I have been testing Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser using fingerprint.com. I get unique persistent identifiers that are unique per machine and persist over rebooting sessions. Javascript was on during this test.
This could be very dangerous to people using Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser.
For example, if someone visits Rainbow Railroad, an organization for leaving repressive countries with hostile LGBT policies, and then watches a video about the organization on YouTube, and then also does something, like create a Discord Server, and use Tor Browser to get around geoblocking but link it to their personal phone number, then a hostile regime buying data from data brokers could possible determine that user is considering using rainbow railroad. Even if this exact example isn’t realistic or plausible (although governments do buy form data brokers), users should be aware that persistent identifiers in Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser allow for continuous tracking of a user using the same machine.
I posted this information on privacyguides forum and they deleted my account after, leading me to wonder if the forum is a giant honeypot that curates acceptable privacy discussions and unacceptable private discussions. I honestly wonder if they are infiltrated by the government. They repeatedly delete the posts of other people as well and the whole thing is starting to not sit well with me.
Just chiming in to say I learned a lot from discussions and links in this thread. Thanks all.
Wonder why privacyguides deleted the post
Whenever someone says they had a moderator action taken against them, I am suspicious. Some mod teams are notorious, sure, but it’s almost always a case of unreliable narration.
I imagine behavior like the allcaps reply above had something to do with it.
Most likely 3 letter agencies are raising flags to get it deleted, and mods seeing the reports just ban without thinking.
I sadly think this is what’s happening and even wonder if some forum mods or people there are intelligence. Because why else would this shit keep happening? Privacyguides also has a sketchy origin story if you look far back enough. The really fucked up thing is they are the most well respected guide to privacy and constantly push 3 VPNs, including ProtonVPN after it was blatantly leaking, and it just really makes me wonder… why do they push those 3 VPNs so hard? In theory, they are good VPNs… but what if they are good and also being pushed for a reason? Almost every good independent VPN gets bought out. Half of the VPNs seem to be owned by Kape, AzireVPN got bought out by a US Company. It seems like fewer and fewer VPNs exist that don’t have either intelligence connections or links to privacyguides forum. I just don’t like it. I don’t trust privacyguides anymore.
Using JavaScript defeats the purpose of Tor
If you want to do any browsing other than .onions, javascript is required. Tor Browser is supposed to be anti-censorship and anti-tracking and that it isn’t really possible for Tor Browser to access 99% of the Internet without javascript.
Also, the Tor organization is not telling people that they can be uniquely tracked when not in safer mode, and Mullvad Browser is copying most of Tor Browser but not including Tor routing in it and many people using Mullvad Browser use javascript.
It’s important that people know this and the fact that I’ve had such a hard time posting this in different places, and have been met with such suspicion and hostility, is sus and makes me wonder if certain people want these browsers trackable. It’s fucking nuts to me that privacyguide’s forum deleted multiple posts and my mother fucking username after I posted about this. What else other than it being a controlled operation explains that? And plenty of other people have complained about similar shit!
Isn’t Mullvad browser kind of deprecated? Vivaldi is quite good, despite its closed-source UI components.
No, Mullvad is not deprecated at all (are you maybe thinking of Mull?) Vivaldi is Chromium based, that’s a no-go: don’t support Google’s hegemony by any means
Then that’s great, at some point Mullvad’s browser development slowed down and I had the impression that it was abandoned. Glad that it isn’t.
And of course Vivaldi isn’t the best option out there - it’s just one of the least offending Chromium browsers. Mozilla itself isn’t in too great shape either, sketchy politics and they’re on life support from Google funding.
Firefox forks though? Quite good stuff out there. I’ve heard some recent praise for the Zen browser in particular.
And if you’re on macOS, then Orion browser is a great option (and WebKit-based).
I suspect from what you’re choosing to say that you’ve very, very recently started comparing browsers. You should read more before posting about this topic. Your comments are very uneducated.
