor people's computers

[-] creamfresh@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Pretty sure that’s illegal where I live.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 9 points 2 days ago

Only if those wankers get caught and convicted. Until then, it's just hearsay.

[-] cosmos8188@leminal.space 2 points 19 hours ago

Bunch of manipulating mfs..

[-] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago

It's not the library, it's the cache you never clear. She could have done this just as easily at home on a browser with a private window she hadn't signed into.

[-] klankin@piefed.ca 42 points 3 days ago

With the same IP, CPU, GPU, and networkcard??

Easily fingerprintable

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 days ago

Easily obfuscated, but also just clearing cache or using private browsing will more likely than not work.

[-] mpdarkguy@piefed.world 19 points 3 days ago

I tried using waterfox and librewolf i think.

Every click on a new site was 5 capchas, its horrendously unusable, since probably they assume that all obfuscated user agent and other data are bots

[-] chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 8 points 3 days ago

I tried LibreWolf. It was such a bad experience.

It's a shame that the Internet is so bad that the browser has to go to such extreme lengths to give you any privacy that it makes the experience awful.

[-] WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today 2 points 3 days ago

It definitely isn't as graceful in the every day experience, but keeping a profile with resist fingerprinting disabled has helped the few times I need to get past turnstiles and whatnot that otherwise loop

It really is a shame that it's come to this rock paper scissors war between the server's usage, the user's experience, and privacy. Currently privacy is what has been cut in favor of the other two. You have to work to maintain privacy now

[-] klankin@piefed.ca 9 points 3 days ago

Unless you're running a virtual GPU (and changing it often enough to remain anonymous), tracking pixels are pretty difficult to obfuscate (the exact thermal environment your PC is in will even effect timing).

And thanks to big tech this state of the art tracking is on essentially every website.

Clearing site data/private mode is a way to ask nicely that websites don't track you, but user intention hasn't been respected for around 3 decades by now.

[-] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I would like to know how you plan to get the same ip, cpu, gpu and network card into her iphone.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

It's also using an iPhone instead of a desktop PC. Retailers think all iPhone users are rich (or at least less price-sensitive).

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Cache != Cookies

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Clear your cookies and use a VPN. (And your browser probably has a setting you can enable to clear your cookies automatically every time you close out.)

[-] Krusty@quokk.au 6 points 3 days ago

Rtfa

[-] finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

Read the Flatulent Anus? Wow. I mean, I've heard of reading tea leaves, but ...

[-] Krusty@quokk.au 2 points 2 days ago

It's read the fucking article.

Toss that salad though, my baby.

[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Both methods are equally accurate.

[-] mvilain@fedia.io 19 points 3 days ago

All the more reason to use a VPN.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

If I were a company looking to optimize profit by pricing goods at whatever limit the targeted consumer demographic would be willing to pay for, I would use a VPN as a signal to raise the price.

It doesn't matter who that consumer is behind the VPN. The VPN itself is a monthly subscription, and that indicates he/she has at enough disposable income to afford non-essential services.

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

To that point the library computer is free. I don’t know anything about VPNs or how to use them and I definitely shouldn’t have to pay for something for basic privacy. Library users improve the demand for libraries. Using a library computer is a win in basically all ways that really matter.

[-] Krusty@quokk.au 3 points 3 days ago

Rtfa

[-] Seimhe@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago

Is it possible to instruct the browser, via extensions or something, to simply withhold that kind of information? I know websites need to render the page differently for different browsers and OS, but when it comes to things involving payment I'd rather deal with the browser quirks than get ripped off.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yes, but then that itself becomes a signal.

You have to not only resist fingerprinting, but do it in the same way as other people who resist fingerprinting.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 2 points 2 days ago

Or not resist at all, but provide fake, but realistic data with each request

[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago

It also marks you as extremely tech savvy, meaning you likely have large disposable incoming.

[-] BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 days ago

Use tor browser or librewolf with a vpn that isnt owned by Kape. Check to make sure all cookies are deleted each session. Make each purchase with a new account. Ideally using an email alias otherwise it gets cumbersome fast. Personally I also use a one time virtual debit card.

this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
305 points (100.0% liked)

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