Google allows advertisers to fingerprint you for even better tracking

[douglas9]

Google has announced a change to its advertising policies that will allow advertisers to use digital fingerprinting starting February 16, 2025.

Why it is important: digital fingerprinting uses signals, like the IP address, location, language, used software, or operating system, to identify devices and users on the Internet.

Numerous digital fingerprinting techniques exist, some even capable of cross-browser fingerprinting.

Tip: you can test your browser's anti-fingerprinting protections, or lack therefor, on the EFF's Cover Your Tracks webpage.

This tracking technique works well with other methods, but may also stand on its own. It offers several advantages over cookies, but only to the trackers:

Information may be collected without user consent or the user even knowing that it is collected.
The data is stored remotely, not on the user's device.
Unlike cookies, which can be deleted easily at any time, digital fingerprint data cannot.
Google announced the change on its Google Marketing Platform Help support website. According to Google, the updated policies "clarify the activities that we prohibit to better protect the ads ecosystem from harmful activities, while being less prescriptive with partners in how they target and measure ads".

https://www.ghacks.net/2025/01/13/google-allows-advertisers-to-fingerprint-you-for-even-better-tracking/

[Voltaire2]

1. We live in a digital surveillance state.

But don’t worry, the oligarchs controlling this are benevolent despots.

[Wonder Why]

3. That's why I love them so much. 🤮

[C_U_L8R]

2. Jam the system

Randomly search assorted nonsense and their tracking will become useless.
Noise vs Signal. Surprised no one hasn't built an app for that, aside from threat of lawsuits.

[3Hotdogs]

4. What is EFF and what do we do with the information we might find?

[erronis]

11. Quick DuckDuckGo lookup yields Electronic Frontier Foundation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation

They have a long history of trying to protect our privacy while using the internet.

For anybody interested, the DDG extension makes looking up anything in the browser a cinch.
- install the extension
- highlight the word or phrase you want to research
- right-click on that word/phrase and choose "Search DuckDuckGo for "
- It will return a new tab with the primary definition. Usually Wikipedia or a dictionary entry.

[KatK]

5. Can they track me if I use duckduckgo (not Chrome) but still using gmail? n/t

I use DuckDuckGo because it blocks a lot of trackers.

Can Google grab my digital fingerprint while using gmail on the duckduckgo browser?

[KatK]

6. Update: Here are my EFF results

I took the EFF tracking test for my duckduckgo browser at https://coveryourtracks.eff.org

Here are the results:
>>
Our tests indicate that you have strong protection against Web tracking.
Is your browser:
Blocking tracking ads? Yes
Blocking invisible trackers? Yes
Protecting you from fingerprinting? Your browser has a unique fingerprint
>>

So what does this mean? Can Google track me via gmail? Or since I do not see any google ads, perhaps advertisers cannot track me?

[AllyCat]

7. I got the same thing. Reading further, you and I definitely

are NOT protected from digital fingerprinting. It recommends its hawked product of “Privacy Badger”. Will research more before I load it.

[erronis]

12. I use Privacy Badger and have the same finger-printing SuperCookie results.

Apparently this fingerprinting is very hard to subvert or hide.

[AllyCat]

14. Boo. Wonder if a VPN helps?

[RainCaster]

9. You can be tracked, but not because of Gmail

It's because of your consistent IP address. Connect using Tor and your address will be changed so often that tracking will be less useful to advertisers.

[erronis]

13. I use a VPN and come in from many different hosts. But the finger-printing detection is the most difficult.

[Intractable]

8. Whenever you have an option for "personalized ads" (instead of generic ads), turn it off!

Obviously, personalized ads require and collect more data.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. I use Firefox to block fingerprinting

... but the EFF test link says it detects fingerprint id info. https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ EFF is legit.

Firefox is set in Settings > Security to block known and suspected fingerprinters. I hope they put google ads into the "known" category.

[AllyCat]

15. Is that from desktop only? I don't have "security" listed

After “settings” on my mobile.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. It's on my desktop, listed as "Privacy & Security". . . . nt

[ItsjustMe]

19. Using Brave browser

[douglas9]

16. What is Browser Fingerprinting and How Can You Clear It?

https://www.protectstar.com/en/blog/browser-fingerprinting

[erronis]

18. Thanks. This contains some useful tips. Unfortunately I use most of them and fingerprinting

is still the major weakness - the characteristics of your browser's capabilities are really what makes fingerprinting work.

This article from the Firefox website explains it well - and how to use the protection:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting

I am on a VPN with NetShield(Proton VPN), use DDG and Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin and NoScript. Sometimes I have to let known/trusted sites through since they may be broken with all of the security filters.

The Tor browser (Firefox repackaged) is great but it may slow things down for many.