RockyCRockyC@fosstodon.org
Aug 8, 2026, 10:18 AMThis is neat. A handy demo of how you can be identified and tracked across the Internet without a single cookie ever being set in your browser.
I didn't set a cookie. https://kuber.studio/cookie/
Replies
Aug 8, 2026, 12:01 PM@RockyC Well .... it got most details things wrong, and was only in general stuff vageuly correct ... so if that is significant for every visitor I guess we are still a bit safe without the cookies.
- RockyCRockyC@fosstodon.orgAug 8, 2026, 12:06 PM
@GoblinQuester It doesn't matter if the details are wrong. What matters is that they are consistent. That allows them to build a profile and follow you regardless.
- Aug 8, 2026, 1:55 PM
@RockyC True dat, if it is consistent ...
Aug 8, 2026, 6:37 PMExactly, if it is consistent. I randomize things like user agent, available fonts and cloak other things too. Plus, every new, unrelated tab is its own container. Other things... The bastards may still get me somehow, but not with the tools on this site.
Aug 9, 2026, 5:30 PM- Aug 9, 2026, 5:50 PM
@CppGuy
Yes, firefox has lots of plugins for this stuff - and use a lot of plugins! :-)
If you start with the LibreWolf fork a lot is done for you already as far as turning off/on the available settings in FireFox. Turning off canvas will break a few sites, but you can stick handle around those, if you really, really need them.
I had too many to type out for you, so I did something else, but you should be able to figure out what they do from their name.gemlog@maria 10:39:07 ~> cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/addons.json |
python3 -c 'import json,sys;obj=json.load(sys.stdin);
for (i, x) in enumerate(obj["addons"]):
print( x["name"])' | uniq | sort
Add custom search engine
CanvasBlocker
Defund Wikipedia
DownThemAll!
Earth View from Google Earth
English (GB) Language Pack
Fantasy of Lights - N.Lights Series 1
Font Fingerprint Defender
Galaxy Blue
Grab Scroll
IPFS Companion
I still don't care about cookies
Joplin Search Integration
Joplin Web Clipper
KDE Default Breeze
Language: English (CA)
Live Recorder
Mastodon – Simplified Federation!
Modern for Wikipedia
Neat URL
Nitter Redirect
OCR - Image Reader
OverbiteWX
Overwatch
Plasma Integration
Privacy Enhanced Mode for Embedded YouTube
Remove Login With Google
Show/hide passwords
SingleFile
Tab Split Merger
Temporary Containers
TinEye Reverse Image Search
uBlock Origin
User-Agent Switcher and ManagerYou won't need them all. Some are just for my kde desktop or my notes program for example.
BTW, I don't really want to defund wikipedia - I give them the odd dollar. But, since I don't have any cookies in every new container, they nag me over and over again and it bugs me. That extension just gets rid of the nag screen. Same with 'login with google'. I hate google. I don't have a login. I don't want to see that. I have an extension to accept all cookies, because they'll be gone when I close the tab. I'm sure you can figure things out. Hope this helps. - Aug 9, 2026, 8:52 PM
Thanks! I use a few of these plugins already, but Font Fingerprint Defender and the other plugins by the same author look very interesting.
BTW, can't #uBlockOrigin's element picker (or do I mean zapper?) get rid of Wikipedia begging messages without the need for a separate plugin?
You might look at #ConsentOMatic as a replacement for "I don't care…”. Instead of just dismissing the dialogue box with an OK, it denies the site permission to track you and sell your information to advertisers. It's an easy way to improve privacy, at least while you're visiting sites that obey the law.
- Aug 9, 2026, 9:03 PM
@CppGuy
Well, 'do not track' is simply ignored and becomes part of your fingerprint.
It's very possible that ublock can do that, but I just leave it at defaults; they know better than me. That tiny extension to deny goog has been working fine for years and you know the old adage ;-)
Ditto for the Wikipedia thing.
My box[1] is smoking hot as far as I'm concerned, so they aren't hurting anything. I'm very pleased with how this box works.[1] It's from 2017. I bought it a few years ago used for ~300CAD. It came w/ 32GB RAM and an SSD and I hung some extra rust drives off it. At this point, no one needs to bring new pc's into the world.
Behind me, as I write, I have 6 laptops I'm installing. One is even windows XP! They range up to win7 and win8. Of course, I will blow all that µsoft stuff away and install.. something. Depends. The XP lappy could get Haiku. The rest will get linux. Then I'll give them away to seniors and cfg for them. Just because µsoft turned them into slow garbage, doesn't mean they have to stay that way :-) It helps that I don't know any elderly gamers though ;-) - Aug 9, 2026, 9:43 PM
#ConsentOMatic doesn't set the "do not track" flag: instead, it works through what are misleadingly called cookie pop-ups, answering No rather than OK.
The reason it matters is that — as we saw at the top of the thread — sites use all sorts of ways to fingerprint and track you, and clearing cookies won't stop them. Clicking No on a cookie pop-up, at least for law-abiding sites, will stop them.
- Aug 9, 2026, 9:56 PM
@CppGuy
OK, now name me some law abiding websites? :-)
It's not a law. They can ignore the request the same as crawlers have ignored robots.txt for decades.
In any case, we start with a new session and new random fingerprint each time, so it's moot. IMO, maybe you know something more. IDK. I'm always willing to learn - I'm not the brightest candle on the cake.
Everyday is a new day, if you randomize things that leak from your browser and use containers in new tabs.
Every time I go straight to youtube it shows me...
Nothing.
It prompts me to search for something, so it can 'help' me :-)
If goog's yt can't fingerprint me then who can?
I'm going to stick with what is working. At least, for me.
A VPN would help maybe. Sometimes I ssh tunnel into one of my servers in germany and give firefox 9999 as a proxy, just for fun, which is kind of similar. It's fun to search for 'restaurants near me' and get back e.g. all berlin addresses.
Other than that, I think I'm doing all I can? Pihole, ublock... and all the rest. - Aug 9, 2026, 10:51 PM
No, really, it's the law. Under #GDPR, an organisation must rely on one of seven legal bases for handling personal data. Since no other basis applies to most of what a typical Web site does, it must rely on consent. Since no reasonable person would consent to what most Web sites do, they respond in two ways:
- By being as opaque as possible about the way they (ab)use your data;
- Until a recent clampdown, by using intrusive popups that made it more difficult to deny consent than to provide it.
IANAL, so I'll let you judge whether #consent extracted in this way is valid.
If you click OK to a cookie popup — which would better be termed a consent popup — you are giving legal consent for your data to be abused. It's better, surely, to deny consent at every opportunity. That way, when technical measures fail, you (usually) have legal measures to back you up.
Malcolm Herbertmherbert@chinwag.orgAug 8, 2026, 1:20 PM
BearinaBearina@sunny.gardenAug 8, 2026, 5:38 PM
Aug 9, 2026, 5:51 AM@RockyC I always run browsers in a VM to protect core system security, and connect via a VPN. This site didn't make a very good fingerprint.
🙂The typing fingerprint is impressive, though.
GinaGina@fosstodon.orgAug 9, 2026, 4:23 PM@RockyC I feel judged 😅
