Sorry to post my shitty neofetch to this community

  • 1984@lemmy.today
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    1 year ago

    Google “Only spy the web” is highly inaccurate…they are everywhere. In every website, in your android phone, in your YouTube, in your Google drive, in your email, in your Google maps…

    Anyways… I will calm down now. :)

    • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s cute, people think their android os isn’t collecting an embarrassing amount of data. Even if you turn everything off but cellular, it still phones home with cellular tower triangulation, app usage, call history, general web activity, weather the phone thinks your walking driving or riding a Bike, device diagnostics, etc.

        • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Same, I wish there was a better options. I’m on android right now but when it comes time to upgrade I always try to choose the lesser evil and it’s hard.

          • Gamey@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you want privacy the only real option is to buy a Android phone with unlocked boitloader and use something like /e/OS or LineageOS, that will break a few apps but most of them work fine with MicroG.

            • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              To buy an android phone that is supported by one of those projects. My galaxy s20 isn’t and I’m not willing to loose Android auto and the ability to use my cameras.

            • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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              1 year ago

              Said Android phone would still use the towers and cellular carriers love selling customer data, because what’re you gonna do? Switch to another carrier that happens to also use their exact same towers?

              • Gamey@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Those can’t collect much beside my location tho and they aren’t allowed to here unless the cops tell them to, not perfect but a LOT better!

      • CCatMan@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I wish there was a paid google of no spying… I mean what does google one get me, but the ability for google to spy on more or my data?

        • deejay4am@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Everyone thinks about the spying as relating to themselves, the individual.

          Google doesn’t give a shit about you. Google gives a shit about us. Collectively. They can monitor the collective soul of the world. When people are busy, when they’re not paying attention, when they’re mad, who, and for how long; how they react to certain subjects…how to get them to listen about certain subjects, how to bring them around to certain subjects, how to keep them disagreeing with other viewpoints, etc.

          They’re literally developed “a remote control for the flock” and everyone’s out here like “why do I care if Google see my save games I have 500 hours in CoD so wut”

        • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          They’re really good at providing value for your data, I feel the same way about YouTube premium. I do it to better support creators and remove ads but they probably have one of the most detailed profiles on me.

          • KnightontheSun@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They’re really good at providing value for your data

            Perhaps you perceive that to be, which is totally fine, but how do you actually know that? We have no clue what that value truly is to them since they won’t share with us. If you are happy with what the googs get you, great (no sarcasm).

            Myself, I fail to see the value being returned.

            • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              To each it’s own, I’m trying to move away from Google too. I still think it’s a better return than you would ever get from Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon. There’s something to be said about most people being completely happy with using Gmail, YouTube, chrome, or search with minimal complaints. For a while we even got “free” unlimited storage for photos.

              • KnightontheSun@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Again, we have no idea of the value our data is to any of these companies because they are not transparent about it, but I agree that google does provide more than those others. Especially for me as I’ve eschewed FB for a long while now and have distanced myself from Amazon too.

                I am all over YT though until we can get a successor. Way too much good content there.

    • sag@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I use alternative for all google services.

      YouTube - piped.video

      Google drive - Mega Drive or Anonfile

      G-Mail - Proton

      Google Map - OSM (Open Street Map)

      • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Hence GrapheneOS sandboxing the Play Store. It is ironic that Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows for installing a different OS. But I suppose the fact that GrapheneOS has pushed security updates that have made it into stock Android and the fact that most users won’t bother installing an alternative OS on their pixel phones is why they allow such shenanigans.

        • Jamie@jamie.moe
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          1 year ago

          I use rooted LineageOS on my 4a 5G, though I do still have GApps on it. Next phone I buy I’m thinking I’ll give GrapheneOS a try. Leaving behind my rooted system level adblocking would be difficult for me though.

          • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            In regards to ad blocking. My solution isn’t as all encompassing as that, but for general web browsing, I use the Mull browser as you can install some addons like ublock and noscript. I’ll admit though if you’re looking to install advertisement heavy Play Store Apps though, I’d say maybe look into using a PiHole to adblock your home network?

            • Jamie@jamie.moe
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              1 year ago

              I mostly just use my phone for/at work. I already have a server that could operate as a pihole at home, but my PC already blocks everything under the sun, so it’s not really needed.

              I get most of my stuff off f-droid unless I don’t have any other choice, and use firefox with ublock+noscript on my phone as-is. But it is nice to not have to worry about getting ads in anything else when I do install an odd game or something, though.

              • boerbiet@feddit.nl
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                1 year ago

                What works for me is a pi-hole at home, a wireguard service on my (dd-wrt) router with the pi-hole functioning as dns server and my phone using wireguard as an always-on vpn.

                All traffic on my phone is now routed through the pi-hole at home, which filters out all tracking, wherever I am.

        • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It is ironic that Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows for installing a different OS.

          What do you mean by that? There are definitely other manufacturers that make it easy to unlock the bootloader so you can install other ROMs.

            • Smorty [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              Pinephone is the obvious one, BUT! Have you heard of FairPhone? These things also make it easy to install other operating systems on them. Also Beter for the climate ig.

              • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                I actually have a Pinephone from a few years ago (2 years now I think?). I never used it as a daily driver as it was very slow and had comparatively less features than the iphone and samsung phones i had had previously.

                Upon recently deciding on purchasing the Pixel 7a and installing Graphene OS on it, i did heavily consider the Fairphone, but I’m in the US and they only just started to come to our shores. The family plan I’m on wasn’t a supported carrier, so that more or less made the decision for me.

                The observation about the pinephone and fairphone being more environmentally friendly is intriguing. Care to elaborate a bit please?

            • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Motorola has always made it easy. I’ve unlocked LG phones, although not sure on how easy they make it normally. Oneplus is well known for being open to unlocking. I’ve done it with Samsung too, although you have to be careful with the model, US variants are very difficult to unlock and have very limited support, but my last phone was a US s10e and I did it. Otherwise the international Samsung phones are unlockable.

              • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                I stand very corrected. My apologies for not investigating this further before posting. I suppose i should rephrase my previous comment as:

                I find it ironic that Google allows its flagship product to be rooted with an OS dedicated specifically to limiting data harvesting of Pixel users.

                • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, it does seem counterintuitive, but they have to have some reason for it. If I were to guess it would be to keep goodwill with nerds like us. The way it stands, techies are still recommending Pixels, and that’s good for them.

                  But whatever reason it is doesn’t have to be much to have a better expected value for them. The amount of people that actually go through the process of changing the ROMs on their phone has to be so abysmally small that it is insignificant to them either way. And then the amount of people that take it the next step further and actually de-Google their phone completely is that much smaller.

                • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, that’s why I said the US variants are very difficult to unlock, I had to pay to unlock that s10e that I mentioned and it’s fairly sketchy. If I ever get another Samsung I’m going to get the international version.

          • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I don’t use Google Fi, but a quick search shows that many have gotten it to work with Graphene OS just fine. You can still install Fi from the Play Store, and it appears all works as intended as long as you grant it Network Permissions.

            I’d do research on it though if you’re truly interested. They have a link to their Matrix chat on their website where you can field general questions.

    • CCatMan@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      It would be fun if some government required companies that off free services to disclose how they make money and allow each user to see their particular value. This might help open some eyes…

      • sock@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        open their eyes to what? the fact it costs money to run a service? its either some data mining or everything costing a helluva lot more. and im sure youd complain about prices too.

        • AssPennies@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          and im sure youd complain about prices too

          A universal claim only takes one case to disprove, and I’ll be that case: you’re wrong. I actually seek out the pay services and cut out the “free” ones.

          My real complaint is when the huge companies offer a paid plan, but then still try to double dip and abuse my data and I. So I leave for the smaller guys who have an actual reputation to protect and so have garnered some trust. The hard part are things like google street view, or youtube, where competition is way behind due to the sheer inertia that incumbents have (e.g., creators using youtube due to the huge potential audience).

          Other thing hard to ditch for me is android, as I really don’t like how tightly locked down apple’s walled garden is - not being able to run real firefox with my choice of extensions is a showstopper for any mobile platform.

      • WldFyre@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        How much money do you think a single user is worth? I can’t imagine it’s anything valuable

    • gloriousPingu@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And not just google stuff, the big companies are for sure in exchange so if you do something on instagram, google will know it for sure.

      Therefor im trying to step away from google, here are my alternatives to the google services:

      Google drive -> Nextcloud Gmail -> Tutanota Youtube -> (im still using this) Maps -> Open Street Map Authenticator -> Aegis Chrome -> Librewolf/Firefox Passwords -> Bitwarden

      (All of these alternatives are just my own preferences and what I daily use)

    • m3t00🌎 voted@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      started uploading pics to maps as a ‘guide’ back in 2000s. G has sent me a few trinkets over the years(coveted lego phone stand). a level 8 guide, w/e that means. millions of pic views. what do I care. it’s a hobby. Moved a home phone line to Voice. Get email transcript of any voice mails. set it to do not disturb. phone never rings. voicemail or nothing. I use them for free. They use me. Or think they do coveted lego phone stand

