this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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How can we avoid browser fingerprinting? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 days ago by wuphysics87@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
23 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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?

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[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 30 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I use LibreWolf which implements pretty tough fingerprint mitigation... but I end up disabling a lot of it because it breaks a lot of sites.

[–] dormedas@lemmy.dormedas.com 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I use LibreWolf and then turn a fair chunk of the mitigations off. It’d be nice to have all the mitigations on, but I started to tire of every site not being dark mode at night, or the time being incorrect, or the JavaScript on the site breaking, or various other things when I don’t really care about the tracking.

It was also difficult or annoying to turn these mitigations off on a site-by-site basis for known-okay or trusted sites. Maybe someone could educate me, here though.

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

I use ungoogled-chromium in tandem with LibreWolf, the former for sites broken by the latter.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Why don't you use DarkReader if I may ask?

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Cookie Auto Delete (and similar extensions) doesn't really help of you enable FF's built-in Total Cookie Protection (which you should).

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 14 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Here is a good article to give you an overview and ideas how to mitigate fingerprinting.

https://techreviewadvisor.com/browser-fingerprinting/

[–] sjmulder@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The sad irony of that site asking me to accept tracking by them and their 214 partners.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I use noscript so I didn't see this.

[–] Xuderis@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 53 minutes ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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!

[–] Orcocracy@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

That reads like AI slop

[–] RagnarokOnline@programming.dev 2 points 3 days ago

Thank you for sharing this

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

You caught my attention. What are the names of those two extensions?

[–] _edge@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No op, but i use

I still don't care about cookies

and one of many cookie autodelete extensions

[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago

those are the ones

[–] pip@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] pip@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

No yeah, I totally agree fingerprinting is despicable. I just mentioned my preferred way to get around it

[–] will_a113@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 3 days ago

Does Mullvad just create random print everytime you get new identity. I think the idea is to just keep switching it

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 days ago

Tor Browser is designed to look like every other running Tor Browser on a somewhat-similar screen, if you use it.

[–] zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/ ?