Compare to cookies. I use two extensions. The first accepts all cookies to bypass cookie banners. The second deletes all non white listed cookies on closing the page. This works well for me since I seldom have more than 20 pages open, and I constantly close them.
Is there a way to avoid browser fingerprinting like this at all (with potential qol benefits) or am I extra screwed because I do things like this in addition to running Linux on a computer I built?
Here is a good article to give you an overview and ideas how to mitigate fingerprinting.
The sad irony of that site asking me to accept tracking by them and their 214 partners.
I use noscript so I didn’t see this.
Keep in mind that using things like ublock and noscript make you stand out like a sore thumb for fingerprinting. I’m definitely NOT saying you shouldn’t use them, just spreading awareness.
For sure, if way more people used them the fingerprint would get smudged. That being said noscript would break the internet for the average user and degrade their browsing experience so I don’t see mass adoption of that awesome add-on. Ublock however is so simple it should be in everyones add-on list.
Solid advice though!
That reads like AI slop
Thank you for sharing this
Check out Mullvad Browser, which is based on FF. It has always showed up as giving a non-unique fingerprint for me on the EFF site.
Does Mullvad just create random print everytime you get new identity. I think the idea is to just keep switching it
Tor Browser is designed to look like every other running Tor Browser on a somewhat-similar screen, if you use it.
So I’ve decided that trying to remove fingerprints completely is pointless, pretty difficult and overall unpleasant to deal with. What I think might be the better alternative is using extensions like Canvas Defender which give random fake values to the sites trying to fingerprint you.
Do be aware though, this means that coveryourtracks cannot give you an accurate look at how well you’re protected, because in this case you’ll want to have a unique fingerprint every time you surf the web. Attempts to block are unsuccessful most of the time, but overwhelming with information and random data feels like the way to go for now.
Yea I agree. Trying to remove all tracking is futile. There are 3 reasons I still try. The least important of which is protecting my own privacy.
I personally see it as a moral imperative to, when able, do something to stand against evil (hyperbolic as that may be). But the most important reason is to defend my family. Given how interconnected our data is, any datapoint on myself is a datapoint on them.
As you say, trying to remove fingerprints is pointless, but I can mitigate the impact to the best of my ability
No yeah, I totally agree fingerprinting is despicable. I just mentioned my preferred way to get around it
Cookie Auto Delete (and similar extensions) doesn’t really help of you enable FF’s built-in Total Cookie Protection (which you should).
Couple interesting resources:
These mostly just tell you how fucked you are though. The latter has some resources about how to deal with it, but it’s not that useful. The former is really good at breaking down the datapoints that are fucking you.
A lot of this stuff isn’t really something I’d want to remove, too. Like javascript knowing the viewport size or my timezone. Frustrating.
Edit to add: Found this as well which has some good info for configuring Firefox. Some things seem extreme to me, but it’s quite informative. https://avoidthehack.com/firefox-privacy-config
