Right. I remembered something in the last few minutes--a few OSes (and a laptop) ago, I was running a user agent switcher on firefox that spoofed the browser, OS, etc.
It got so natural, I no longer thought about it. I didn't re-install that, and just assumed things were the same as before.
It's not. :)
“I was running a user agent switcher on firefox that spoofed the browser, OS, etc.”
I’m going to have to look into this... Thank you.
But oh boy, it gets worse... A lot of servers (suspect all of them by now), websites, and Google 3rd party services on domain sites are also collecting our device ID numbers at login. Device recognition is the new standard for “security reasons” especially on shared server hosting. Google is even doing it through their services without the domain knowing they are. And I see absolutely no way to thwart this particular issue.
I would even go so far as to suspect security collecting facial security and fingerprint data from smartphones and other devices they are used on.
If folks knew how bad this has really gotten they would not even want to get on the net at all.
Wait, let me backtrack... “And I see absolutely no way to thwart this particular issue.”
There actually is a way. And I have a few sticks I use for this purpose. If you have a stand alone OS on a USB stick and run from it the stick instead of your box they can only get the device ID of the USB stick and not your machine. Using it similar to a “Tails” stick.