Amidst the glossy marketing for VPN services, it can be tempting to believe that the moment you flick on the VPN connection you can browse the internet with full privacy. Unfortunately this is quit…

Damn… I guess the next idea is going offline for good

  • SteveCC@lemmy.world
    12·
    9 months ago

    Back in the day there were apps that generated phony web searches to obfuscate your real searches. Seems like there could be tools to mess around and change browser fingerprints periodically. No?

    • jimi_henrik@lemmy.world
      7·
      9 months ago

      It could be done on the browser level (maybe it’s something browsers like LibreWolf do), however, it would break sites that require the fingerprints to be the same for “security reasons” which may or may not be a legitimate claim.

      You could say “well, I’m not going to use that particular website then”, but the problem is that there are less and less websites that don’t require these technologies to function properly.

    • pumpkin_spice@lemmy.today
      1·
      9 months ago

      There is a browser extension called Chameleon that will spoof a fair amount of data, but after testing it against one of those fingerprint test sites, it looks like it doesn’t/can’t spoof everything.

  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    9 months ago

    no shit

    I use VPN because of the ISP and the network, not to become anonymous to the websites I visit.

    • primalmotion@lemmy.mldeleted by creator
      5·
      9 months ago

      Yes and I think that’s kinda dumb. It’s never going to be possible to have everyone look the same. I would go the other route. Randomize everything everytime so you never leave twice the same fingerprints. That’s way easier and it polutes marketers dabases, which is a double win.

  • Twongo [she/her]@lemmy.ml
    6·
    9 months ago

    Here are some extra tips for increased privacy:

    • Don´t use your browser in fullscreen
    • Download Chameleon for Firefox, it periodically changes the browser and OS it pretends to be

    OR: Use Chameleon and set yourself to the most common combo. Get lost in the noise.

  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
    71·
    9 months ago

    But VPNs aren’t supposed to make you anonymous.
    They secure your data while in transit to/from the exit node. Maybe that’s your job so you can access their LAN. Or it’s a public VPN that secures your dada from the local WiFi or ISP you’re directly connected to. That’s all it’s built for.

    • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      9 months ago

      And what do you thing HTTPS does exactly? Whe the web was HTTP sure VPN’s had a point as people on public wifi could sniff your trafic. Now they can’t.

      • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        It only encrypts the data within the HTTPS packet. But where that packet is going is still transparent.

        It also doesn’t do anything for non web traffic. Email through SMTP or IMAP, FTP, lots of things don’t use HTTP at all.

  • FriendBesto@lemmy.ml
    2·
    9 months ago

    This is a bit of a misnomer. No one PC can be fully anonymized or fully private, even if the PC provided fake data points, they will still be technically fingerprinted. Having said that, having a browser that tries to spoof stuff like LibreWolf, Tor or IronFox is decent.

    The gains in using a VPN, among other best practices is that helps --assuming people do not log on to something like Google-- is to minimize the fingerprint of the PC to you, as a user. Assuming one trust their VPN provider, helps.

    Tor leverages the point of having all users look and be fingerprinted mostly as the same, so you get lost in the shuffle and crowd.

  • Shamot@jlai.lu
    2·
    9 months ago

    I just tried the Am I Unique site and I’m surprised by the amount of information the sites can have. Why do they know if I’m connected using 4G or 5G for example? Even using a privacy browser