[tor-talk] Revisiting youtube blocking TBB, virtually all 1st attempts to load YT

[joebtfsplk at gmx.com]

On 3/9/20 12:49 PM, nusenu wrote:
>
> Mirimir:
>> On 03/08/2020 02:40 PM, nusenu wrote:
>>>> What would stop a bad actor from creating a bunch of new circuits and
>>>> making all Tor IPs look bad if they were so inclined?
>>> yes there are distribution strategies that can prevent that
>>> or make that very expensive (an /48 IPv6 block has a **lot** of IP addresses)
>> Sure, but wouldn't sites start blocking at /48, /64, etc levels?
> the feature is primarily targeted towards reputation systems that look at the
> specific IP address only. Maybe some will move to prefix based reputation but
> the assumption is that not all will.
>
This is all very interesting.  I read several of the links (bugs & some
non-tor-talk forum questions on this general subject.

I've now had more time + paying more attention to my procedures &
typical results on youtube.
I can't explain what I'm seeing, since apparently in theory (unless it's
outdated info), getting a new identity should be equivalent to closing /
reopening TBB.

By now, it's seems safe to say that if I've visited any other sites
*before* loading YT in a new tab, the chance of YT *NOT* giving the
"suspicious activity" warning, is very low.
** Which begs the question, why would cached data from other sites
affect whether YT thinks the new exit shows suspicious behavior?

I DID discover just now, that the pref in my user.js file,
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.enable", false); - was NOT observed. In
about:config, browser.cache.disk.enable was True - bigger than Dallas.
Further, when I toggled it to False, that is the default setting.  I
can't 'splain why it wasn't using the user.js value.  It worked for yrs.
I've never seen it happen in any other browser.

In a VERY short trial just now (statistically meaningless), after
changing "browser.cache.disk.enable" = false, I still usually needed a
new identity for YT to load. I don't know what a new identity oc
clearing cache has to do with a site not visited since launching TBB
each day.

But a new identity WITHOUT clearing the cache rarely worked on YT. Can't
say the same about other sites.  I tried it enough times over weeks, to
see clearing cache AND a new identity almost always worked.  Question is
why.

Just luck of getting bad exits when cache wasn't cleared before a new
identity, or getting VERY lucky - with "good" exits when cache WAS
cleared is statistically improbable.