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ruszki • today at 10:28 AM • 3 replies • view on HN

Similarly. My browser was carefully containerized, with a ton of anti fingerprinting measures, VPN, Linux, Librewolf, everything. Even on my phone, I restricted whatever possible. Then one day I went to the YouTube main page, and I saw that Google somehow got to know that I played Minecraft again after a decade. I gave up right there. I suffered to avoid this, and it was pointless. I knew at that point already that probably all my PI is public information anyway, but I wanted to restrict whatever possible, and no, everybody sells my data anyway, and it seems that avoiding fingerprinting is impossible without turning off the internet completely, and ditching smart phones.


Replies

neobrain • today at 10:43 AM

> Google somehow got to know that I played Minecraft again after a decade. [...] I knew at that point already that probably all my PI is public information anyway

How are you jumping from Minecraft (probably one of the most watchtime-generating content types out there) being displayed on your main page to… your personal information being known to everyone?

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astura • today at 12:07 PM

>My browser was carefully containerized, with a ton of anti fingerprinting measures, VPN, Linux, Librewolf, everything

Doesn't that just make your browser very unique?

sillyfluke • today at 11:11 AM

>Then one day I went to the YouTube main page, and I saw that Google somehow got to know that I played Minecraft again after a decade

Did you play minecraft on the same network? If so, I'm not sure why the results are surprising or why it would negate all your efforts. If someone else played minecraft on your network you would also see a minecraft video on your main page I would imagine.

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