Heyha !
This is probably going to be long take and it’s late here in europe… So for those who bare with me and are ready to read through my broken English, thank you.
I’m personally concerned about how my data and my identity is used against my will while surfing the web or using/hosting services. Self-hoster and networking enthousiast, I have some entry/medium security infrastructure.
Ranging from self-hosted adblocker, dns, router, vlans, containers, server, firewall, wireguard, VPN… you name it ! I was pretty happy to see all my traffic being encrypted through wireshark and having what I consider a solid homelab.
Also having most undesired dns/ads blocked with adguard in firefox with custom configuration, blocking everything, and changing some about:config options:
- privacy.resistFingerprinting
- privacy.trackingprotection.fingerprinting.enabled
- …
I though I had some pretty harden security and safe browsing experience, but oh my I was wrong…
From pixel tracking, to WebRTC leaking your real ip, fonts fingreprinting, canvas fingreprinting, audio fingerprinting, android default keyboard sending samples, ssl certificate with known vulnerabilities…
And most of them are not even some new tracking tech… I mean even firefox 54 was aware of most of these way of fingerprinting the user, and it makes me feel firefox is just another hidden evil-corp hiding with a fancy privacy facade ! Uhhg…
And even if you somehow randomize those fingerprint, user-agent and block most of those things, this makes you stand out of the mass and makes you even easier to track or fingerprint. Yeah something I read recently and it actually make sense… the best way to be somehow invisible is actually to blend into the mass… If you stand out, you are pretty sure to be notices and identified (if that makes sense :/)
This really makes me depressed right now… It feels like a losing battle where my energy is just being wasted to try to have some privacy and anonimity on the web… While fighting against the new laws ringing on our doors and big tech company always having two steps ahead…
I’m really asking myself if it really matters and if it actually make sense to use harden technology or browsers like arkenfox or the tor browser whose end node are mostly intercepted by private institutions and governemental institutions…
I’m probably overthinking and falling into a deep hole… But the more i dig into security and privacy, the more I get the feeling that this is an already lost battle against big tech…
Some recent source:
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Do not overthink they want to know about you everything.
That’s true, they probably already have everything they need… It’s not only about my personal data, and my example only points out to the web technology, but everywhere around us are some data hoarding devices that are either used to targeted ads, campaign, profiling, IA dataset feeding… whatever !
It feels like we already lost our right to privacy and how personal data, telemetry is used as a whole in our society…
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My mindset is that, if they make me work so hard to be private, I’m gonna do all in my power to make sure they work even harder to get my data.
Is this about browsers or about privacy in general?
But your privacy should be tailored to your specific threat model and desires. Or, you can choose to be private as possible while keeping your convenience, and slowly be more private. You should not just be hardcore and right away. This will leave you feeling hopeless.
As far as browsers, i recommend Librewolf or mullvad browser, or Brave for Chromium. You do not need to use TOR for everything. A good quality VPN like mullvad vpn or proton is more than sufficient for most people.
This post was about browsers but my feelings when I wrote It was a more general “conclusion”. I only found out recently about some “hidden” privacy concerns with browsers (WebRTC leaking your real ip, fonts fingreprinting…) But when I found out about android’s default keyboard sending samples, IOT weaknesses, smart devices data hoarding… It really feels like a losing battle while being connected to the world…
yeah the android thing is a huge privacy hole. getting a custom OS like Lineage, Calyx, or Graphene should be in everyone’s top 3 first things to do. it will plug a lot of holes.
dont worry. this step isnt super difficult, definitely not a losing battle. just take it one step at time! i did the same, and i feel like im in a good place now, so it’s definitely doable :)
My model is more about the ability to surf the web without SPAM coming at me from all possible sides and avoiding services like Google Drive, iCloud etc not much because of the data privacy aspect but more because I don’t to become hostage of one of those companies because they’ll decide to charge more and/or lock me out of my account without any way to get back to it.
Doing things like self-hosting, using ungoogled chromium, LibreWolf and a bunch of the extensions listed by others fixes the “SPAM and hostage issue” with the added bonus of some privacy.
I’ve kind of come full circle on all this to where I no longer care. The slippery slope arguments are largely hypothetical imo…Google knows some stuff about me and attempts to show me ads, the vast majority of which I block, so what?
I pay taxes, have a social security number, my bank and credit card companies know my purchase history, the credit bureaus know my mortgage payment and lender, etc…
The myth of an off the grid life is exactly that, a myth. And what does it achieve for you other than some vague sense of idealistic pride?
Google provides tremendous utility to the world essentially for free; its search engine, maps, mail client apps, browser, etc. are tools billions of people use every day. How do they maintain a global network of data centers and localize their products to hundreds of languages…none of that is free. If big companies want to give them money in an attempt at to get me to pay attention to them then so be it, let them finance it. Imagine if only those who could afford to pay could use these tools.
It doesn’t have to be black and white. As many comments have already mentioned, it all depends on your threat model. Sure, it’s literally impossible to be completely private or anonymous unless you never go online and live like a hermit, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to minimize what personal information companies get from you. You can still care about your private data while at the same time not sacrificing convenience.
Pretty much this. I get the “you don’t know what the bad guys will criminalize next” argument, but I have a hard time seeing it, when it comes to my browsing patterns.
If you don’t protect yourself they will easily find you because of the information you leave everywhere, if you go full privacy mode you will stick out like a sore thumb and they will find you too but at least they don’t have much info.
Glad you asked.
South Carolina is offering free genetic profiling that does a full sequence and gives you health information and ancestry. My wife shared it to me and waited for me to go off about handing that information over to the government.
I didn’t even blink before saying let’s do it. Privacy is an illusion. Anyone that wants my DNA can get it by grabbing a discarded cigarette butt. The police do need warrants because they can just buy whatever information they want on you.
In the open source software movement “information wants to be free”. That applies to personal private information too.
Anyone that wants my DNA can get it by grabbing a discarded cigarette butt.
Stop smoking, that is bad for your health no matter what your DNA profile says
You’re psychotic and have quire possibly screwed any children you have out of health insurance in the near future. Congratulations.
When I went to the doctor about getting vasectomy they asked “Are you sure you don’t want to have any children?” “I decided at 13 that I should never have children. I knew that a 18 no doctor would touch me. I’m now 40 and you can’t argue with me.”
My wife made the same choice when she was 24. There will be no children. We have covered that on both ends.
Well thats good at least.
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- Use DoT
- Use Librewolf
- TOR has been compromised, use it sparingly.
Understand the fight. We have three major pipelines for leakage of inferences/data on the internet:
- IP
- Metadata
- Content we produce
How has tor been compromised? I know windows defender was throwing a false-positive for a trojan after an update back in September but that’s all I’ve heard
The NSA has always had multiple 0-days for TOR, but that’s beside the point. The current rumour is that the NSA controls more than half of the traffic on the TOR network, courtesy of them owning a massive number of high-performance nodes.
I’m going to read more on how i2p works, but if I see more NSA involvement I’m bucking out of that too
Don’t get stuck into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness or perfectionism! So :
- every step counts
- even if you are not entirely private in anything you do, you can still be more or less exposed
- you are not alone in that struggle, we ALL are, from CEOs to politicians to random folks, we are all threatened and must help each other
- alternatives DO exist (as a personal example, I don’t use Google, WhatsApp, TikTok, etc) and enjoyable
- it’s not just technical but also psychological. If you focus on the technology it can be daunting, if you focus on usage it gets easier, ideally you combine both while insuring you don’t burn out.
You can do it, WE can do it! :D
