Mozilla research: Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users.
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@JohnConnorBear , that Android is Googlespyware I have assumed, for this I do not use the mobile for relevant things, sometimes I post in this forum, call and little else. I do not have sensitive data or applications on my mobile, Vivaldi, Blokada, F-Droid, BitDefender, and some FOSS games.
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@JohnConnorBear , Windows 10 in the background is an excellent OS, but evidently full of all kinds of applications and telemetries, not easy to remove, but possible and recommended and is the first thing I've done. With this Windows is a fast, secure, reasonably private OS and certainly stable as a rock, above 7.
In W7 that I had on my previous PC, I also used Linux (Kubuntu), which is also an excellent alternative, but as in all Linux, certain difficulties with certain drivers and in the handling of files less intuitive than Windows. and that's why I didn't end up convincing myself that much, but depending on the task I used both. -
@JohnConnorBear , the problem with Windows is the lack of consistency between the different versions, which means that in some cases it is not compatible with its own software from previous versions, apart from taking alternately in the different good versions and absolute flops, the first versions could be valid, but they were not very stable, XP very good, Vista a flop, 7 good, 8 a flop, 10 very good, although with the qualms that I mentioned before.
Curiosity aside that W10 is more compatible with old XP programs than 7.I know there are differences between different Linux distros, although it also depends on personal preference. I have tried several different distros and the one I liked the least was the much acclaimed Ubuntu, in addition to a rather rough UI, not very stable, the one I liked the most was Kubuntu, an elegant and intuitive UI and stable as a rock and it was this one with that in the end I stayed.
I am not very expert in modding and I am not very interested either, for me an OS is a tool where I am interested in that it works and does what I intend to do, without complicating my life too much. Put the wallpaper, the colors that I like and go. -
@JohnConnorBear said in Mozilla research: Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users.:
@BoneTone
IMHOI don't care.
At the beginning, there were people soldering circuits in their homes.
WTH are you rambling about?
If you believe uMatrix is the fix for all this, you are a lucky guy.
I'm not sure what "all this" is, but that's certainly not what I wrote.
Edit: @Catweazle I salute you for trying.
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@BoneTone Sooner or later you peeps will learn what i did, several months ago. Some trolls are simply crying out to be added to one's Blocked list. Thereafter, each day seems much brighter.
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@JohnConnorBear , it is clear that many current software tells you that they cannot work on a 486 and that you need to update.I have given the Ubuntu example, precisely when I used it and wanted to change the UI, mq I was left without desktop on several occasions due to the incompatibilities with Compiz at the time, for this I said that It is not very stable and for this reason I changed it for another distro.
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@Steffie I generally dislike using block lists, unless it's very necessary. But do you know if when person A puts person B on person A's block list, is person B still able to see person A's public posts? Or does it completely block any & all interaction between them?
I simply don't have the time to decipher how people soldering in their garages half a century ago is in any way relevant to the topic of mitigating tracking on the internet.
More directly to the point, I won't allow myself to be used to derail more threads off topic. Perhaps some people will figure out that I'm not even reading their replies to me and save their time. Or maybe their time isn't valuable and they won't.
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@BoneTone said in Mozilla research: Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users.:
do you know if when person A puts person B on person A's block list, is person B still able to see person A's public posts? Or does it completely block any & all interaction between them?
Good question but sorry i don't know. All i can confidently assure you is that since i added B, C & D to my list, i never ever ever see any of their direct posts*, thus affording me a leap in my daily equanimity.
* Oh, one minor flaw is that if another sane person happens to quote B, C or D, then i would see that... so the tool is not perfect... but it's a whole lot better than before i availed myself of it.
Tbh, i actually kinda sorta hope that B, C & D can still see all my posts. Then they can squirm in their fetid little minds knowing that no matter what bile they might post at me, or inanities they post at the larger community, i won't see it. Serves 'em right. Haaaar!
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@JohnConnorBear , to use computing for specific uses, even if they are very complex, no high end up-to-date PCs are needed. What NASA needs for the space station is not a gaming PC latest model, but a robust PC, capable of doing the necessary scientific tasks, this can even be an old Pentium with the computing capacity of a low-end smartphone.
The demands for a user, whether particular or professional, with new formats of complex websites and professional programs are much higher and the current software has to be adjusted, yes or yes and Windows is no exception if it will use the latest soft.
Of course there are also commercial aspects, but what possibilities do you have today with old 16-bit PCs? You certainly even find some distro that can make it work, it will even help you to run an old word processor, but simply entering the network is going to be little less than impossible.
Technologies are advancing to an ever-increasing rhythm, and all devices to access them need to be forcibly updated, if you want to work well with them.
Which soft NASA uses, you can see in their OpenSource Software Catalogue, also download and test them.
https://code.nasa.gov/ -
@JohnConnorBear , never has, although I also use a front end for YT most of the time (an instance of Invidious or also Echoplayer).
