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Google moves away from diet of 'cookies' to track users
techxplore ^ | 02/07/2021 | Glenn Chapman

Posted on 02/07/2021 6:47:43 AM PST by devane617

Google is weaning itself off user-tracking "cookies" which allow the web giant to deliver personalized ads but which also have raised the hackles of privacy defenders.

"There is a machine learning black box that is going to take in every bit of everything you have even done in your browser and spit out a label that says you are this kind of person," Cyphers said.

"Advertisers are going to decode what those labels mean."

He expected advertisers to eventually deduce which labels include certain ages, genders or races, and which are people prone to extreme political views.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; cookies; google; privacy
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To: devane617

They could move upscale and use English Muffins or Bagels.


41 posted on 02/07/2021 8:21:07 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: 2banana

#4 Bears repeating.

Brave
Protonmail
Paid (”no logging”!) VPN (set to “always on.”)


42 posted on 02/07/2021 8:33:58 AM PST by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now!)
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To: devane617

“extreme political views” < > ANTIFA.


43 posted on 02/07/2021 8:34:00 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (FIBBERS: Earned distrust is disabling.)
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To: 2banana

Also: Search Engine set to DuckDuckGo.

(Ignore the conspiracy maroons who say “DDG is in bed with goo*le!” It disinformation. DDG is super private and safe)


44 posted on 02/07/2021 8:36:10 AM PST by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now!)
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To: FreedomPoster

#28: thanks!


45 posted on 02/07/2021 8:36:48 AM PST by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now!)
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To: IncPen
The algorithm can be fooled...

This is the ticket. Search for off the wall subjects, automate it. Play weird audio books like "The Hunting of the Snark", Dr. Suess, lectures by Chomsky in range of your phone. Soon their database fills with crap and becomes useless before they know it, their AI overheats.

46 posted on 02/07/2021 9:04:14 AM PST by dmcnash (Back off! I'm a Scientist.)
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To: devane617
'...and which are people prone to extreme political views.' Buried in the article is this little gem.

You have nailed the most important thing said here today.

Once they give us the Communist Chinese rating we are doomed. Surveillance plus totalitarian government crushes freedom and dissent. The end.

47 posted on 02/07/2021 9:09:35 AM PST by frank ballenger (End vote fraud, harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: devane617

Internet hosts use a variety of:

- personal data (including your online behavior) gathering
- non-personal data gathering such as device data

in order to keep track of you.

Take a look at the Tunnelbear VPN Privacy Policy:

https://www.tunnelbear.com/privacy-policy

That explains clearly, what an Internet host gathers.

T-Mobile also explains clearly:

https://www.t-mobile.com/privacy-center/our-practices/privacy-policy

Such Privacy Policies are lengthy, but those two Internet hosts spell out the details.

The mating of your

- personal data (including your online behavior)
- non-personal data such as device data

happens, because the Internet host can do that, and there are an abundance of other Internet hosts and services that work at making the connections between you and, again, your

- personal data (including your online behavior)
- non-personal data such as device data.

That matching and mating of data, is a special skill of Google (and others, including governments (including proxies used by governments)).

So, when an Internet host says that they do not keep track of you . . . they can and they do.

When the Internet host says that they do not store “your personal data,” that may be true; but again, they can and often do know where you have been on the Internet.

VPN services do know where you have been.

Internet hosts and services can know what you transmit - when that transmitted data is not encrypted.

In general, most Internet users seek convenience much more than the work required to make some significant effort at personal privacy.

Free e-mail services, cost you and everybody with whom you communicate.


48 posted on 02/07/2021 9:34:53 AM PST by linMcHlp
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To: 2banana
Brace phones home a lot. I had to block about 5 or 6 IP addresses in the firewall to stop it but it is undoubtedly still connecting out to its own servers.

There is a VPN in every browser: HTTPS. You should see a padlock to the left of freerepublic.com The only extra thing a VPN does is prevent your ISP from knowing which sites you visit. That's not worth $7 a month.

49 posted on 02/07/2021 9:45:38 AM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: UnwashedPeasant
camouflage bot to autosurf google and feed misinformation.

