So a bit ago I got an add for “canned rambutan”. I had looked up Rambutan a few days prior after hearing it mentioned 10 hours into the video game Baby Steps. I wasn’t using a VPN at the time and I didn’t have fingerprinting protections active but I only mentioned it to a few sources (according to my browser history) all of which generally are implied to be private.

Which of these do you think is the reason the ad networks know?

  • Wikipedia
  • Startpage Search
  • Duckduckgo Search
  • My ISP
  • Firefox
  • My Firefox Extensions
  • Kubuntu
  • CachyOS
  • The omnipotent algorithm connecting my mentions of Baby Steps with my progress through the game.
  • Does this only make sense if my browser history is incomplete?
  • Maybe I was using DNS over HTTPS via Cloudflare at the time of my search.

Any guesses as to where the weak link is?

  • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
    1·
    14 hours ago

    I use AdGuard rather than uBlock Origin for adblocking, because it allows me to opt-in and only block ads when they are aggressive enough to be annoying. But I’ve not been trying to minimize fingerprinting. The issue is just that everything I used in this instance came with either a tacit or explicit promise not to track me and I don’t know which is lying.

    Other extensions I use are:

    1. Remove YouTube Suggestions
    2. 10ten Japanese Reader (just now disabled)
    3. Tampermonkey
    4. Proton Pass (because my government services require 2FA, but only offer an official government app that uses the play integrity API, or a Passkey which is only natively supported on Windows or Mac)
    5. Time Tracker - Web Habit Builder
    6. Improve Crunchyroll (which seems to have stopped Crunchyroll from forcefully dropping my resolution to 144p).
    7. SteamDB (just now disabled)
    • nkk@programming.dev
      1·
      13 hours ago

      I’ve never used AdGuard but you can customize uBlock Origin to fit your needs and block specific things for specific websites. uBlock Origin is commonly used as a default in hardened browsers which would help you fit in with the crowd even more (although I realize you said you weren’t going for anti-fingerprinting, just something to consider)

      1. I switched to using Grayjay Desktop rather than my browser for YouTube

      2. If you need a userscript manager, Violentmonkey is an open source alternative

      3. Proton Pass has an app, yes less convenient without the autofill but better for privacy not to have the extension

      4. Personally, I would just sail the seven seas

      • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        1·
        11 hours ago
        1. I have Freetube installed but I found no reason to really use it when I have this browser extension and adblock (though I don’t have one enabled for YouTube so I have no idea why I’m not seeing ads). I can probably do what Remove YouTube Suggestions does with Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey anyway so I might switch.
        2. Didn’t realize Tampermonkey wasn’t open source. I’ll look into it when I can eventually be bothered.
        3. I can’t use a Passkey on my phone. GrapheneOS doesn’t support passkeys.
        4. Piracy isn’t worth the hassle to me, though it’s not like Crunchyroll has been much better lately.
    • lattrommi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      13 hours ago

      Do any extensions have permission to view your browsing data? You can check by opening the extension manager, clicking the extension and clicking the ‘permissions and data’ tab. I would suspect 5 and 6 the most, 1 might be suspect too. Those extensions by nature would need such permissions to some extent.

      • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        2·
        13 hours ago

        AdGuard, ProtonPass, TamperMonkey, Time Tracker, and 10ten have those permissions. The others don’t. I don’t think any of these extensions would be able to function without these permissions.