As you know, Google's surveillance style biz plan is to have a giant database on all of us, for sale to marketers they say. They say this won't be used for un-constitutional purposes.
"It won't, we promise. Cross our hearts and hope to die, serious. "
That aside, is it just cookies? Or is it:
-mac address
-IP address
-serial number hard drive
-AI pattern reco
-email adr
??
I use IXquick. It sanitizes your identity and goes to Google for the search.
There is a website you can go to that 'looks' at your system and tells you just how unique you are, based upon OS, browzer, connection, etc. Sorry, can't find that URL.
That URL showed that my system is 1 in 2 million, so I cna likely be tracked WITHOUT cookies.
I wrote this page back in 1996, when CGI scripts were high fashion. Run some of the tests and see what a the web server knows about you.
With javascript, some additional info can be extracted:
If the server runs traceroute on the source address (that's your router) it can determine where you're located (or at least where your ISP is located). There are also sites that will attempt to locate you by IP address.
Of course, if you're logged into a Google account, all kinds of information is recorded including your location history:
Various anonymizer, VPN, and proxy server systems can block most of this kind of stuff, but not everything. For example, if the web server queries your screen resolution or which plugins are available, the request goes directly to your machine, unless the anonymizer blocks all such queries or sniffs the traffic. You can test their effectiveness at: etc...
In effect, you are being "fingerprinted", where a collection of trivial electronic factoids can be assembled into an identifiable pattern. You can either poison the data by returning fake replies, or starve the web server by returning nothing.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Are you sure? Or is it a 'honeypot' that attracks privacy minded constitutionalists and other 'radicalised home grown terrorists' to be marked for further scrutiny?
I think it means that when a site sees a browser with the same fingerprint as yours, there is a chance of 1 in 30,906 that it's you. Or rather, that it's your browser.
Click on the various titles on the left hand side of the screen. Your browser rats you out every chance it gets. Did you know when you shut off normal cookies it still lets other variations of them through? Governments' lust for power and corporate greed have killed privacy.
formatting link
mike
--
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my
reasons for them!
"Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 4,204,701 tested so far. Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 22 bits of identifying information."
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