I ask because I am extremely concerned about my privacy and I am going to access a website that collects a lot of data and I prefer that they not track it to my laptop. I am fine with them tracking my activities to IP address and username in the near future but not me in real life as of right now.
Thanks for the help in advance.
3 Answers
Depends a bit on what you mean by "exact computer". A web site can't typically pinpoint your computer in the real world or tie it to your real identity, UNLESS you allow geolocation or you allow access to unique device identifiers or you allow strong behavioral correlations to the same computer that you've used with sites/services/apps that do know your location or real identity.
There's a lot more though than just IP address and browser characteristics available at the server or from the client via JavaScript.
See: for more information on browser fingerprinting. See also: for ongoing research into cookie and browser fingerprinting, detection and defenses.
It's very difficult to be anonymous to a website that is determined enough to use advanced tracking techniques, especially on a desktop or laptop computer. Some common mobile devices may have less entropy in their fingerprint when using the browser, but mobile apps typically have broader access than the browser.
You at least need a lot of browser plug-ins to reduce some of that fingerprint entropy (which has drawbacks of possibly making you more unique, breaking common internet functionality, and not thwarting all tracking vectors). You can use custom set ups in virtual machines to avoid having your main machine behavior aggregated with behavior in a virtual machine. Or use Tor browser bundle for anonymity (though this will also break some common web features).
What ever you do, don't use any username or other identifiers (email addresses, phone numbers) that you use for any other purpose with the site you don't want to be correlated with your larger self.
0Your IP address is enough to identify your household.
How many other users in your household have the same screen resolution, OS, and the browser as your laptop? If your answer is "no one", then they can track all requests to your laptop. And it's my guess that this is your situation, which means you are already traceable like almost everyone on the planet.
If you have another machine with the same screen res, OS and browser version, etc., then the plugins and font-details can reveal you.
So to make yourself "not unique" you will have to have a clone machine in your household. Even with that, you will still be traceable by monitoring things such as browsing behavior, when do you browse, other sites you visit, etc., etc.
And if it really comes down to finding who you are, it's not so difficult. It's either you, or somebody else in your household, i.e. your roommate? your wife? your son? your brother? the choices are limited...
Good luck hiding yourself :)
Without custom software from the owners of the website, the most they can get in identifying your system is browser type along with version of it and OS type(sometimes version of the OS). If you really want to see some of what a website can track, without you installing custom software for tracking purposes.
Head over to Whatsmyip website and go to their more info about you page. Alternatively you can click the link here too that will take you there.
That page will let you know what information they can see when you visit.
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