251
votes
Accepted
How can this website reidentify me even after deleting all of my browser's history and using a VPN?
The website is using IndexedDB, for which MDN writes:
IndexedDB is a way for you to persistently store data inside a user's browser. Because it lets you create web applications with rich query ...
- 31.3k
65
votes
If a Chrome Extension is installed but turned off, can it still spy on me?
When an extension is turned off, it is not loaded into memory, and as such can't do anything.
When you turn an extension on, it has access to your entire browser history, and if an extension wants, ...
- 62.4k
57
votes
How can this website reidentify me even after deleting all of my browser's history and using a VPN?
As noted by Arjan it's unfortunately easy to leave site-data installed currently. This is improving somewhat with the preference UX redesign in FF57.
For example, under "Privacy and Security" there ...
- 679
54
votes
Accepted
How to create a separate profile in Chrome with same email?
I'm assuming you want to do basically a work and personal google chrome setup. With bookmarks / historical information different on each account.
Google doesn't allow this. You would be better off ...
- 848
38
votes
Can my ISP see SSIDs on my router/modem provided by the ISP?
Yes,
Modern routers in their firmware have a setting to support CWMP (Customer-Premises Equipment WAN Management Protocol) for remote management. This is also called TR-069 by its name on ...
- 599
27
votes
How can WhatsApp share information with Facebook if the messages are encrypted end-to-end?
End-to-end encryption means that your message is encrypted and decrypted locally on your and your recipient's devices, using an encryption key that is known only to you and your recipient.
WhatsApp ...
- 841
24
votes
Can an ISP see private IP addresses?
But does that happen with private IPs also? I mean, like, the ISP of the wifi router sees and keeps a log about exact which packets from which website is being sent to which eaxct device connected to ...
- 465k
20
votes
Accepted
Windows 10 disable internet in search
I don't know why Microsoft updated Windows 10 version 2004 to ignore their own Group Policy setting. I hope this is a bug because there are very legitimate reasons for organizations not wanting to ...
- 2,720
19
votes
Use VPN connection only for selected applications
You can do it with network namespaces on GNU/Linux.
Here's how to run OpenVPN and a single application in a separate namespace:
Create the net network namespace:
ip netns add myvpn
Start the ...
- 448
18
votes
Can an ISP see private IP addresses?
The simple answer is "not in most cases" - however the total answer is a lot more nuanced.
In the common case where a router is doing NAT, and where the ISP has no login to the router and ...
- 71.4k
18
votes
Can organization access an email account they provided, if they don't know your password?
Yes they can, though the method used may depend on the type of email system being used.
As an example though, if the email is on Exchange / 365 then the email admin could grant Full Access permissions ...
- 896
16
votes
Wi-Fi opt-out Microsoft & Google
Google's _nomap must appear at the end of the SSID while the Windows _optout can be anywhere in the SSID, so this should work based on the docs below:
SSID_optout_nomap
https://privacy.microsoft.com/...
- 299
15
votes
Accepted
Can I use TOR browser without using TOR network?
Upper right hand side of Tor Browser click on the three horizontal bars, click on Options, select the Advanced tab, click on Network, click on Settings, select "No Proxy" and hit OK.
Then type "about:...
- 166
15
votes
Accepted
How to prevent recovering metadata when using ExifTool?
The author of exiftool looked into zeroing out the data in August 2019 and has decided that against it.
It is harder than I had hoped to simply zero out the existing metadata.
The solution wouldn't ...
- 1,489
14
votes
Accepted
How-To add Brave Search to Firefox Search Bar
I know link only comment is bad but the primary answer is available here:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-or-remove-search-engine-firefox
Visit a website that offers an OpenSearch search ...
- 5,414
14
votes
How to set up Google 2FA with third party OTP app
As of 2022, it's not possible to do this upon initial enrollment, because setting up Google Authenticator as a 2FA option in Google requires that 2FA already be enabled ("To use Google ...
- 141
13
votes
How to block the annoying “Before you continue” popup on Google?
Just block all of the cookies for the page where you see this popup and voilà.
11
votes
Use VPN connection only for selected applications
I've done this on Windows. The idea is to bind the outgoing network packages to VPN's interface. People suggest ForceBindIP for this, but thanks to this answer I've got an idea to use proxy. The ...
- 1,210
11
votes
Accepted
How to stop Firefox's version 64.0 from showing the update nag screen?
Is there a way to stop the update nag screen?
Yes. Read on.
The option to Never check for updates was removed from about:preferences. You can use the DisableAppUpdate enterprise policy as a ...
- 159k
10
votes
Accepted
How to set up Google 2FA with third party OTP app
There are two choices for "Google specific app on smartphone" – one uses online notifications (Google Prompt), the other uses offline OTP (Google Authenticator).
OTP
Google supports OTP-...
- 465k
10
votes
Accepted
Is it possible for every app to have a different IP address
Mostly the answer is yes:
Some apps having binding to specific IP addresses built in - the only ones I know of are server apps such as IIS, Exchange, and SQL Server, but apps for desktop OSes might ...
- 981
9
votes
Can my ISP see SSIDs on my router/modem provided by the ISP?
I rent a cable modem from my ISP that has its own wifi capability. Does my ISP have the ability to track various settings on their modem, such as wireless network SSIDs, etc?
Yes, see @ebal's answer.
...
- 358
9
votes
Can my ISP see SSIDs on my router/modem provided by the ISP?
If you use a device provided by someone you should take into account that they can customize the firmware as they wish - that includes leaving an SSH server with their key authorized to access the ...
- 1,002
9
votes
Accepted
What metadata does a LibreOffice file contain and how to remove it?
I figured it out. The method in my question is not enough, because it doesn't remove all metadata! It doesn't delete metadata such as editing-duration, editing-cycles and generator. generator contains ...
- 281
8
votes
How can I hide the most visited sites on Chrome?
In Chrome version 80 there is a Customize button at the bottom right of the page:
If you enable the Hide shortcuts then Chrome will not show any shortcuts.
- 1,596
8
votes
Use VPN connection only for selected applications
Just access the VPN through a virtual machine.
Create a VM, then from inside the VM...
Install the 'selected' applications
Configure the VPN
Use the 'selected' applications from the VM instead of ...
- 191
8
votes
Accepted
Trustworthiness of OpenNIC DNS servers
The question of trust is not a technical one at its core, so you can never fully answer a question such as "Should I trust X", specifically if you add "... not to do action Y in some Z ...
- 1,622
8
votes
Accepted
Which email to sign commits with for GitHub and retain privacy?
I have fixed this with inspiration from the comment by @ge0rdi.
Although I had my GPG key email set to the no-reply GitHub email address, as well as my git user.name, and that email address selected ...
- 836
8
votes
Accepted
How to block the annoying “Before you continue” popup on Google?
Add the following JavaScript to your browser through an extension (like Tampermonkey for Chrome, or Firefox):
// ==UserScript==
// @name avoid Google's "before you continue"
// @...
- 196
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible