
‘Fingerprinting’ to Track Us Online Is on the Rise - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/technology/personaltech/fingerprinting-track-devices-what-to-do.html
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badrabbit
Started reading this and aftet a bit I got this:

"You’re in private mode.

Log in or create a free New York Times account to continue reading in private
mode"

Ironic isn't it?

~~~
bittercynic
fwiw, adding

    
    
      0.0.0.0   samizdat-graphql.nytimes.com
    

to your /etc/hosts fixes this for me.

~~~
postsantum
I wonder how they came up with this name. Samizdat was a form of illegal self-
publishing in USSR

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safeplanet-fesa
Big online journals in terms of tracking are the worst. At the moment every
big online journal is worse than any overpriced boutique shop that uses all
kinds of filthy upselling techniques (fake discounts, spam, bait and switch,
shaming etc) including tracking. They even register and submit mouse events of
hovering it over some element, they appear to submit time duration of how long
a part of a page was within your viewport. If you don't use any preventive
measures, they will keep sending telemetry regularly as long as the page is
open. The inadequate amounts of tracking scripts increase traffic by much and
noticeably increase CPU consumption. Even without any throughout
investigation, if you use some local extension that displays the amount of
blocked scripts / DOM elements / requests, you will notice that online
journals are always further ahead than any other website.

Thus, the article is written only for the purpose of profiteering on the
current increased concerns of online tracking. It doesn't try to resolve the
issue even a little.

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mirimir
> What is it exactly? Fingerprinting involves looking at the many
> characteristics of your mobile device or computer, like the screen
> resolution, operating system and model, and triangulating this information
> to pinpoint and follow you as you browse the web and use apps. Once enough
> device characteristics are known, the theory goes, the data can be assembled
> into a profile that helps identify you the way a fingerprint would.

For real computers, you can just use VMs, and connect through VPNs. You can
have as many as you like, limited only by RAM. Or use burner phones, if you
must do mobile.

~~~
tinus_hn
‘Just’ use burner phones. Like normal people.

~~~
mirimir
Maybe normal people will need to use burner phones. If they don't want to be
tracked, anyway. I mean, they're like $10 or whatever at Walmart. And family
plans aren't _that_ expensive.

Do you honestly believe that tracking will become illegal in the US? Or even
if technically illegal, effectively policed? As, for example. robocalling is?

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hanoz
Presumably this is very illegal under GDPR, and any companies engaging in it
may as well start budgeting now for a 4% of turnover donation to the EU.

