Great idea: A web page that simply shows you the info your browser shares about you and your system whenever you open a web page.https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken

[alison@beige.party]

@petersuber Very interesting! Great share.

[meznor@mstdn.social]

@petersuber it got a bunch wrong about me

Browser, OS, ISP, battery. All wrong.

[kranzkrone@quasselkopf.de]

@petersuber
Indeed scary shit, that shows the everyday surveillance of the modern smartphone society got used to accepting as given without questioning it.

We're not on a way into a dystopia, already living it.

Even when I tried this Website with Firefox and strongly restricted rules, there was some leakage of data.

Vivaldi & Brave Browser wasn't much better.

I wonder how a Browser on GrapheneOS would handle this website?

#Privacy #Surveillance

[gwen@tech.lgbt]

@petersuber the EFF already made this years ago, with more features and much more usable, and also not made by some weird LLM company: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

[blackoverflow@norden.social]

@petersuber
Well, got blocked by Vercel (Error 99)...

If I can't reach the website, it won't get info from me.

[groxx@hachyderm.io]

@gwen @petersuber and without being dramatically ominous at every chance. I have no idea why so many people are sharing this.

[ramsey@phpc.social]

@petersuber @blogdiva The @eff also has https://coveryourtracks.eff.org, which seems less fearmongering and more focused on how to resolve your gaps.

[grumpydad@infosec.exchange]

@petersuber Is there any way to block or fudge that info?

[yacc143@mastodon.social]

@petersuber Hmm, “Your browser is Chrome.” Sorry, Chrome-based. Which is true for about 90+% of users not on Rotten Fruit️ devices.
Interestingly, my box will be almost perfectly fingerprintable via the iGPU and 4K touchscreen, sigh, back to LibreWolf for my private surfing, I wonder. Sigh.

[haraldki@nrw.social]

@petersuber

See also

Cover Your Tracks

See how trackers view your browser

(coveryourtracks.eff.org)

[yacc143@mastodon.social]

@grumpydad @petersuber Depending upon how brutal you want to be.

Basically it's called fingerprinting, and it comes with the joys of Javascript -> Javascript today is quite powerful -> but sadly that implies that it has access to quite a bit of your hardware -> and different hardware & software carry "information" in a statistical sense.

But yes, different browsers and extensions provide different levels of anti-fingerprinting support. Starting the extreme with LibreWolf.

[yacc143@mastodon.social]

But LibreFold in it's default setting also means that it will start in certain default window sizes (so the window/screen size cannot be used for fingerprinting), by default the Canvas API is disabled that many websites use for Image manipulation or rendering complex stuff, ah, and it defaults to reporting UTC as your timezone, so you get half the year the correct time if you live in London, UK.

And yes, the moment you start to customize your browsing experience with extensions, you become

[yacc143@mastodon.social]

again more fingerprintable. There is no magic here. The EFF site (if memory serves) has one useful aspect, it shows you how unique your fingerprint is -> how many browsers configs like yours showed up in the month or so at their website. If there are millions others, you are relatively safe. If there only 50000, less so. If there are only 10 other browsers like yours, … -> if it's unique, then it does not matter if you use a VPN or Tor.
That's why you should use the Torbrowser with Tor, btw.

[evilkiru@techhub.social]

@CTHW

The reason it got your location wrong is because what it's actually detecting is the point at which your computer connected to your internet service provider.

Mine was also wrong, but only off by one state. At other times, other sites that purport to know where you're located have been off by as little as half a county. Only once has such a site actually identified the township I'm in, but never the actual town.

@petersuber

[cthw@mstdn.ca]

@EvilKiru @petersuber

I use VPN

Works …

[nabor@troet.cafe]

@petersuber Nothing new, only a page that tries to scare people.
sinceyouarrived.world/taken claims to expose browser tracking – but pulls the very trick it accuses: framing mechanics as betrayal.
"Your device volunteered…" = HTTP headers.
"Battery API hidden from you" = Firefox removed it to protect you.
"Browser masked your GPU" = that IS anti-fingerprinting.
Protection reframed as suspicion, protocol as confession, capability as act. Outrage as aesthetic, not awareness.

[bund_sb@climatejustice.global]

@petersuber

"your attention is a commodity " ..

[rodrigofaustino@bolha.us]

@Meznor @petersuber What protection tools do you use?

[maggiejk@zeroes.ca]

@CTHW @petersuber it had my location as Los Angeles, which is incorrect, but then in the next paragraph it knew I was in the same time zone as New York, which is correct.

[cthw@mstdn.ca]

@maggiejk @petersuber
Same here.
And when I tried to input a different name for date/time it kept the VPN server time.