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@Pathduck
Do not forget third-party referers. Those can also track browsers if they load third-party images. -
@Streptococcus said in Mozilla research: Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users.:
@Pathduck
Do not forget third-party referers. Those can also track browsers if they load third-party images.Tools like uMatrix can prevent tracking via the referrer header. Similarly, they also can prevent the loading of third-party images on a granular level -- allowing only those third-party images that are necessary, such as from a CDN, while blocking those from other sites, such as a tracker.
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Sorry for my naive question.
If I understand well tracking is used for sites to offer you ads related with your shoppings and interests.
I was viewing prices of bicycles in a local place site and later in another site I switch off Ublockorigin for a while, and voila!!! the site display an ad of bicycles.
Why is so important to block trackers if I never see Ads?
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@barbudo2005 said in Mozilla research: Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users.:
Why is so important to block trackers if I never see Ads?
IMO, purely as a matter of principle, & autonomy, i do not want people/bots following me all over the interwebz, whether for ads or more nefarious purposes. If i lose my [shallow pretence of] privacy, i lose part of me. If i retain my [shallow pretence of] privacy, i am ipso facto slightly less broken than otherwise.
If i give away, or have taken from me, some of my privacy, my fate lies in the hands of others, as to whether they are benevolent or not. If i retain some of my privacy, my fate lies in my own hands to a somewhat greater extent. Given i have ample reasons to regard humans as untrustworthy or at least unreliable, i much prefer not having to rely on a hope of wider benevolence & honour; it is so frequently & widely absent.
I also draw my home's curtains at night.
And yes, that glass is most certainly half-empty.
On a more pragmatic less philosophical note, i use a browser to access the interwebz for research, information, communication, shopping, entertainment, activism. I visit specific sites usually for specific reasons, desiring specific outcomes. I want these interactions to be efficient. If my browser is getting slowed down from presenting me the specific info i need, because of myriad background processes running to service tracking & ad-serving crap, it is ipso facto suboptimal to my requirements. My energetic usage of uMatrix thus stops all that crap & helps me maximise the site efficacy & efficiency... as defined by me, not vested interests. -
@barbudo2005 Imagine you were visiting a lot of sites with pricey expensive stuff on them. If you later go to another site, the tracking might indicate you are a big spender, and the site could silently increase prices, just for you, because it thinks you can afford to spend more.
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@LonM , @barbudo2005 , danger is also another. It is one thing that a page records my preferences on this page, to adapt it and another well other than recording my preferences throughout my browsing history, to sell this data to third parties, as Google and Facebook do, for example. From there I have no control, what these sites do with this data and where they continue to be disseminated.
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Google and Facebook do, for example.
These are particularly dangerous as for many people they are a source of information and connections. These should not be "filter bubbled".
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@LonM , the filter bubble is another danger added to this. With tracking, privacy, security and net neutrality are being subtracted for the user.
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@barbudo2005 said in Mozilla research: Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users.:
Why is so important to block trackers if I never see Ads?
There are many articles around the web that will cover this in greater detail, and the above points are also good points, but (somewhat) briefly...
Ad blocking & tracker blocking have two different purposes, which are related partly because the threat actors are the same. There are of course people who just want to block advertising, perhaps in general or perhaps because now ads have become so intrusive as to significantly disrupt their ability to access the desired content. I'm going to ignore that aspect of the issue here.
Ad blocking has become an imperative for users due to the security risks online advertising pose. It's not enough to just visit legitimate sites that are otherwise trustworthy, and who use mainstream advertising networks. Even in such cases, the potential for being exposed to malware exists -- it has happened in the past. So blocking ads is a necessity in order to block a known vector for malware infection, and the number of sites that have taken effective steps to mitigate this issue are so few as to be nonexistent.Tracker blocking is done to protect one's data. It's not as innocuous as "this web broswer read an article about cycling, so let's advertise bicycles & related gear." The data being collected is much greater than that, including interpersonal connections, and it's all being collated into a massive individual profile. As if this weren't problematic enough, when data breaches or leaks occur, these massive profiles detailing people's behaviors, interests, associations, etc. can then be tied to their identities. Massive immortal profiles, containing information most people would consider private, would not want to be publicly known or collected at all, let alone in one place, are now stored by many different corporate entities with varying policies on what they will do with that data, and have proven inabilities at keeping the data secure. They also can share that data with each other to build more complete, less anonymous profiles.
So blocking tracking has become imperative for users to minimize the amount of data that will be collected into these enormous & immortal profiles. The risks of that data being compromised and misused are numerous, and only continue to grow in number and severity.
For more details, I'd recommend searching sites like the EFF, Wired, and other technology related news & advocacy sites.
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Thank you. I am using Trace Premium now.