Would need to be a browser plug-in that everyone who wants to misinform google would use. Of course it wouldn't be labeled such, it would simply be a privacy plug-in. Wnat it would need to do is intercept the javascript that Google feeds to third parties to put on their webservers. It would not disable that javascript, but would feed it bad information. At the very least we could eliminate cookie-less browser fingerprinting.

50 posted on 02/07/2021 9:49:44 AM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: dmcnash
Play weird audio books like "The Hunting of the Snark", Dr. Suess, lectures by Chomsky in range of your phone. Soon their database fills with crap and becomes useless before they know it, their AI overheats

That may work for a few people, to some extent. But to get the AI to overheat we need plug-ins or proxies everywhere that feed back bad information. Big data can only really be fought with big bad data.

51 posted on 02/07/2021 9:55:52 AM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: palmer; 2banana
That should say Brave not Brace.
52 posted on 02/07/2021 9:57:25 AM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: linMcHlp
- personal data (including your online behavior)
- non-personal data such as device data.


That matching and mating of data, is a special skill of Google (and others, including governments (including proxies used by governments)).

Specifically, browser fingerprinting. I tested with Safari using https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/. It says "Protecting you from fingerprinting? Your browser has a unique fingerprint"

I tested with Brave using the same URL. It says
Blocking tracking ads? Partial protection
Blocking invisible trackers? Partial protection
Unblocking 3rd parties that honor Do Not Track? No
Protecting you from fingerprinting? " your browser has a randomized fingerprint"

I probably need to configure Brave better. However I will bet FR donation money that the browser fingerprint survives any VPN. The VPN has no idea if the browser is being fingerprinted or not. If somone has a VPN and can run the test please let me know so I can send a donation if I am wrong.

53 posted on 02/07/2021 10:07:56 AM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: palmer

Then I’d be fed ads for Camel Food but that’d be better than Google knowing


54 posted on 02/07/2021 10:21:48 AM PST by devane617 ('It's Only Donuts Ma'am')
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To: palmer

Device OS and basic Internet browser version info as routine packet info, probably exit the VPN tunnel enroute to a remote party (Internet host - your target).

Meanwhile, the VPN knows you because of:

- personal data (including your online behavior)
- non-personal data such as device data.

. . . when you establish the VPN connection.

Your online behavior will show at the remote end, but the task of matching that behavior with other personal data plus non-personal data, is a steep hill for the remote party.

Over time - while you remain connected to that remote party - if you spend enough time, the remote party could begin to match your online behavior with a large set of possibles.

With more time, your continued connection to the remote party improves the remote party’s chance of narrowing down the list of possibles.

So, probably a good idea to not “stay on the line” for too long.

-

Several tips on how to initially set up Brave Browser:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3923368/posts?page=114#114


55 posted on 02/07/2021 11:09:00 AM PST by linMcHlp
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To: palmer

PS. I am not certain of how various VPN services online, are set up at the remote end of their tunnels.

If a VPN has a proxy set up at the remote end of their tunnel, then your Internet browser info and Device info, may be hidden.


56 posted on 02/07/2021 11:18:06 AM PST by linMcHlp
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To: linMcHlp
The problem is that the VPN doesn't replace your browser, it is a proxy. A truly private VPN would pretend to be a browser on your behalf, making fingerprinting impossible. It would allow complete filtering of all code (e.g. unwanted javascript) while maintaining access to javascript-driven forums, etc. It's very difficut to write that kind of sotware and a moving target.
57 posted on 02/07/2021 12:05:56 PM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: IncPen

My sister does that a lot. I keep forgetting.


58 posted on 02/07/2021 12:08:06 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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To: linMcHlp
If a VPN has a proxy set up at the remote end of their tunnel, then your Internet browser info and Device info, may be hidden.

Yes, they set up a proxy. But our adversaries run their spyware in your browser, and it reports back. The VPN has no idea what software (javascript) it allows through, nor any idea what it is reporting back, The only thing the VPN masks is your IP and other stuff in the HTTP headers. Not very useful consideing what Google is doing in league with websites who run Google scripts for Google.

59 posted on 02/07/2021 12:08:43 PM PST by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: devane617
"fed ads for Camel Food"


Or camel butt hair grooming... >.<
60 posted on 02/07/2021 12:52:01 PM PST by Bikkuri (If you're conservative, you're an "extremist." If you're liberal, you're an "activist.")
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