Discussions regarding the technical implementation of device fingerprinting are perfectly on topic IMO.
The ethical nature of such technology is another subject of debate and is probably better on plug-talk. Conversations like this can split both ways ;) My somewhat toxic rant largely revolves around the articles blatant misunderstanding of how anonymity works. He made a perfectly sane statement about data collection/aggregatioon and then proceeded to make a completely contradictory claim. -Ben ------- Original Message ------- On Sunday, February 26th, 2023 at 4:08 PM, Russell Senior <russ...@personaltelco.net> wrote: > Although the idea of browser fingerprinting was not new to me, I did find > the link to https://panopticlick.eff.org/ interesting and somewhat > illuminating. > > Followups should (?) probably go to plug-talk. > > -- > Russell Senior > russ...@personaltelco.net > > On Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 3:42 PM Ted Mittelstaedt t...@portlandia-it.com > > wrote: > > > Unfortunately my experience in "technical blog posts" is that most of them > > are crap, they are put together by people who run scraping software that > > rips off content from other people's sites then assembles it to try to make > > money off advertising on their sites. > > > > Unless the technical post is part of a forum that has a lot of > > participation on it to where people with more knowledge/experience can > > either add to it or refute it, usually it's just not that good. > > > > Ted > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: PLUG [mailto:plug-boun...@lists.pdxlinux.org] On Behalf Of Ben > > Koenig > > Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2023 1:19 PM > > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group plug@lists.pdxlinux.org > > Subject: Re: [PLUG] [PLUG-TALK] How do web servers identify visitor > > devices? > > > > None of this is news. That entire blog post looks like it written to > > appeal to someone who spent the last 30 years not asking how the internet > > works then freaking out after realizing what is possible. No joke, I read > > the following quote from that article and nearly fell out of my chair. > > > > "What’s ironic about device fingerprinting is that the more > > privacy-centered add-ons you install on your browser (e.g. Privacy Badger, > > Do Not Track Me, Ghostery to name a few) in a bid to protect the remnants > > of your privacy, the easier it becomes to identify you because of the > > uniqueness of your browser’s configuration." > > > > ROFLMAO. It's so brilliantly stupid that it cannot be refuted by logical > > means. That whole article is an accurate example of human intelligence > > after decades of inadvertent lead exposure. Nice. > > > > -Ben > > > > ------- Original Message ------- > > On Sunday, February 26th, 2023 at 10:21 AM, Ted Mittelstaedt < > > t...@portlandia-it.com> wrote: > > > > > Why is this even necessary to look at nonsense like the plugins, both > > > HP, Dell, and Lenovo computers make their motherboard serial numbers > > > available via BIOS calls and those serial numbers are unique. Hard disks > > > also have unique serial numbers and of course the LAN MAC addresses and > > > Bluetooth BD_ADDR are unique. The machine's ARP cache is not protected > > > either so if they really want to fingerprint they can look at the netmask > > > in use, setup a loop and ping every IP in the network then pull all the > > > MAC > > > addresses out of the ARP cache and then if they really want to get clever > > > they can match the MACs and see if any other machines on the local network > > > that they have fingerprints for are online. > > > > > > The entire hoo-ha over Intel putting serial numbers in it's CPUs a few > > > years back was complete baloney, a red herring to distract the masses. > > > > > > The clearcode article is just barely scraping the surface and what they > > > say is being collected sounds like amateur hour. > > > > > > Ted > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: PLUG [mailto:plug-boun...@lists.pdxlinux.org] On Behalf Of > > > Michael Rasmussen > > > Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2023 10:46 AM > > > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group p...@pdxlinux.org > > > > > > Subject: Re: [PLUG] [PLUG-TALK] How do web servers identify visitor > > > devices? > > > > > > Fingerprint computes avail themselfs to a variety of items that, taken > > > together, come close to uniquely identifing your computer. > > > > > > From: > > > > https://clearcode.cc/blog/device-fingerprinting/#What-information-is-collected-to-create-a-device-fingerprint > > > > > They list: > > > > > > * IP address > > > * HTTP request headers > > > * User agent string > > > * Installed plugins > > > * Client time zone > > > * Information about the client device: screen resolution, touch support, > > > operating system and language > > > * Flash data provided by a Flash plugin > > > * List of installed fonts > > > * Silverlight data > > > * List of mime-types > > > > > > For more information you can check out the description of it on > > > Wikipedia: > > > > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_fingerprint > > > > > > * Timestamp > > > * > > > > > > -- > > > > > > Michael Rasmussen > > > Be Appropriate && Follow Your Curiosity
