I’m reminded of the horrid example showcased on the amber-lang website previously.

Possibly an old sub-domain of some sort. Here seems more correct.

…you still need to log in with your Google account.

You don’t.

To use Aurora Store, you can either login via your Google account or use an anonymous account.

So, I’m not allowed to ask you for proof of your statement? And if its unrelated, then why did you post it? Its unrelated. Also, you’re saying you have an absence of evidence, ergo you have no evidence. Having no evidence does not qualify as evidence

Asking for evidence wasn’t the issue, believing that the truth relies solely upon a discussion providing such evidence is.

I think you are confusing having an option with something being mandatory.

You misunderstood. Some of your own statements say it matters and is used. Mandatory wasn’t mentioned nor implied.

And Tor nodes are not the same thing as VPN multi-hop.

I just realized you think that Tor is built using multi-hop.

I didn’t state they were the same. Tor uses “multiple hops” (you can find that string the the link I posted earlier). It is critical to the limiting of information seen by any single entity.

And again, if you connected your Firefox browser to Tor, we could still track you. You’d get cookied or localStorage() tracked. When you disconnect from Tor, that stuff is still present in your browser. Almost like the number of hops you take or the IP address used doesn’t seem to really matter, huh?

All that state can be removed. And the server might not be tracking that. Situations vary, adversaries vary. If you cannot imagine a scenario in which hops or IP address would matter, I would suggest doing some research.

Its a real life Dunning-Kruger effect! I’ve never encountered this. You are going to do something really stupid and end up in prison.

Personal swipes mark the end of this discussion. I would suggest you to leave those out next time as It detracts focus from constructive learning.

This will be my last reply. You can also reply if you want (but I won’t see it).

Evidence, or it isn’t true.

Unrelated, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Anyways, your own statement:

Adtech relies on the OpenRTB 2.5/2.6 spec for tracking, you would have removed 1 identifier out of a hundred (one that isn’t really used anyway given SSAI is so popular).

Removing an identifier that is used. (1/100 = matters, “isn’t really used” != unused). This contradicts your other statements:

Yeah, multi-hop is pointless for tracking.

…IP addresses and multi-hop don’t matter…

Broad statements that don’t take into consideration the threat model of other users. Servers you connect to might not be using source IP in any way to track. You might be leaking so many other identifiers, that its completely useless to worry about multi-hop. But this is not true for everyone in every situation.

If its worth anything to you, the Tor Project seems to think multi-hop and IP addresses matter for protecting against tracking.

I’m unsure what evidence you are referring to.

I’m unsure what evidence you are referring to.

What specifically about multi-hop makes you think it improves your security?

I haven’t mentioned security.

1. You giving some marketing crap you read from a VPN provider site on their multi-hop service.

I’m sorry, but that isn’t correct.

You almost had the rest of the sentence there:

That doesn’t change the contradiction.

Yeah, multi-hop is pointless for tracking.

The logic to it is crazy too. People think VPNs make them anonymous (they don’t), but they also think multi-hop makes them MORE anonymous.

Whether multi-hop matters to tracking is far and away a different discussion than whether multi-hop “makes you anonymous”.

I too disagree with the original comment, but also believe the pendulum swung too far the other direction in your replies.

Situations differ. Threat models differ. More hops can, from direct personal experience, make the difference in tracking. Your claim of “…multi-hop is pointless for tracking.” has too broad of a scope to be correct.

Remember to read the rest of that sentence:

It doesn’t change the contradiction.

I might have been experiencing this issue for the longest time. System fully locks up and is completely unresponsive. Happened on every distro I used.

Last distro I had it on was Artix Linux. Then I tried Alpine and I don’t think I’ve had it happen since.

…specifics about WHY IP addresses and multi-hop don’t matter.

…you would have removed 1 identifier…

So it can matter.

VPNs don’t prevent tracking, they just make sure the tracking is done through a secure tunnel.

The extra hop adds a significant barrier for the website in knowing the actual source IP. The fake source IP is likely used by many other users, and the user you are trying to track can easily rotate VPN IPs.

Its one less identifier for them to use.

I really like to get some feedback. Have fun everyone!

Remove the “MILITARY-GRADE” stuff. It doesn’t relay any useful information and has been used as a phrase in countless crappy products.

Most entry points are through various other ways…

With encryption, the data is changed so that only the key could decrypt it. If there are no encryption backdoors, then the key is the only end goal of attack. Compared to a physical lock, where, even if the lock was perfect, you still need to secure the structure it locks.

Most entry points are through various other ways, which is also why i find GrapheneOS for the average user stupid.

I still appreciate defense against the less common. Easier to focus on the more common.

Just because stuff is sandboxed and you have some Ad-Blockers on, doesn’t mean shit these days.

Sandboxing and Ad-blockers are quite different. One gives restricted permissions, so a program has less tools to be able to cause harm, and less visibility into the system to violate privacy. Ad blockers need only to stop an ad from displaying. The security and privacy gain would likely only come from stopping you from clicking them (since they’re blocked), or stopping the resources from being networked to in the first place.

Sandboxing I would consider much better for security and privacy. That’s why its a valuable tool for security researchers.

They support 3 devices under the “main” branch.

I’ve used quite a lot of software in a “community” repo. It can certainly work. Will of course depend on the device you are using.

some will never see further updates after getting them to work once.

For it to be in community, their wiki states in needs to be actively maintained. Granted, I’m sure there is a window of time before something goes back to “testing” or “archived”

…binary blob for as driver and not the source code.

Just as I want free firmware in the desktop, laptop, and server Linux space, I hope we can move toward that in the mobile space as well.

…won’t meet the security requirements of the Graphene OS team.

I’m sure it doesn’t. I’ve read their statements on such things. Simply change the requirements.

…for the entire hardware…

Referring to Pixel hardware? I also don’t think they should be building on top of Pixels.

…would take years until you have an even halfway working device.

PostmarketOS seems to support many devices. So its doable. I would prioritize something like the Pinephone though.