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I’ll be switching to Lineage soon…

        Google forced my manufacturer (Fairphone) to effectively ‘disable’ the fingerprint scanner from android 13 onwards for the FP3. Our Lineage fork reverted that Google mandated change thankfully

      • _comfortablyAverage_@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        or if your device has a maintainer willing: EvolutionX. im surprised how painless of an experience this custom rom is. and it’s got no bullshit stuff in it either. fucking crazy. they even got ota support… it’s like oem rom experience, only, there’s no third party spyware installed(excluding GApps. but even google’s telemetry can be highly restricted when we install AFWall+ and use NextDns+Adaway along with it). it’s been years(close to a decade actually) since I’ve used an oem rom on my personal phone, it’s just that good

    • TheMadnessKing@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I have started to hate Brave with how much of their BS that they have added in the browser. Things like VPN, Rewards , Wallet, News and more. Heck, Chrome now seems better to me bcoz of all these features (bloat) they have managed to add. Same with Edge.

    • SimonSaysStuff@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Brave solves one set of problems… And replaces them with an entirely different set of problems. I’ll stick with Firefox.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Firefox is not safer. It’s just a different browser for people who don’t like to say ‘chrome’ in their mouths . It’s not really any different in the safety. It’s like how people think private browsing is private but it’s not. It’s just a comfort label.

        • Fireplant@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Do you KNOW anything about online privacy?

          Not using Chrome is a great first step since your browsing data isn’t directly fed to Gogle. Not using Gogle as your search engine is just the next step. Just by doing this you have mostly ridden G*ogle of the ability to know what you’ve been searching, but they can still get around.

          This is where using stuff like Firefox and Brave is important. Because these browsers come with built-in protection against trackers. But that’s not just it. You want MORE. Next up is installing uBlock Origin. Set it up properly and congratulations you just became essentially invisible on the web. If that isn’t enough then you’re welcome to use TOR or a VPN to completely demolish all good attempts at tracking and spying. In fact, TOR alone would be enough for most users.

          You fuckers always act like having privacy online is impossible or something when it’s really not. All it comes down to is user tech literacy and knowing what do to. I don’t want a browser that straight up listens on the mic to everything I say. NOBODY who knows shit thinks that “private browsing” is safe. NOBODY. That’s why using Firefox is just one step and not all of them.

          • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You fuckers always act like having privacy online is impossible or something when it’s really not. All it comes down to is user tech literacy and knowing what do to.

            And you elitist fuckers love to shame others when it should be made easier for users. Shame on you.

          • flamingarms@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            That’s a fairly simplified look at the whole picture though. Fingerprinting is a whole other beast, and Brave and Firefox and associated forks have varying and incomplete protections. For instance, only the Firefox-forked browser called Mull seems to effectively randomize data for canvas fingerprinting, whereas Firefox and Brave don’t have protections against it at all. Saying you’re essentially invisible on the Internet following your steps is pretty inaccurate. There’s way too much money in this shit; web services are fingerprinting on everything they can.

            • Fireplant@lemmy.world
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              I was talking about PC, it’s just cherrypicking to assume anyone who mentions Firefox as a private browser doesn’t refer to hardened Firefox. And for the record, I use Mull. Like I said, you just need to know your shit.

  • j4k3@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Stalking. Spying sounds like a kids game or movie. This isn’t observing. This isn’t passive. It is actively exploiting. It is predatory, targeted, manipulative, with intent. It is stalking.

  • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Apple fanboys will lose their shit if they see this meme. I sometimes dont understand these fanboys like apple doesn’t pay them nor does they credit these idiots for word of mouth free marketing instead these idiots pay top $ to buy their product and act like them invented it. Stupid mofos!!

    • nogrub@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      yeah i will never understand company fanboys they cheer for people that fuck them over it’s like putting your hand in acid and saying it’s good for you

    • ampeha@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well it’s more the fact that they have payed top $ so it can’t be a flawed product. That’s most likely why some apple users react in that fashion.

  • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think it is funny that this community thinks it knows everything about privacy and security and every time I see a post like this it becomes apparent that the main of this community doesn’t.

    I like the Fediverse but it is a security and privacy nightmare.

    • sag@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I know what you mean. It suck but whatever it’s better than giving data to a big company.

        • DrM@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          The important thing is: it’s not traced back to you. It’s possible to see everything for everyone, sure. But nobody knows that it’s you and that’s why it’s not as much worth

          • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s not how it works though? They don’t need to know “who you are,” because with ads you have a unique identifying number. If you are browsing the web and your ads become more catered to you then you are giving data somewhere.

