Re: Browser fingerprinting?

From	"J.O. Aho" <user@example.net>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.php
Subject	Re: Browser fingerprinting?
Date	2013-09-18 18:24 +0200
Message-ID	<b9u2dgF29k0U1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	(3 earlier) <l1076e$a9s$1@speranza.aioe.org> <vmn939pmm184ciferi83kb1gbklgv370l4@4ax.com> <5238c14a$0$15882$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl> <l1bcd9$95v$3@dont-email.me> <l1c8mp$l31$1@dont-email.me>

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On 18/09/13 15:09, Scott Johnson wrote:
> On 9/17/2013 10:06 PM, Denis McMahon wrote:
>> On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 22:53:30 +0200, Marc van Lieshout wrote:

>>> It has some 150 browser identification strings aboard (Including Amaya,
>>> Dillo, Bluefish), spoofs x-forwarded-for and via, spoof ETags and send
>>> random Accept: headers.
>>
>> That's spoofing, not fingerprinting.
>>
>> Spoofing is easy. Fingerprinting is not. Fingerprinting is attempting to
>> uniquely identify visitors to a site at the site server. Spoofing is
>> trying to tell the server you're someone different in some way to who you
>> really are. They're not the same thing, and while spoofing is easy,
>> fingerprinting accurately and reliably is incredibly difficult.
>>
>> If I visit your website today using firefox on my unix pc over my adsl
>> connection, and tomorrow using chrome on my android tablet over it's 3g
>> connection, how are you going to fingerprint me? I don't need to use
>> anything as "technical" as spoofing the browser id. You lost the game as
>> soon as I started playing!
>>
>
> I think the point he was trying to make, which is what I took out of it,
> was how easy it is to minimize the practical use of fingerprinting.
> Spoofing and fingerprinting are related in those terms.

Fingerprinting will most likely disregard the UA-string and just look 
what they can get out of the plug-ins and fonts installed, those are 
fare more static for a user over a long time. There are companies who 
offer this kind of fingerprint detection to those willing to pay for it.


> In a prior post, I think the OP, was asking for proof on how easy it is
> to make fingerprinting unreliable, and one particular way was shown.

That really depends on the method for fingerprinting" and most of the 
techniques are out of scope in the usergroup.


-- 

   //Aho

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Thread

Browser fingerprinting? Gilles <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-09-12 23:56 +0200
  Re: Browser fingerprinting? Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2013-09-12 22:26 +0000
    Re: Browser fingerprinting? Gilles <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-09-13 00:38 +0200
      Re: Browser fingerprinting? Gilles <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-09-13 00:43 +0200
        Re: Browser fingerprinting? Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2013-09-12 23:29 +0000
          Re: Browser fingerprinting? Gilles <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-09-13 09:23 +0200
            Re: Browser fingerprinting? Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-09-13 09:32 -0400
    Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-13 19:13 -0400
      Re: Browser fingerprinting? Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2013-09-14 01:30 +0200
  Re: Browser fingerprinting? jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com - 2013-09-12 22:19 +0000
  Re: Browser fingerprinting? Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-09-12 20:31 -0400
    Re: Browser fingerprinting? "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> - 2013-09-13 06:59 +0200
  Re: Browser fingerprinting? Fiver <numeralfive@gmail.com> - 2013-09-13 05:04 +0200
    Re: Browser fingerprinting? Michael Vilain <vilain@NOspamcop.net> - 2013-09-12 22:49 -0700
      Re: Browser fingerprinting? Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-09-13 09:35 -0400
      Re: Browser fingerprinting? Martin Leese <please@see.Web.for.e-mail.INVALID> - 2013-09-13 08:42 -0600
      Re: Browser fingerprinting? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-09-15 20:57 +0200
    Re: Browser fingerprinting? Gilles <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-09-13 09:22 +0200
      Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-13 19:30 -0400
        Re: Browser fingerprinting? Gilles <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-09-15 00:11 +0200
          Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-15 16:27 -0400
            Re: Browser fingerprinting? "Peter H. Coffin" <hellsop@ninehells.com> - 2013-09-15 21:07 -0500
            Re: Browser fingerprinting? Gregor Kofler <usenet@gregorkofler.com> - 2013-09-16 11:36 +0200
              Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-17 20:02 -0400
                Re: Browser fingerprinting? "Peter H. Coffin" <hellsop@ninehells.com> - 2013-09-17 22:47 -0500
            Re: Browser fingerprinting? Norman Peelman <npeelman@cfl.rr.com> - 2013-09-16 06:13 -0400
              Re: Browser fingerprinting? Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2013-09-16 11:03 +0000
                Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-17 20:11 -0400
              Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-17 20:06 -0400
                Re: Browser fingerprinting? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2013-09-18 01:33 +0100
          Re: Browser fingerprinting? Marc van Lieshout <invalid@example.com> - 2013-09-17 22:53 +0200
            Re: Browser fingerprinting? Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> - 2013-09-17 20:20 -0400
            Re: Browser fingerprinting? Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2013-09-18 05:06 +0000
              Re: Browser fingerprinting? Scott Johnson <noonehome@chalupasworld.com> - 2013-09-18 06:09 -0700
                Re: Browser fingerprinting? "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> - 2013-09-18 18:24 +0200

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