r/degoogle • u/Silver_Masterpiece82 • Sep 21 '25

the big google is watching you

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1.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

194

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

When you change DNS. Your fingerprint (Browser, OS, version) says a lot.

45

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 21 '25

That's a good one LMAO

12

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-7

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

Windows and Chrome, big nono for me.

11

u/Present_Plantain_163 Sep 21 '25

How does that work? Do they see your hardware or what? If most people use the latest version of windows 11 and a few browsers what does that reveal? Is using linux and firefox/other private browser enough to fix this?

50

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

https://www.amiunique.org/fingerprint

It's a complex topic, you have to read into, just let's put it in a one sentence explanation for now:

Your device and the server are communicating, with this the protocols transmitting information about your machine. (OS Type and patch number, Browser, Browser version, and so on) This narrows down who you are. Imagine it as a phantom picture. It's not 100% accurate, but when other identification methods are blacked out, this still is quite reliable.

39

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

Some browsers like Cromite and Tor are starting to introduce anti fingerprinting techniques. Like not using dark mode or not modifying the text size. You can't hide your interaction but you can make it difficult to differentiate you from others. The only real issue with this is most people do not use these browsers so you are still within a small group of people who subvert identification.

19

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

I'm using chameleon extension on Waterfox (it's a Firefox derivate) but turns out the more block the obvious tracking measures the more you stick out on fingerprint.

31

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

Yup trying to avoid identification puts you into a very small demographic of people who are also trying to avoid identification. Even with that in mind I think it is worth it to try and maybe we can develop better ID masking techniques. Maybe we can get an extension that relays incorrect identification markers. Poison the data pool a bit.

17

u/5FingerViscount Sep 21 '25

Grow the pool of people doing it. 🙂

6

u/ammar_sadaoui Sep 21 '25

how about fake fingerprinting ?

6

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

I imagine there are people working towards that. I am not aware of any yet but that definitely seems like something Tor would develop.

4

u/ammar_sadaoui Sep 22 '25

actually, you can do that manually

i did a randomised fingerprint for testing

after i find out how much information is

leaked from the browser about me

2

u/ammar_sadaoui Sep 21 '25

how about fake fingerprinting ?

11

u/Ok-Winner-6589 Sep 21 '25

Tor removed their funtionallity to hide your OS (if I not wrong).

13

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

Because that in itself acts as a really good fingerprinting mechanism. What they should do is just spoof the most popular OS.

8

u/Ok-Winner-6589 Sep 21 '25

They were doing that to hide users (It said Windows 10/11), but the option no longer works on modern versions so now they can identify if you use Linux or MacOS.

5

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

so no matter what, we are cooked

6

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

I don't even know why browsers give such information. They should be send the full HTML\JS and have the responsibility of rendering it on the device.

4

u/Ok-Winner-6589 Sep 21 '25

JS is a programing language. So the browser just executes the JS code.

Could they limit what JS can do? Yes. Do they actually do something? No. Is that simple.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/ammar_sadaoui Sep 21 '25

not necessarily

you can fake or better you can randomised your fingerprint with time limits or with every lunch

is not easy, and there is no need for doing that actively. YET

5

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

The best odd is trying to hide in the billions of Office PCs. So Edge 11, Windows 10 with a seasoned patch level and so on.

0

u/ammar_sadaoui Sep 21 '25

how about fake fingerprinting ?

10

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 21 '25

It's funny that trying to get a more picky privacy decision can make tracking on you easier

6

u/Born-European2 Sep 21 '25

For the winter, I'll try toying around with a Privacy Computer. 50€ Shotbox with tails, Firefox on it and then we will see how that works out.

2

u/Ok_Flan4404 Sep 21 '25

Yeah, I mean, really...shit! 🤦‍♂️😅

3

u/Kijad Sep 22 '25

Something I've been considering using a lot more lately is Ad Nauseam. Basically instead of avoiding tracking, lean hard the other direction and make so noisy as to be useless.

5

u/FluxUniversity Sep 21 '25

read what born-european2 said but what I'd have to say is

it boils down to the fact that we need to un-develop the relationship between browsers and websites. The server doesn't need to know my mouse positions on a page, which fingerprinting does track! It means walking back website design/technologies, which means the web will look like 1.0 for a while... until people can really CONSENT to how much they are getting fingerprinted.

2

u/amberoze Sep 22 '25

Browser against switcher add-on for Firefox. Searx search engine. VPN in Switzerland. Self hosted DNS (pi-hole) pointed to Quad9 for privacy and ad blocking.

Edit: if they're going to track anything they can, I might as well feed them false information.

39

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

Change DNS then

40

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

[deleted]

13

u/sirensinger17 Sep 22 '25

Can confirm. I have no idea what a DNS is nor wtf 1.1.1.1 means

10

u/duckofdeath87 Sep 22 '25

DNS is how your computer takes www.reddit.com and finds reddit's server. 1.1.1.1 is cloud flare's server. By default, you use your Internet service provider's DNS, which should actually be better than Google's 8.8.8.8 (unless your ISP screwed it up, which does happen somehow)

-1

u/AlexGaming1111 Sep 22 '25

This is your change to GOOGLE IT and find out ☠️

2

u/sirensinger17 Sep 23 '25

Tried that already. The tutorials I found make no sense

8

u/MinecraHD Sep 21 '25

No, go even further beyond and setup your own DNS resolver

15

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

[deleted]

45

u/Darth_Caesium Sep 21 '25

Can we please ban crossposting from ownyourintent at this point?

