• SPRUNT@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Is there a similar tool that will “poison” my personal tracked data? Like, I know I’m going to be tracked and have a profile built on me by nearly everywhere online. Is there a tool that I can use to muddy that profile so it doesn’t know if I’m a trans Brazilian pet store owner, a Nigerian bowling alley systems engineer, or a Beverly Hills sanitation worker who moonlights as a practice subject for budding proctologists?

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The only way to taint your behavioral data so that you don’t get lumped into a targetable cohort is to behave like a manic. As I’ve said in a past comment here, when you fill out forms, pretend your gender, race, and age is fluid. Also, pretend you’re nomadic. Then behave erratic as fuck when shopping online - pay for bibles, butt plugs, taxidermy, and PETA donations.

      Your data will be absolute trash. You’ll also be miserable because you’re going to be visiting the Amazon drop off center with gag balls and porcelain Jesus figurines to return every week.

      • Bonehead@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Then behave erratic as fuck when shopping online - pay for bibles, butt plugs, taxidermy, and PETA donations.

        …in the same transaction. It all needs to be bought and then shipped together. Not only to fuck with the algorithm, but also to fuck with the delivery guy. Because we usually know what you ordered. Especially when it’s in the soft bag packaging. Might as well make everyone outside your personal circle think you’re a bit psychologically disturbed, just to be safe.

        • Neato@ttrpg.network
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          11 months ago

          How? Aren’t most items in boxes even in the bags? It’s not like they just toss a butt plug into a bag and ship it…right?

          • Seleni@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            You’d be surprised. Also, often the company name very prominently displayed on the return address is anything but subtle.

    • Australis13@fedia.io
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      11 months ago

      The browser addon “AdNauseum” can help with that, although it’s not a complete solution.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Is there a similar tool that will “poison” my personal tracked data? Like, I know I’m going to be tracked and have a profile built on me by nearly everywhere online. Is there a tool that I can use to muddy that profile so it doesn’t know if I’m a trans Brazilian pet store owner, a Nigerian bowling alley systems engineer, or a Beverly Hills sanitation worker who moonlights as a practice subject for budding proctologists?

      Have you considered just being utterly incoherent, and not making sense as a person? That could work.

    • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I guess it depends what your threat model is.

      If you don’t like advertising, then you’re just piling a bunch of extra interests/demographics in there. It’ll remain roughly as valuable as it was before.

      If you’re concerned about privacy and state actors, your activity would just increase. Anything that would trigger state interest would remain, so you’d presumably receive the same level of interest. Worse, if you aren’t currently of interest, there’s a possibility randomly generated traffic would be flagged by your adversary and increase their level of interest in you.

      • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        or a Beverly Hills sanitation worker who moonlights as a practice subject for budding proctologists?

        Yeah, it’s definitely the last one 😆

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      There are programs and plugins you can download that will open a bunch of random websites to throw off tracking programs.

    • cation@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Idk if this is what you’re looking for but might be worth taking a look

      https://github.com/eth0izzle/Needl

      “Your ISP is most likely tracking your browsing habits and selling them to marketing agencies (albeit anonymised). Or worse, making your browsing history available to law enforcement at the hint of a Subpoena. Needl will generate random Internet traffic in an attempt to conceal your legitimate traffic, essentially making your data the Needle in the haystack and thus harder to find. The goal is to make it harder for your ISP, government, etc to track your browsing history and habits.”