The only real advantage you gain is being able to watch things outside your region. Without lots of work, you’re pretty easily traceable on the modern internet.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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I remember in 1996 my neighbor was in one of these fancy new things on the internet called a "chat room".
He got into an arguement with someone. It got heated. Until the other guy threatened to show up at my neighbors house.
My neighbor scoffed and laughed.
Then the guy put in my neighbors real address. To this day, that still scares me. And back then internet crime wasn't taken seriously. In fact doxxing back then may not yet have even been a crime.
FYI:
https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/doxxing-free-speech-and-first-amendment
In the US, "doxxing" laws are pretty much state-by-state and many may be violating the first amendment.
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Most vendors are not going to trace you like that. They can, but it’s actually kind of nontrivial and not “easy.”
I’m more thinking about government. I gave up on trying to avoid ad tracking forever ago. But if you think a VPN keeps you safe posting “anonymously”, it doesn’t. That’s more what I’m referring to.
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If the NSA wants you, they will get you. But I can hide from most of you with just a little email relay and a VPN
It's always kind of funny when the Technology folks wade into well-researched and well-worn Privacy territory.
Do you want to not wave a giant flag of your activity to Google, Meta, MS, and your ISP when you do literally anything online? Either use a VPN and Mullvad (or Librewolf, but YMMV) browser, OR a VPN and Tor OR Tor with an https bridge if paying for a VPN will make you a target (Tor bridges are not for casuals, save them for those in genuine need).
VPN locations need to be changed. Frequently. Router level VPN at home becomes your "This is me" location, then make use of VPNs on each device when you want an extra layer of obfuscation.
There's not a lot of middle ground at this point, and it's not difficult.
Does that mean my ISP can still detect if I'm going to websites they don't approve of if I'm using Mullvad as my VPN but using Firefox as my browser?
Your ISP can’t tell who you are contacting if you are using a VPN, but websites will track you by other means.
Ok, cool. It was mainly my ISP I was worried about.
Would be useful for me to find a browser that obfuscated fingerprinting efforts too though.
If you use addons like Ublock-origin. You can reduce the fingerprinting. You can also disable 3rd party iframes, disable Javascript which can further reduce the data being sent to websites.
No, with a VPN the only thing your ISP sees is you connecting to a VPN server IP.
But browser finger printing, on the other hand, can identify you to every website you visit, due to info your browser hands over to every website... Such as OS version, Resolution, installed Plugins, browser settings, geolocation info, etc..which is often unique enough to identify you out of the whole of the internet.
Ironically, locking your browser down with more security features/settings/plugins often makes you more identifiable. Cause capitalism is god damned sure they are gonna track you and monetize the hell out of your information, whether its via your name, your user name, or just your digital fingerprint.
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No
Router level VPN at home becomes your "This is me" location
You and a thousand other people.
Yeah, but fingerprinting is effective by cross referencing.
There are 1,000 people with the IP 1.2.3.4
There are 500 people with the IP 1.2.3.4 using Firefox
There are 25 people with the IP 1.2.3.4 using Firefox with a 1440p screen
There are 2 people with the IP 1.2.3.4 using Firefox with the dark reader extension with a 1440p screen at 75Hz
etc.
So rotating the IP can screw with that.
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This is why you use a separate browser for different activities and don't cross contaminate.
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I'm not looking to be anonymous, I want access to Stargate Atlantis that Amazon Prime is geo blocking from me.
For that, VPN works as advertised.
Yep. That's how I watch F1 too.
Does anyone know if Firefox's claimed Anti fingerprinting technology is any good?
it's useless. test it out with creepjs
Pfft, I have 12 firewalls, good luck decrypting these. 🤓
I'll just get 3 hackers to my keyboard, just wait.
Good luck I'm behind 7 proxies
I’m here with multi-hop VPN with the first two hops staying in-country and the rest all random + a shit load of DNS blocking lists and browser extensions + blocking Google. I use different VPN providers too. I’m also introducing variable delays to my traffic to make NetFilter data less helpful.
