Privacy vs Linux ??

[Moem]

Personally, I use a config hardened Waterfox with the following addons:
NoScript
uBlock (or uMatrix)
HTTPS Everywhere
Decentraleyes
Privacy Badger
Cookie Auto Delete

Ah, some serious overlap with my configuration. But why the badger, rather than the possum?
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/05/07/priva ... -steroids/

[PerfectGlass]

Personally, I use a config hardened Waterfox with the following addons:
NoScript
uBlock (or uMatrix)
HTTPS Everywhere
Decentraleyes
Privacy Badger
Cookie Auto Delete

Ah, some serious overlap with my configuration. But why the badger, rather than the possum?
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/05/07/priva ... -steroids/

Glad you reminded me. I was just too lazy to make the switch and then just forgot about it.

[DAMIEN1307]

Hi Moem...i cant speak for him since, but, thanks to you, i tried Possum.

I decided to keep using Badger only because im a total control freak on my own systems, Badger allows me the control to manually control all entries.

On the other hand, people i install linux for wouldnt have a clue or the time and patience to do it my way so i install Possum on their machines and can feel good about their protection without them "borking" their web browsing by mis-configuring things manually...its also a fine tool, just not manually configurable as Badger...DAMIEN

[PerfectGlass]

From Possum's GitHub pg:

"Why not Privacy Badger?

Privacy Badger is another privacy focused browser extension maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I worked for the EFF on the project full time for 6 months, and found that it's current privacy benefits to be limited. Adding new privacy protections was difficult, or impossible with the current architecture. And the project maintainers were not interested in fixing these issues."

https://github.com/cowlicks/privacypossum

[trytip]

from Privacy Badger:

When you install Privacy Badger, it doesn't block anything immediately because it needs to learn. This is a unique functionality

Privacy Badger watches which third-party domains appear to track you as you browse the Web. If Privacy Badger sees the same domain track you across three different sites, Privacy Badger will start blocking resources from that domain.

doesn't this mean that it has to report the sites you visit in order to interact with them?



i don't like the idea of something learning my internet habits , so i don't use it.

[DAMIEN1307]

i dont think thats always the case but sure that at least sometimes this has to happen on some small scale so these tools can actually work in "automatic" mode as im pretty sure that needs to be the case with Possum which is totally automatic and would need to learn as it goes as well...once either of them "learn" then its done, no need to ask or report further on issues already solved by them...

Badger it has a built in data manager in it that has a huge amount of, "blocked," "partially blocked", and "allowed", entity slider controls built in...i usually just purge them all and adjust on a site by site basis as i check each site to configure just what isnt needed as they occur...

None need to be fully "allowed" Badger and only a few need to be "partially blocked" which usually are cookie oriented...the vast majority can be totally "blocked" whilst still being able to view web sites, videos etc since they are ad tracking related entities that block totally what ublock origin misses...this is why i like manual controls...DAMIEN

[carum carvi]

I tried Possum and was amazed at the huge amount of trackers etc that were blocked at some sites.

However...
Zero trackers on my Swiss privacy guarded search engine.
Zero trackers on Wikipedia.
That's to be expected from such privacy minded sites, BUT then I visited youtube and there were none trackers blocked whatsoever. That's rather odd, because Google is suppose to be THE ultimate tracker company. But none trackers found by Possum whatsoever, making the assumption that Google is using other sneaky intelligent ways to recognize us visitors, which have been mentioned before on this very thread...

Therefore I choose to delete Possum again, because in the end there will always be new methods available to track and fingerprint online users. And I dont want to turn my Firefox into an addon christmastree without any concrete visible effects. Although one reviewer has said that Possum speeded up the loading of webpages. If that's true then I would reconsider using it for that positive effect....

[trytip]

my essentials for chrome:
CanvasFingerprintBlock
IPvFoo
Location Guard
Referer Control
uBlock Origin (with nano defender/nocoin lists)
uBlock Origin Extra
WebRTC Leak Prevent

my ublock origin after about 30 minutes of youtube


ps: IPvFoo is only to let me know the ip addresses of all the sites i visit and other trackers on that page
and WebRTC Leak Prevent is not really an extension since it doesn't use any resources or RAM but more like a backup if ublock fails to set webrtc block
(i do not use any privacy badger/possum and never will. they do the same thing ghostery and adblock plus did. make deals with advertisers to allow content they wish to manipulate) i also block cookies by default and add exceptions for login sites or video streams. this is the minimum i need
Location Guard looks more complicated then it is but it does have a learning curve, and needs to be allowed as an exception

i also have my custom /etc/hosts and use dnswatch
(if cookie controller for Firefox would be ported to the new quantum i would consider switching to FF, but only if)

pps: nano defender filter list for ublock origin https://jspenguin2017.github.io/uBlockProtector/ and scroll to the bottom of the page Extra installation steps for uBlock Origin
nocoin list (bitcoin blocker) https://github.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list and click the link under these words: Then click or import below link into your adblocker:

[Mike-Linux-Mint]

I tried Possum and was amazed at the huge amount of trackers etc that were blocked at some sites.

