Internet is not a private place. Whenever you connect to a website, advertisements and beacons – both visible and invisible – tend to follow each of your movements. They will even take the anonymized information that they collect and create a profile that other trackers can use to identify you while you are surfing on the web. It's pretty dark.
Fortunately, modern navigators retaliate. Although there are certainly better options than others, most browsers have integrated confidentiality protections. If you know what you are doing, you can maximize these protections and install third -party boosters to keep (otherwise most) of your privacy on the Internet.
If you are curious to know how your browser accumulates in the competition, consult Cover your traces. I gave him a shot and I was surprised to discover that my super private configuration was not as anonymous as I thought.
What is your tracks?
Cover Your Tracks is a project created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non -profit digital rights group, and aims to educate users on two key measurements: how unique their browser is and to what extent their follow -up blockers are effective. The site pretends to load a series of trackers on your browser and measures trackers able to load. If your protections are strong, no more trackers will not take care of. If it is not, well, trackers in Gogo.
The site will load false trackers like the following:
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https: //trackersimulator.org/? Action = tracking_tally &Ad_URL= 123456
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https: //Eviltracker.net/? Action = tracking_tally &trackingserver= 123456
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https: //do-not-cracker.org/? Action = tracking_tally & random = 123456
The first link acts as an ad that you may meet on any random website. If your browser blocks “the ad”, it passes this test. The second link claims to be an invisible (or tracker) tag. If your browser blocks the “tag”, it passes. Finally, the third link acts as an area that respects the The effects do not follow politics. If your browser unlocks the scripts of the domain, it passes. (Why unlock the scripts? Depending on the efficient, so few sites choose to abstain voluntarily to follow visitors, that it is worth unlocking advertisements on these sites to reward them.) Partial credit is allocated to navigators that allow the advertisement or the loading tag, but block their respective cookies: allow the advertisement or follow -up that you can be followed, but post tickets mean. track track cookies, you can probably identify it.
These trackers are only effective if they have a sense of the profile they follow. This is where the uniqueness of the browser comes into play: covering your tracks takes a look at the fingerprint of your browser and compares it to its recently digitized browser database. It then generates a uniqueness score – the more your fingerprint is unique, the easier it is to follow you on the sites. Cover your tracks collecting and stores browser data anonymously such as your time zone, screen resolution, system language and system platform, among other data points, to compare with other users' browsers.
How did I score?
I am not necessarily an enthusiasm for hardcore confidentiality, but I like to protect my private life wherever I can online. As such, I use Safari as much as possible, with all the confidentiality parameters that I can activate. This includes the hiding place of my IP address of trackers and websites, as well as prevention of monitoring the cross site. I combine this with an announcement blocker (I use Adguard, but I would love if the origin Ublock would make an extension of safari) for a private web experience without advertising.
These minimum steps seem to have paid – at least according to to cover your traces. After treating my browser, the site concluded that I had strong protection against web monitoring. The tests have confirmed that my browser blocks tracking ads and invisible trackers, which is reassuring. The bad news, however, is that my current configuration does not protect me against fingerprints – a practice where trackers build a profile to facilitate the identification of you on the web. Covering your tracks, said my browser had a unique fingerprint among the more than 250,000 browsers they had tested in the last 45 days, which means that I left like a sore inch on the Internet. While trackers that my browser blocks will not be able to see me, those that my browser will miss, and they will know that it is My Navigator reading this article or watching this video.
I am actually quite surprised by this: Safari has “Advanced Tracking and Finger Protection Emprees”, which I keep activated for any navigation. The cover of your songs thinks that I have a completely unique browser profile is a bit for at least.
What do you think so far?
When I tried the test in my Firefox browser – with all its activated confidentiality protections, originally associated Ublock – it obtained the same thing, except for the fingerprint test. Unlike Safari, my Firefox browser is almost unique: a browser on 125,883 has the same fingerprint as mine, which, in my eyes, means that my Firefox browser is twice as anonymous as my safari browser, although this does not say much.
How can you avoid fingerprints on the web?
So it turns out that all the trackers that allow the defenses of my navigators are able to see me in full view. It's not great. Where are you going from here?
Unfortunately, it's difficult. Digital fingerprints are quite difficult to avoid, as the more you deactivate trackers, the worse the web becomes. As explained by efficiencyIt's a bit of a paradox, but after a certain point, you stop blocking the trackers that exist to follow you, and you start to block the elements that operate websites. If you deactivate JavaScript, you can prevent a website from following you, but you may not be able to use it at all. On the other hand, the use of too many protections can actually identify you inadvertently, because trackers and sites see that you are the only one constantly blocking all the time.
Far from being in a way of being completely deprived on the web, but according to the eff, the easiest way to attack the fingerprints includes the following elements:
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Use of TOR for your navigation, because the browser has a number of advanced anti -recking features
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Use of a hardcore confidentiality extension (EFF recommends the confidentiality badger and disconnection, or Owcript if you use Firefox. Unfortunately, none is compatible with Safari.)
All this said, I tried the test using Tor with “safer” confidentiality parameters activated, and I obtained the same unique browser score that I did with Safari. So, I increased the parameters of “sure”, which, among other things, deactivates JavaScript on all websites. I tried to run the test and I broke the website. You may really need to give up some privacy to use the Internet.
