[tor-talk] Tracking blocker

[Jeremy Rand]

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On 02/19/2016 11:44 PM, Paul A. Crable wrote:
> A NYT article yesterday discussed tracking blockers and recommended
> Disconnect from among four candidates for Intel-architecture
> computers.  Disconnect would be installed as an add-on to Firefox.
> You have a standing recommendation that we not install add-ons to
> the TOR browser.  Would that prohibition apply to the tracking
> blocker Disconnect?
> 
> Paul
> 

It's not clear to me why Disconnect and similar systems are so
popular.  My understanding is that they basically act as blacklists.
This is relatively easy for a competent attacker to bypass, and the
blacklist definitely changes your browser fingerprint compared to a
stock browser.  (Dynamic blacklists like Privacy Badger are probably
worse in terms of fingerprintability.)  Tor Browser is designed to
make tracking less effective without resorting to a blacklist [1], so
in theory you don't need a blacklist anyway.

Cheers,
- -Jeremy Rand

[1] Of course, Tor Browser is imperfect in this area, so it is at
least plausible that a blacklist might help in some limited
circumstances.  I doubt that it would be a net benefit.
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