this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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Privacy

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The benefit is that it's much easier to maintain and also increases privacy over the "blending in" approach. With trying to make your fingerprint similar to others, there are always going to be things that you miss that do actually make you uniquely identifiable. Certain things also aren't practical to "blend".

Think about a real life analogy. If you try and blend in with a crowd, even if you do it really well, a sufficiently sophisticated observer will still be able to spot you.

With a randomisation strategy you acknowledge that you will never be able to perfectly blend in and thus allow yourself to stand out. Trackers can build up a profile using that fingerprint. But as soon as your fingerprint changes you are completely unique again.

If you are in a crowd an observer can track you, but next time you appear you appear as someone completely different and thus lose the tail.