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Researchers say they can spy on your browsing by measuring SSD activity through a browser API (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 59 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I wonder if, at any point, anyone stopped to ask themselves, "did I really go to school just so I can ply my knowledge and expertise to find even more ways to fucking track people who expressly don't want to be tracked so we can use the data for ad revenue (if not for other, even worse things)"?

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  • [–] 48 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    software dev here.

    I worked with a guy who was implementing application monitoring for clientside applications. think of it like google analytics for single page apps. he proposed we could require users install a browser plugin to make it easier to track and monitor the users on our app with the added benefit we could track them on other websites like our competition.

    one person in a room of about 11 people spoke up about the implications of privacy and the backlash we might have from our user base when they find out that we basically just installed a keylogger in their browser.

    the only thing that stopped this plan from going forward was the risk of losing users and potential revenue loss.

    my point in all this is to answer your question. no, most people have stopped thinking about their actions and are just creating "solutions" to problems that don't exist.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Hey I’ve been in that room! I don’t get it, I can’t live with that for of thing. And this is why I only have like 2 or 3 extensions (all ad blockers).

    Execs love this shit. I only had one exec who pushed not to do that or open Pandora’s box.

    He made a ton of cash, cashed out, and retired at 30 something. Awesome dude, I miss working under him.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Out of curiosity, why 2-3 different ad blockers?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I have similar.

    • privacy badger
    • ublock
    • adblock plus

    and have pihole on my network.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    You probably would have meant ublock origin and must have shortened it to uBlock, but just a reminder for others who don't know, Ublock and Ublock Origin are different things, with Ublock.org and others being a clone and unreliable/malware (I am not sure on the malware part but just something I have heard but not verified). Use Ublock Origin on Firefox, and if you are using chrome, switch to Firefox but if you can't for some reason use Ublock lite (manifest V3 version).

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    It's wild how quickly morality falls to the wayside (and is subsequently paved over). Especially crazy to abandon one's moral standing early on the path of solving problems that don't exist to appease people who don't care for a chance at the advancement of a career that you can't take with you in a field that could be wiped out by a solar flare, all to end up making the world a worse place for subsequent generations (I'm not a bleeding-heart idealist, lol).

    I often think about a few people I know who have psych degrees. All were told, in different years, that if they wanted to make money as a psychologist, they needed to get in with tech companies. Some even got job offers.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    I studied data mining (now machine learning) and statistics.

    I’ve spent my career explicitly NOT plying my knowledge this way. I don’t know how people do it.

    I’d say my deep knowledge on how to track people has made me pretty averse to a lot of online things.

    You know you can build marketing attribution systems and advertising metrics without violating user privacy.

    But advertisers really like the idea of invading privacy and they pay out the nose for it.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Good on you. Few are willing to take the overgrown path. And, funny how people who work with the subject matter often avoid it- the cybersecurity guy who doesn't own a computer, the guy who services food processing equipment who refuses to buy premade food, the guy who works/ed for the DoD who doesn't own a phone, etc.

    Would you mind sharing some of the online things you're averse to, besides all that is implied by being on the Fediverse? I'm still new to this stuff.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Just things that can be correlated. Time, device, network, accounts, and apps all correlate. Precise location, device sensors, etc also correlate.

    You have to decide what you want security or privacy against, then you have to be mindful always.

    Every internet connection is a fingerprint.

    E.g. The second you use that device on an VPN all your apps phoning home, checking notifications, logging events, etc. collapse your profile and deanonymize your anonymous activity.

    So I actually use a dedicated device for anything I want a VPN on.

    Opsec almost requires that you need a public device for your regular use, and a secondary device with limited scope, third party OS for higher privacy for anything you actually don’t want to share.

    It’s safer to tunnel specific whitelisted connections through a VPN than whole device VPN for that reason (the less traffic goes to VPN the better). iOS VPN doesn’t work for that reason.

    If you want VPN security, the best way is to run a container with only VPN networking, then a second container with the service you want protected and route all networking through the VPN container.

    Also, say no to Chrome based apps looking for devices on your network. That uniquely fingerprints you across tons of surfaces.

    They say it’s for chrome cast or something but it’s too much info to share.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    That's really great, thank you. I've got a working knowledge of applying opsec and related principles, but my understanding quickly drops off when we get into the why. That's super helpful.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I work IT adjacent in physical security systems (cameras, access control, intrusion systems etc.). Everyone looks confused when they ask what I have at home or what they should install and I tell them fuck all of this surveillance state/must know every time someone thinks about my house bullshit. I push back on a lot of corporate garbage as well and I'm lucky enough to work off a company that listens and balances security with privacy when I steer us that way.

    I think this is pretty common in tech fields.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    I've got the same thing. I had someone ask me what I do for backups and they thought I was joking when I told them I have a good printer. They couldn't get their head around the idea that I don't even have a home network to attach a NAS to, and thought I was just being condescending. I had a similar conversation when asked how to secure an Alexa.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It is really hard to sort through job listings using ethics as your criteria.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

    -Upton Sinclair

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    Which aspect of the situation to you intend for that quote to apply to? The companies/recruiters writing the listings, or the job-seekers reading them?

    Just for the record, the way I intended it was to say that I find it extremely difficult to find jobs because I have high ethical standards. Hell, I basically left my previous career as a traffic engineer in part because I didn't want to design sprawl, and jobs doing bike infrastructure are relatively few and far in between!

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