Hello everyone! I saw that disabling JavaScript was good to prevent fingerprinting. However, something’s holding me up from doing so: since only a minority of the Internet users block it, won’t it make me more easy to identify?

Even if it’s harder to load trackers or fingerprinting scripts, what if one manage to load? Will the fact that I disabled JavaScript make me more “unique” ?

Thanks in advance for any help!

  • bjornsno@programming.dev
    21·
    5 hours ago

    I mean. Yeah, technically, but go on and try it. Most of the web won’t work for you anymore. And you’ll still be tracked by pixels. You can pair the disablement with a tracker blocker to get those, but then a good blocker also handles fingerprinting scripts, so then what was the point?

    • Buage_@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      I think that disabling JS is worth the price (imo), that doesn’t annoy me very much Also, I believe tracker blockers can sometime fail to block fingerprinting scripts cause they’re could come from unknown domain

      • ten8tp@reddthat.comEnglish
        6·
        5 hours ago

        Can’t review code if you don’t know how to. Are we meant to throw the source into AI and go, “hey is this safe”? While it may work, the time and effort sometimes isn’t. It’s literally being stuck between a rock and a hard place, so-to-speak. And before anyone says, “well, you should learn code”, I hear you. All due respect to those that can, I’m not taking the time because I don’t have time. I’m surviving from high gas prices, high grocery prices, higher bills (with for-profit companies reporting their best ever profits YOY), and keeping afloat. “Ain’t nobody got time fo dat.”

        • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          56 minutes ago

          Yeah, people don’t seem to realize that their technical solutions don’t matter.

          Tracking and privacy is a problem that can only be solved through legislation and legal means. Big companies have more resources and can work around any technical hurdle you throw up.

          Like they don’t even have to work around them technically… Oh you like the encrypted messenger? It would be a shame if they were able to make it useless by convincing everyone to just use their DM system leaving no one on your encrypted messaging network to talk to, wouldn’t it?

        • bjornsno@programming.dev
          5·
          3 hours ago

          Anyone who knows the first thing about web dev knows this is pointless. The scripts are minified and mangled so far it’s impossible to suss out what they do without hours and hours of deobfuscation per script, and it can often be hundreds of scripts. The only thing you can do is use blockers. They don’t try to understand what the script does, they operate by blocking known stuff and known bad origins.

  • Pomal@sh.itjust.works
    10·
    5 hours ago

    This is Information Theory at work. You’re compacting (n+1) signals, where n is any number between 1 and infinity, to 1. With javascript execution, anyone can get timing, webgl, location, device hardware access, etc… Without it, they just get a single bit that tells them to fuck off.

  • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    4 hours ago

    Why not use a security based OS on a thumb drive and boot into it for surfing privately. There was one I played with a while ago but forgot the name.

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipEnglish
    8·
    5 hours ago

    I don’t have an answer to your question but I tend to agree with what you wrote.

    However - is fingerprinting the only thing to worry about on the www? I’d say not.

    Disabling javascript by default is a good way to be able to click links without running the risk of getting pwned by some rogue script.

    Then I use an addon that shows me all the 3rd party shit the site would’ve wanted to load, and if it looks OK to me I then enable javascript. The addon can remember this if I want to, so I don’t have to do it every time for that particular site.

    Esp. with news articles js is often not even required to read the article itself. Or I can see content that becomes invisible when js is enabled.

    FWIW, the developers of Tor browser are experts in being anonymous online, and they disable js by default. While it might make me more unique, js has enormous capabilities in collecting all sorts of data from my machine, and - I guess - that’s why disabling it makes me more anonymous in the end. Just a hunch.