If you hand out the same email everywhere, eventually data brokers begin to connect the dots. If this email shows up somewhere, it means that they like this stuff, buy that stuff, they’ve been here before etc. All of that and more will be revealed when you create a new account with that email.
I consider that a privacy concern. Companies use data brokers to exchange data and build a more comprehensive profile of you, and your email address is a part of it. There’s a lot more though, so escaping that kind of profiling is tricky. Using unique emails is a good start though.
I see. I thought they were already doing that through browser fingerprinting or whatever. You’re saying using your email compliments those tracking activities then, is that right?
With an email address, they can be a lot more certain you’re the same person as everywhere else you’ve entered the same email address. Browser fingerprinting is a thing, but many people use different browsers at different times (e.g. one on their smartphone, one on their personal laptop, one on their work laptop, etc.).
As browser extensions tend to be an important part of fingerprinting, it could make sense to run a very minimal setup, like just uBlock origin or Adnauseam but nothing else. That way, you should be able to blend in with the crowd a bit better, as opposed to using the 20 extensions you currently have. Also, having a random collection of plugins that changes every hour could be good too. Surely, there’s a way to fake that. The browser should send a signal to the website about 50 extensions that supposedly are installed. Basically, like a random MAC address, but with extensions.
If you hand out the same email everywhere, eventually data brokers begin to connect the dots. If this email shows up somewhere, it means that they like this stuff, buy that stuff, they’ve been here before etc. All of that and more will be revealed when you create a new account with that email.
I consider that a privacy concern. Companies use data brokers to exchange data and build a more comprehensive profile of you, and your email address is a part of it. There’s a lot more though, so escaping that kind of profiling is tricky. Using unique emails is a good start though.
I see. I thought they were already doing that through browser fingerprinting or whatever. You’re saying using your email compliments those tracking activities then, is that right?
With an email address, they can be a lot more certain you’re the same person as everywhere else you’ve entered the same email address. Browser fingerprinting is a thing, but many people use different browsers at different times (e.g. one on their smartphone, one on their personal laptop, one on their work laptop, etc.).
As browser extensions tend to be an important part of fingerprinting, it could make sense to run a very minimal setup, like just uBlock origin or Adnauseam but nothing else. That way, you should be able to blend in with the crowd a bit better, as opposed to using the 20 extensions you currently have. Also, having a random collection of plugins that changes every hour could be good too. Surely, there’s a way to fake that. The browser should send a signal to the website about 50 extensions that supposedly are installed. Basically, like a random MAC address, but with extensions.