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Is brave the only browser with fingerprint randomization? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by chewgrabonion@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I use brave for this reason.

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[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 47 points 7 months ago (3 children)

You don't want a randomised fingerprint, as that is relatively unique among a sea of fingerprints [1]. What you want is a fingerprint that's as similar to everyone else (generic) as possible; that's what Firefox's resist fingerprinting setting aims to do, and what the Tor browser does.

[1] There are many values you can't change, so the randomisation of the ones you can change could end up making you more unique ... think of it like having your language set to french but are based in the USA — that language setting can't uniquely identify the French in france, but will stick out like a sore thumb if set in shitsville Idaho. It's likely the same if you use firefox but have your user agent set to chrome; that's more rare and unique than not changing the user agent at all.

[–] Rez@sh.itjust.works 21 points 7 months ago (3 children)

But isn't randomization supposed to give you a different unique fingerprint each time? So yes, you would be unique and easily tracked but only until your fingerprint changes

[–] Rose@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So what's the benefit of this over blending in each time?

[–] random65837@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

That was addressed above, you ever see "identical" twins? They look exactly the same if you see then once, twice, 3 times, but if you see both of them constantly, you'll start seeing the small difference in them and then be able to identify who's who. Same exact thing.

[–] virtualbriefcase@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't think there is any proven results, but I think the reason the EFF prefers Braves decision is the philosophy that there are so many data points that it could be possible to link you to it using the ones not standardized by anti fingerprinting.

Like ways to incorrectly describe someone. One describes a guy correctly but generically. One describes a guy with a lot of detail but the wrong race and two feet too short.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes it is, and that's why the EFF recommends it.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Where do the EFF recommend randomisation? From the EFF's surveillance self defence course.

This can be an effective method for breaking persistence, but it is important to note that a tracker may be able to determine that a randomization tool is being used, which can itself be a fingerprinting characteristic. Careful thought has to go into how randomizing fingerprinting characteristics will or will not be effective in combating trackers.

They don't directly recommend either... But then on https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/learn

In practice, the most realistic protection currently available is the Tor Browser, which has put a lot of effort into reducing browser fingerprintability. For day-to-day use, the best options are to run tools like Privacy Badger or Disconnect that will block some (but unfortunately not all) of the domains that try to perform fingerprinting, and/or to use a tool like NoScript( for Firefox), which greatly reduces the amount of data available to fingerprinters.

So the EFF seem to recommend generic over randomisation...

Maybe ask yourself why the Tor project decided against randomisation?

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

No, that's absolutely incorrect. You want a new fake fingerprint every single time someone asks your browser for your information. You want it to lie about your plugins, user agent, your fonts and your screen size. Bonus if you use common values, but not necessary.

The randomized data they're providing isn't static and it isn't the same from session to session.

100% White noise is a far better obfuscation than a 40% non-unique tracking ID. Yes, your data is lumped in with 47 million other users, but used in conjunction with static pieces of your data you become uncomfortably identifiable.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The whole point of the poster above is that you can't ramdomise 100%

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

Yeah... I don't know why a bunch of privacy bros think they know better than the CS and cryptography PhD's of the Tor project; the most advanced and complex privacy and anonymity preserving project in computing history.

[–] privacybro@lemmy.ninja 0 points 7 months ago

this is the correct answer