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Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser have unique-per-computer persistent IDs on fingerprint.com (lemmy.today)

submitted 5 months ago by someone@lemmy.today to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I have been testing Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser using fingerprint.com. I get unique persistent identifiers that are unique per machine and persist over rebooting sessions. Javascript was on during this test.

This could be very dangerous to people using Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser.

For example, if someone visits Rainbow Railroad, an organization for leaving repressive countries with hostile LGBT policies, and then watches a video about the organization on YouTube, and then also does something, like create a Discord Server, and use Tor Browser to get around geoblocking but link it to their personal phone number, then a hostile regime buying data from data brokers could possible determine that user is considering using rainbow railroad. Even if this exact example isn't realistic or plausible (although governments do buy form data brokers), users should be aware that persistent identifiers in Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser allow for continuous tracking of a user using the same machine.

I posted this information on privacyguides forum and they deleted my account after, leading me to wonder if the forum is a giant honeypot that curates acceptable privacy discussions and unacceptable private discussions. I honestly wonder if they are infiltrated by the government. They repeatedly delete the posts of other people as well and the whole thing is starting to not sit well with me.

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[–] nshibj@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No, Mullvad is not deprecated at all (are you maybe thinking of Mull?) Vivaldi is Chromium based, that's a no-go: don't support Google's hegemony by any means

[–] Ashrakal@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Then that’s great, at some point Mullvad’s browser development slowed down and I had the impression that it was abandoned. Glad that it isn’t.

And of course Vivaldi isn’t the best option out there - it’s just one of the least offending Chromium browsers. Mozilla itself isn’t in too great shape either, sketchy politics and they’re on life support from Google funding.

Firefox forks though? Quite good stuff out there. I’ve heard some recent praise for the Zen browser in particular.

And if you’re on macOS, then Orion browser is a great option (and WebKit-based).

[–] chloroken@lemmy.ml -1 points 5 months ago

I suspect from what you're choosing to say that you've very, very recently started comparing browsers. You should read more before posting about this topic. Your comments are very uneducated.