However...
Zero trackers on my Swiss privacy guarded search engine.
Zero trackers on Wikipedia.
That's to be expected from such privacy minded sites, BUT then I visited youtube and there were none trackers blocked whatsoever. That's rather odd, because Google is suppose to be THE ultimate tracker company. But none trackers found by Possum whatsoever, making the assumption that Google is using other sneaky intelligent ways to recognize us visitors, which have been mentioned before on this very thread...

Therefore I choose to delete Possum again, because in the end there will always be new methods available to track and fingerprint online users. And I dont want to turn my Firefox into an addon christmastree without any concrete visible effects. Although one reviewer has said that Possum speeded up the loading of webpages. If that's true then I would reconsider using it for that positive effect....

Personally, I have private badger and Youtube always shows like 15 to 30 trackers that have been blocked. I was using Firefox until a couple of days before I finally settled with Brave browser + Startpage as my default engine and Brave has Https everywhere, a script blocking app and a protection against fingerprinting already built-in so I feel like I have better control over my privacy. The Brave shields always report the blocked ads too. I only installed 6 open source apps to improve my user experience or remove some stuff like the Youtube homepage and sidebar suggestions, adblock for youtube for the adds as well as ublock origin for everything else and after having tested my browser on different websites to check its anonymity and fingerprint, now I'm pretty confident that no websites will be able to spy on my every move. I'm using the secure email provider Tutanota which is based in Germany, thus under EU privacy laws and whose privacy policies are real strict, nothing like gmail. I think I'm all set now. Still have to apply the same settings on my phone, though.

[DAMIEN1307]

hi mike...you will find that if your using brave browser, go into the "settings" and be sure that for finger printing, that you set it for block all finger printing since its default is block 3rd party fingerprinting.

you will also find that if using ublock origin and ublock origin extra, you will have no need for adblock for youtube...i havent seen a youtube ad for years...in fact by using privacy badger along with all the others ive mentioned, i have zero ads on anything, websites etc...brave along with startpage is the same combo i use and so far i like this combo much better than when i used either chromium or slimjet along with startpage...its fast, just works great...DAMIEN

ps...in settings on brave also be sure to that under "privacy and security" that you change the default value of "WebRTC IP Handling Policy" to "Disable non-proxied UDP"

pss...tutanota is a great emailer, also i find protonmail in switzerland quite good as well...its put together by some people from CERN and MIT

[Faust]

Reading the recent posts here , I see that I also have a lot of overlap with other members and their choice of add-ons
( I'm using Waterfox as my main browser ) .
I suppose that is to be expected on a forum where folks are generally well-informed and have chosen their add-ons
to do something useful and practical , and have avoided unnecessary browser clutter .

I should add that I run Pihole , so a lot of the internet bilge never even reaches my machines anyway .

Badger vs. Possum .... I really haven't looked hard enough at either ; I used Badger for years
and switched to Possum recently , but didn't notice much difference in performance terms .
I've read many arguments on both sides :-
" Badger is outdated .... phones home too much " etc.
.... "Possum does not give enough fine-grained user control ... "
Too close to call really , but I'll stick with Possum for now .

I take privacy , my right to it , and the protection of it very seriously .
And I'm with DAMIEN1307 , I highly recommend Tutanota and Protonmail

[Mike-Linux-Mint]

hi mike...you will find that if your using brave browser, go into the "settings" and be sure that for finger printing, that you set it for block all finger printing since its default is block 3rd party fingerprinting.

you will also find that if using ublock origin and ublock origin extra, you will have no need for adblock for youtube...i havent seen a youtube ad for years...in fact by using privacy badger along with all the others ive mentioned, i have zero ads on anything, websites etc...brave along with startpage is the same combo i use and so far i like this combo much better than when i used either chromium or slimjet along with startpage...its fast, just works great...DAMIEN

ps...in settings on brave also be sure to that under "privacy and security" that you change the default value of "WebRTC IP Handling Policy" to "Disable non-proxied UDP"

pss...tutanota is a great emailer, also i find protonmail in switzerland quite good as well...its put together by some people from CERN and MIT

Hey Damien,

Thanks for the tips.
I wasn't sure about Adblock for Youtube since it wasn't explicitly stated whether ublock was also able to block youtube ads but now that I know, there's no reason for me to keep a redundant app. WebRTC is also checked in ublock, too and I have installed "Trace - Online Tracking Protection" for extra fingerprinting protection and now the names of my browser and operating system don't appear anymore on any privacy online tool I've used.
Protonmail is probably the best choice out there regarding emails and Swiss products have always been associated with great quality, that's why I always use their servers in my vpn so I'll give it a try.

Thanks!

[DAMIEN1307]

hi mike...just 1 question you might be able to answer for me...what particular "privacy online tool" are you using to verify that it is working?...thanks...DAMIEN

[redlined]

hi Damien!

I see your questions were directed to Mike, however I wanted to throw this in there for what I trust as a very good test for fingerprint and the various issues around what folks do to circumvent fingerprinting isn't effective.

https://valve.github.io/fingerprintjs2/ (will need to enable site script for the test, google-analytics can remain blocked however)

This is linked from the privacy possum project and up until I had a few good rounds of tests I had been using privacy badger since it was released. and like you had tweaked it from defaults enjoying it's cool addition to uBlock origin, https everywhere, cookie-autodelete and NoScript as my trusted watchers and blockers (other than a blacklist I use with dnscrypt-proxy, recently removed decentralize as it was redundant). Since FF browser also tries to cover some of these issue (re- 3rd party tracking and cookies, etc) I simply disable FF being involved, reducing conflicts and allowing the extensions to manage it all (FF settings allow all cookies, etc and the uB/possum duo get to actually do their job, which they do, most impressively!

The trust I put into privacy possum I transfer from badger as a follow on of the same fellow working on it and his efforts are clearly seen in that fingerprintjs2 test and in comparison with other means to effectively control fingerprinting it stands far apart and ahead of the other players in the field, imho~

[trytip]

curious does Possum block or change webgl ? https://valve.github.io/fingerprintjs2/
webgl = not available
webglVendorAndRenderer = undefined
timezone = America/Chicago

been playing around with a new fingerprinting extension for chrome which is tough to control with too many advanced options and trying to compare. it changes most things even timezone, but screen resolution is still detected

[DAMIEN1307]

hi redlined...ok, i just tried fingerprintjs2 by clicking on the get my fingerprint thingy...i saw no change and nothing came up at all to acknowledge if it was working or not...i have all scripts allowed and my google analytics are always blocked...is this the desired results?...i should add that i also disabled "trace" for this test, just using my other protections for the moment...ublock origin and privacy badger along with "brave" browser protections...DAMIEN

[trytip]

userAgent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/70.0.3538.11
language = en-US
colorDepth = 24
deviceMemory = 4
hardwareConcurrency = 2
screenResolution = 900,1440
availableScreenResolution = 900,1440
timezoneOffset = 300
timezone = America/Chicago
sessionStorage = error
localStorage = error
indexedDb = true
addBehavior = false
openDatabase = true
cpuClass = not available
platform = Win32
plugins =
canvas = canvas winding:yes,canvas fp:data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAB9AAAADICAYAAACwGnoBAAAcu
webgl = not available
webglVendorAndRenderer = undefined
adBlock = false
hasLiedLanguages = false
hasLiedResolution = false
hasLiedOs = false
hasLiedBrowser = false
touchSupport = 0,false,false
fonts =
audio = not available

this is what i get from https://valve.github.io/fingerprintjs2/

@DAMIEN1307
sadly you have to disable ublock to get a valid test

[DAMIEN1307]

just tried it with ublock disabled...no dice...still the same...DAMIEN

[DAMIEN1307]

just tried again with all ext. disabled, and disabled all "brave" shields,...still show no results...DAMIEN

[Mike-Linux-Mint]

hi mike...just 1 question you might be able to answer for me...what particular "privacy online tool" are you using to verify that it is working?...thanks...DAMIEN

Hey,

Well, I've been using https://ipleak.net/ you can check quite a few details, IP, geolocation, the name of your browser and the OS you're using.
and there's this website too https://browserleaks.com/ip but it gets technical.
The app "trace online tracking protection" must have changed some parameters because those websites always tell me that I'm on windows. Linux and my browser are never detected. chrome-extension://njkmjblmcfiobddjgebnoeldkjcplfjb/html/options.html