            Privacy is about maintaining as little about yourself as personally possible. That is what gets me about this app. Half the users on here have very little idea how the Internet works. Privacy and security aren’t about going, “I support open source and decentralized software so the big man doesn’t have my data,” but that is not how that works at all. Just because you aren’t giving your data to Mark Zuckerberg and you don’t support Facebook doesn’t mean you aren’t exposing your giving data to someone else.

            I also truly don’t think Lemmy users realize how exposed they are potentially making themselves. Even if the API is free and your app is open source and it isn’t Elon Musk showing you your image of a cat does not mean you are private and secure.

            Lemmy services and instances are hosted on a server and use an API that is open to anyone and everyone that wants to host an instance and community. So instead you are entrusting your data to someone you don’t know on their hardware that you don’t know anything about.

            From a security and privacy point of view Lemmy is a nightmare. Mastadon, etc. Even if your data is encrypted or passed along secure channels and you can migrate your data to some other instances does not mean you are safe. That is not how the law works either. If a national government agency shows up and issues an order for their server data and that data isn’t protected properly by the host well then you are exposed. The people acting like they know something more because you decided to pay for Sync or because you want to use Windows or Google literally no zero fucks about privacy and data.

            • DrM@feddit.de
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              No, thats exactly it. When you post something on reddit, Google collects your browser information for your “unique identifying number” by having scripts implemented into Reddits site. Google then knows, that u/Prethoryn is your account and they can then collect the data from your reddit account and link it to you.

              But your Lemmy instance (so far) does not do that. You post something here and google sees that some “[email protected]” guy wrote something, but their data-collecting can’t link it to your unique identifying number, because lemmy.world does not collect that information from you. And of course, your comment is federated to thousands of other instances. But they also can’t sell more information than what is available when you look at Google. If lemmy.world decides to implement tracking, this of course changes. But for now, your comment is not linked to you and it’s definitely a step up in privacy (regarding companies) than before.

              The other aspect of privacy, personal privacy, is of course not so good on the fediverse and that’s where your points make valid sense. If you want to delete your comments because your friends discovered your secret account, it’s basically impossible because of the federation.

          • Jeanschyso@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Well technically I am using a Google pixel phone to access Lemmy through an app that I downloaded from their store, using the same phone and ISP that I use to chat with my mother on Facebook Messenger, shop on Marketplace, order on Amazon and check my mails. I also tried the connect-your-phone thing to read my SMS on the computer, so Microsoft also got in.

            Everyone knows everything I do at this point.

            • DrM@feddit.de
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              I don’t know where you live but in most of the world it would be illegal for them to spy on what you do in the apps. Yes, Google knows that you use Lemmy and also Facebook knows that. But they are not allowed to spy on what you do inside those apps and can’t link your account to your phone if you don’t use an app that sells this data (aka Sync)

  • TwoGems@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you’re forced to use Windows for some things, use Windows 10 LTSC. If you can’t buy it (because Microsoft refuses to let consumers buy a non-spyware version of their OS) then sail the high seas for it. It takes the telemetry out and you’ll have full control over the OS, can more easily remove Edge and can set your group policy and other stuff to completely block telemetry to your taste.

    • Flakfired@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      https://ameliorated.io/ is also a handy project for those that don’t want to tinker around with group policies and other tooling. I have been using AtlasOS on my gaming machine for a few months now and the experience and performance has been splendid.

    • j4k3@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I keep 11 for some machine specific settings. It is on a separate drive from Linux and it exists in a post internet age of behind a router that will never give it access to anything. If I need something for it, Linux will placed those files on a separate drive to manually carry them over to little double middle finger OS. Maybe it can have internet one day when it grows up and vomits all its source code in a bankruptcy… Assuming it is not to late to abort this little monster toddler.

  • z0ds3c@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    All you can really do is make the spying as difficult as possible. That’s really all we can do 🤷🏿‍♂️🤷🏿‍♂️

    • voluble@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      True. And unfortunately certain privacy measures can make it easier to digitally fingerprint you as a user. Also my mind is still blown since I learned about canvas fingerprinting. EFF.org describes it as follows:

      Canvas fingerprinting is invisible to the user. A tracker can create a “canvas” in your browser, and generate a complicated collage of shapes, colors, and text using JavaScript. Then, with the resulting collage, the tracker extracts data about exactly how each pixel on the canvas is rendered. Many variables will affect the final result. These include your operating system, graphics card, firmware version, graphics driver version, and installed fonts.

      These settings are different from one computer to the next. But they tend to be consistent enough on a single machine to clearly identify a user.