Please understand that browser extensions make you more easy to track. I used to be under the same assumption, but uBO is as far as you should go. fingerprints include your extensions.
My thinking is that most of the fingerprinting is happening by third parties, and where it’s the website operators themselves I’m not super concerned about being fingerprinted.
That depends on whether your browser exposes them, and if/how they affect your fingerprint. If you go to deviceinfo.me it will show you what your browser is exposing.
Hops don’t matter at all against fingerprinting, which includes things like fonts you have installed, the os, os version number, browser version, extensions, some browser settings/flags, timezone, keyboard layout, your screen resolution, dpi, and what ever the crap the ”canvas” has stored. So pretty much no matter what you do, you’re unique.
You can use some browsers that resist fingerprinting but guess what, those are so rarely used that again you shine like a beacon. I’m still yet to find an browser extension that would fake all my fingerprint parameters by setting them as what is the most common one in each category. So a Windows user running latest Chrome full screen on Fullhd monitor.
And there is nothing stopping websites running the fingerprinting services and scripts on their own server, albeit most rely on third parties for convenience, and these at least can be blocked.
Laughs in Tails Linux
Some privacy browsers will randomize your fingerprint
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I bought a used laptop from a yard sale and only use public Wi-Fi and never use the laptop for anything with my name on it.
Pfft amateur, I break into my local Applbee’s after 2AM and use their POS terminal browser to look at used cars.
Applebee's at 2AM which leaves a physical trail? Noob. I strap meshtastic nodes on wild dogs, using them as a Internet relay at 1-2kb a second, to look at manga leaks.
Librewolf + uBlock Origin + Privacy Badger + containerise
For the comedy extra point, a user agent switcher can actively lie about your browser & OS.
Using a browser like Librewolf is, itself a unique identifier bc not enough people are using it.
EFF has a tool that lets you check your “uniqueness” and bc I used a lesser known browser, it was easier to track me.
Not that I mean you shouldn’t use it. I just wanted to clarify that it doesn’t make you safe from ads. :(
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ is the EFF tool.
My results say that I have strong protections against tracking, and that my browser is unique. It's as good as I can get.
The agent switcher also tells the world my Librewolf on Linux is Chrome on Windows.
Thanks for linking it! I should have done that. And if LibreWolf is showing as Chrome on Windows, then you’re good!
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uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger shouldn't be paired together. Containers do nothing to prevent your fingerprint from being collected. LibreWolf itself is easily fingerprintable. And the user agent isn't the only telltale sign of your browser and OS, changing it will just make you more unique.
Just use Mullvad Browser with the default settings.
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What a pointless article.
Until someone invents real-life Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics from the cyberpunk genre, where doing shit you dont like leads them to have their equipment destroyed with electricity surge, nothing you do online is private nor is there any consequences from them enumerating everything about you to sell or use maliciously.
Does anonymous mode browsing+VPN improve this? I would think it would
Part of the reason Tor is good is because it generates the same fingerprint for all users (part of the reason you shouldn’t install additional extensions on it, by the way). Mullvad browser tries to do this but without the Tor network.
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You can't hide or get rid of the browser fingerprint, but some addons can help to randomize it so it looks like you're using a different device every time you visit a site.
Personally, I don’t care if a site can fingerprint me. As long as they can’t tie that fingerprint to a rich data set.
So I make sure that each domain gets a different fingerprint response. That means that a site can validate that I’m still the same user, but any XSS attempting fingerprint based data exchange just gets garbage.
And how do you go about that? Do you adjust your window size and extensions on a site-by-site basis?
Some, but only if you're using a very common device (i.e. Dell Latitude) with Windows. Browser fingerprinting gives up hardware specs, so hiding by blending in only works when your hardware is hard to pin down.
Use a browser that hides hardware specs, like Mullvad or Libreworlf. Even Brave is ok.
For me I like to prevent fingerprinting by:
Librewolf(private and less intrusive defaults) + noscript (blocking useless JavaScript) + jsshelter (Javascript sanitization) + Ublock Origin(blocking trackers and ads)
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