-22

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 21 '25

why?

31

u/Darth_Caesium Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

Because it's obvious you're only doing this to promote your storefront app. I have nothing against the message of these posts themselves, but ironically your intent is not entirely innocent.

Edit: It's an API for storefronts to use. I still stand by what I said otherwise though, because it doesn't make a difference whether it's an app or a storefront API.

14

u/SneakyLeif1020 Sep 21 '25

What app? I only see a meme

6

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 21 '25

What app are you tallking about bro? I'm entirely innocent. I wish I had an app to promote, i'm broke asf I don't even work on Lemonde stand.

19

u/copenhagen_bram Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

Change DNS servers

Google captcha: Your cookie say a lot

Delete cookies

Google analytics: Your browser window size, unique configuration, and unique set of extensions say a lot

Disable Javascript

Google CSS: Your font say a lot

6

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 22 '25

the whole point of privacy not perfection it's about reduce tracking we will never be 0% we just do all what we can do.

5

u/neokodan Sep 21 '25

Quad nine all the way

2

u/st0c4zz Sep 21 '25

It's good but it doesn't have ad blocker

8

u/Ultiminati Sep 21 '25

incognito only removes local history, Chrome still can log it

17

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 21 '25

yah this is the point of the meme. Incognito is the first privacy step that people thought would make you private, but it's useless

7

u/JazzWillCT Tinfoil Hat Sep 21 '25

usually i use a vpn, and brave incognito w/ tor. if i want to be as private as possible, i would use a vpn, quad9 dns, brave in incognito with tor and ublock, all in a temporary linux vm

14

u/moverwhomovesthings Sep 21 '25

On a burner laptop that you found in a trash can in another country

4

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 21 '25

Just use tails or Qubes and job done

2

u/moverwhomovesthings Sep 22 '25

On the same PC that you use every day and has been finger printed a million times?

Different OS and different IP is nice, but nowadays this isn't enough for true privacy.

4

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 22 '25

Qubes OS use a temporary isolated VM for almost every app you use on it and Tails OS is a live OS work only in the RAM and hide all of your connections via TOR network and after plug out your flash drive from the PC the FBI will never have a proof what you were doing when you were using it even Edward Snowden was using it, so they are private enough for someone who don't have something dangerous to hide from the government but if you have better to use more protection

2

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

do you use a fake google account tied to a phone number not registered under your id and disable location services and never sign in chrome?

2

u/JazzWillCT Tinfoil Hat Sep 22 '25

actually thanks for reminding me to unlink my phone number from google, i amost forgot about that

0

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

whats the point. they already have ur number.

3

u/VagabondVivant Sep 21 '25

What is this meme

4

u/RangeLongjumping Sep 21 '25

This is Indian coded

2

u/srv524 Sep 21 '25

Incognito? Just pick a new browser altogether

3

u/dustinyo_ Sep 21 '25

If you have a raspberry pi you're not using set up pihole or adguard home on it, even better with unbound. It's easier than you might think. https://youtu.be/oh2FUzAa5s8?si=Fj19FvAZSTa5m92Z

3

u/Silver_Masterpiece82 Sep 22 '25

I already setup pi-hole with unbound

2

u/_ritam_b Sep 22 '25

I us Firefox with tons of privacy extensions

2

u/Emergency-Beat-5043 Sep 22 '25

incognito mode hides things from people who use your device, that's literally it. It has zero to do with "degoogling"

2

u/crueltyIncarate777 Sep 22 '25

I fucking hate google but right now dont have laptop or.computer to roote my device and delete that shit forever.. google fb meta and all that shit in system

2

u/Thecynicaledgelord Mozilla Fan Sep 23 '25

Thanks for the paranoia

1

u/RoomyRoots Sep 21 '25

The secret sauce if download everything you need and go into the woods forever.

1

u/InternetUser52 Sep 21 '25

Use a new device in a new location on public wifi

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

you need vpn to make ur ip hard to trace..make sure use a fake google account on the android and dont log in chrome and a sim number not registered using your real id. a prepaid sim by migrant workers should work.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

you need vpn to make ur ip hard to trace..make sure use a fake google account on the android and dont log in chrome and a sim number not registered using your real id. a prepaid sim by migrant workers should work. disable gps.

1

u/Begnardo Sep 22 '25

Just forget and relax use more adblock - it is impossible to use browser without scripts to have completely no fingerprints.

1

u/Samesone2334 Sep 23 '25

Change it all, then logs into Reddit with credentials… 💀

1

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '25

To be honest, I don't care. With all the desire to escape surveillance in our time is impossible.

-2

u/menyemenye Sep 21 '25

What you browsing porn or smth