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Comment by Bartweiss | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this DuckDuckGo being sloppy, just The Verge. The real headline here is that the effect extends to Incognito mode.

In the 2009 post, Google said:

> ...customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser... You'll know when we customize results because a "View customizations" link will appear... Clicking the link will let you... turn off this type of customization

None of that appears to be match the study results here. Incognito mode isn't supposed to pick up session cookies from normal browsing, no customization notice appears, and an option to turn the behavior off certainly isn't provided.

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Honestly, Google is almost certainly using canvas fingerprinting to track you across accounts, webpages, and more regardless of incognito.

There should be zero expectation of privacy when using a Google service. I've switched to searx.me, which wraps Google and (optionally) a bunch of other search engines.

Do you have a citation that they do canvas fingerprinting or are you just guessing?

They don't. But welcome to HN Where conspiracy is more prevalent then truth.

I don’t know dude, it would take Google the whole of 5 minutes to publish how they track people. It’s not like they haven’t already prepared a contingency eg for congress.

You’re being really flippant about speculation, which is a total red herring. The point is they’re not honest.

You mean they don't already explain it? Please.

Probably not, hence "almost certainly".

Unfortunately: "How canvas fingerprint blockers make you easily trackable"

https://multilogin.com/how-canvas-fingerprint-blockers-make-...

Found this with Firefox Focus.

Using a minority browser with a lot of stuff blocked makes you very unique.

It's good for blocking 3rd party cookies but you stand out like a sore thumb to Google.

Is there a chrome extension or easy way to randomize canvas properties programmatically to avoid canvas fingerprinting when opening a new chrome tab?

Canvas fingerprinting is highly concerning to say the least, thanks in advance to anyone with working solutions.

> Google is almost certainly using canvas fingerprinting

Since that's a client side mechanism it should be rather simple to find out, no? (eg. an addon that injects tracking into the DOM accessors necessary to get at the canvas)

wow, we took that instance down: but here is their stat list if people still wanna try the service.

https://stats.searx.xyz/

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