Ramblings of an old Doc
Fingerprinting Not Just Android and Chrome
Published on January 10, 2025 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

 

Your privacy...the last vestiges of it, that is, will cease to exist on February 16, 2025. That's when Google will start (really? I bet it's been going on for decades) fingerprinting every device accessing the net. 

"Fingerprinting involves the collection of pieces of information about a device’s software or hardware, which, when combined, can uniquely identify a particular device and user." - Stephen Almond, I.C.O.  

Google maintains that it now has "anonymizing" algorithms so effective your privacy is guaranteed. 

"For its part, Google cites advances in so-called privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) as raising the bar for user privacy, enabling it to loosen the shackles on advertisers and the hidden trackers that underpin the internet and make the whole ecosystem work. This, it says, will unlock “new ways for brands to manage and activate their data safely and securely,” while “also giving people the privacy protections they expect.” The risk is that this simply rolls the dark side of tracking cookies forward into a new era, and in a way that is impossible for users to unpick to understand their risks." - Zak Doffman, Forbes

Rubbish.

  • Privacy controls are built around existing technologies. When you choose an option on a consent banner or ‘clear all site data’ in your browser, you are generally controlling the use of cookies and other traditional forms of local storage. 
  • Fingerprinting, however, relies on signals that you cannot easily wipe. So, even if you ‘clear all site data’, the organisation using fingerprinting techniques could immediately identify you again. This is not transparent and cannot easily be controlled.
  • Fingerprinting is harder for browsers to block and therefore, even privacy-conscious users will find this difficult to stop. - ibid

That's even if you're savvy enough to know how to do that stuff.

Don't think MS is any less deceptive, Machiavellian nor invasive. Windows Latest caught MS bing spoofing Google's search page if you use a Windows computer, Edge is your default browser...if you try to search via Google.com, you get a bing search page spoofing Google. Check it out here. It's unbelievable. Instead of making a stable, eye pleasing OS which makes using a computer a pleasure, they do that crap. 

So...happy weekend, my friends. Enjoy your anonymity...lol...for a couple of more weeks, then just realize we're all no different than the goods on the shelf in any store, as your identity, choices, etc. all become We the Google's property to market as they will for their profit.

 

 

*all images are by Doc, AI and Ps...and not the fault of Stardock which has suffered my presence patiently lo these many years...


Comments
on Jan 10, 2025

It's time to get yourself a stable OS that doesn't even need to go online to update.... and stay offline.

Do all your window-shopping the old way...with real windows .... the glass ones.

I guess "Internet Explorer" was less evil-sounding than "Soul Extractor".

Antisocial Media is just that...keep away...

on Jan 10, 2025


It's time to get yourself a stable OS that doesn't even need to go online to update.... and stay offline.

Do all your window-shopping the old way...with real windows .... the glass ones.

I guess "Internet Explorer" was less evil-sounding than "Soul Extractor".

Antisocial Media is just that...keep away...

Too damned right.

What a sickening use for such a marvelous invention. That what should bring a cornucopia of benefit to mankind ends up being the vector turning people into the mercantile chattel of zeros and ones. 

Only Kafka could have predicted it.

on Jan 10, 2025

The last bit about a spoofed google.com is complete bollocks.  If I search at bing.com for google it returns a link to the actual google.com webpage, not a bing page masquerading as such.

on Jan 10, 2025

gevansmd

The last bit about a spoofed google.com is complete bollocks.  If I search at bing.com for google it returns a link to the actual google.com webpage, not a bing page masquerading as such.
I don't get that either. Maybe something they are testing for some regions?:

on Jan 10, 2025

gevansmd

The last bit about a spoofed google.com is complete bollocks.  If I search at bing.com for google it returns a link to the actual google.com webpage, not a bing page masquerading as such.

Jan Oscar


Quoting gevansmd,

The last bit about a spoofed google.com is complete bollocks.  If I search at bing.com for google it returns a link to the actual google.com webpage, not a bing page masquerading as such.

I don't get that either. Maybe something they are testing for some regions?:


Did you check the link in my OP (see below)? It brings you to video of that page which MS created to prevent users from going to Google.com, hoodwinking them into using bing disguised as Google. I'd suggest reading the article which the link takes you to as they explain what MS did.

https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/01/06/microsoft-bing-is-trying-to-spoof-google-ui-when-people-search-google-com/

on Jan 10, 2025

DrJBHL

I'd suggest reading the article which the link takes you to as they explain what MS did.
Well, I did. That's why I posted the screeshot to show what I see when searching for Google. No happy cheering Bing fans to see anywhere. I'm on Windows 10. Maybe that's why?

on Jan 10, 2025

It's not really all that nefarious. If you open Edge and search for Google, the first listing is Google, the second is google search - Bing Search, which takes you to the "fake" imitation search page.

on Jan 10, 2025

Jan Oscar

Well, I did. That's why I posted the screeshot to show what I see when searching for Google.

"Windows Latest observed that Microsoft is experimenting with this new design when people are logged out of their Microsoft account and search for Google on Bing."

You see a regular page either because they've discontinued it because they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, most likely. That's why the vids and screenies they took were so important.

on Jan 10, 2025

pelaird

It's not really all that nefarious.

It's a manifestation of the attitude that you aren't going to get what you want but rather what they want. Your intent is irrelevant to them because you are a commodity.

on Jan 10, 2025

On privacy and device fingerprinting.

It's unfortunate, but it seems to be the way of the future. I'm sure some of the Web browsers, who are dedicated to privacy, will come up with ways to make your device look more generic or less likely to be unique. Also, we can use other search engines that are dedicated to privacy, such as DuckDuckGo.

One thing I have noticed about the younger generation, is that they are more willing to give up privacy for convenience. I have two adult children in their 40's who are willing to forgo certain aspects of privacy in order to provide convenience in their everyday lives.

Just Google your name and see what information is out there on you. You will be surprised how much is available to anyone willing to search.

As Jafo said above, the only way to completely protect your privacy is to avoid the internet. How likely are we going to be willing to do that? We suffer if our Internet service is down for only a few hours.

There is no simple solution to this issue. Unfortunately, advertising paves the way to "FREE" content everywhere throughout our lives. Only if we were willing to pay for all the services we use, we could protect our privacy and avoid advertising all together.

on Jan 10, 2025

pelaird

On privacy and device fingerprinting.

It's unfortunate, but it seems to be the way of the future. I'm sure some of the Web browsers, who are dedicated to privacy, will come up with ways to make your device look more generic or less likely to be unique. Also, we can use other search engines that are dedicated to privacy, such as DuckDuckGo.

One thing I have noticed about the younger generation, is that they are more willing to give up privacy for convenience. I have two adult children in their 40's who are willing to forgo certain aspects of privacy in order to provide convenience in their everyday lives.

Just Google your name and see what information is out there on you. You will be surprised how much is available to anyone willing to search.

As Jafo said above, the only way to completely protect your privacy is to avoid the internet. How likely are we going to be willing to do that? We suffer if our Internet service is down for only a few hours.

There is no simple solution to this issue. Unfortunately, advertising paves the way to "FREE" content everywhere throughout our lives. Only if we were willing to pay for all the services we use, we could protect our privacy and avoid advertising all together.

I don't disagree. I think there's a shining future for anyone who creates an undetectable app which camouflages your computer...sort of a VPN which hides your machine or makes it into one very different from what it is.

duckduckgo gave info to MS, as it used MS software in the past. Tor is a good browser for those seeking privacy.

Is then our future to be akin to Neo's Nebuchadnezzar from The Matrix, hiding and disguising ourselves from the sentinels? How depressing.