• Random changing of "stuff" inside a Windows directory

    From mike@21:1/5 to All on Tue Mar 21 11:47:11 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    What is a working method on Windows to easily randomize a set of stuff?
    (which happen to be fonts but which could be any collection of stuff)

    This is a technical question (not a philosophical question on privacy).

    When I ran a search, I found this visual basic method which I will try. https://www.iptest.club/blog/fingerprinting/font-fingerprinting-protect/

    But I came here because I found a "similar" solution for randomizing
    the time zones when I ran a search of these archives in duckduckgo.

    @echo off
    setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
    :loop
    set /a n=137*%random%/32768*3+1
    for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('tzutil /l^|more +%n%') do set a=%%i& goto :l1
    :l1
    echo.
    echo.
    echo setting time zone to: %a%
    tzutil.exe /s "%a%"
    :: wait 6-24h
    set /a n=20864+(%random%*2)
    set /a h=%n%/3600
    set /a m=(n-(%h%*3600))/60
    echo waiting %h% hours, %m% minutes
    timeout %n%
    goto :loop
    exit 0

    Does anyone on this newsgroup already have a similar randomization
    working batch script that randomizes "stuff" in a directory?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to mike on Tue Mar 21 11:02:11 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    mike wrote:

    Does anyone on this newsgroup already have a similar randomization
    working batch script that randomizes "stuff" in a directory?

    rather than mess with the fonts themselves, can you hide most of them
    from websites using browser settings, e,g for firefox

    font.system.whitelist

    Are you even sure that it's fonts which making you appear unique?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From mike@21:1/5 to usenet@andyburns.uk on Wed Mar 22 09:28:35 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    On 21-03-2023 16:32 Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

    Does anyone on this newsgroup already have a similar randomization
    working batch script that randomizes "stuff" in a directory?

    rather than mess with the fonts themselves, can you hide most of them
    from websites using browser settings, e,g for firefox

    font.system.whitelist

    Are you even sure that it's fonts which making you appear unique?

    There is nothing wrong with approaching the problem browser by browser by browser by browser by browser, but the maintenance of that is an issue.

    Better to approach the problem outside the browser itself, such that it
    works with all browsers and the maintenance, once running, should be none.

    As for being unique, I think you misunderstood so allow me to explain that
    it's the sum total of your "entropy" which makes you unique.

    However, the browser fonts are a major contributor to that entropy.

    The proposed solution will work to lower that entropy, however you may
    still have a unique set of characteristics - but - an important variant to
    be aware of is that you will be unique each time (which makes it harder for them to correlate that it's you).

    If you need me to explain that point further, just ask as it's not
    understood byo 99 out of 100 people what I just said so it's OK if you wish
    me to clarify.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to mike on Wed Mar 22 08:39:36 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    mike wrote:

    As for being unique, I think you misunderstood so allow me to explain that it's the sum total of your "entropy" which makes you unique.

    No, I understand that it's the pieces they put together that make you
    uniquely identifiable, but some factors contribute a little, others a
    lot, e.g. here they're coded red/amber/green ...

    <https://amiunique.org/fp>

    On this machine there are two factors which are unique individually, and several others which each pin me within less that 1/100th of a percent
    of all users, so fiddling about with fonts would be kind of pointless.

    I just wondered if you knew that fonts were your worst "giveaway", or
    there might be something else you could focus on?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From mechanic@21:1/5 to mike on Wed Mar 22 11:28:46 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    On Wed, 22 Mar 2023 09:28:35 +0530, mike wrote:

    On 21-03-2023 16:32 Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

    Does anyone on this newsgroup already have a similar randomization
    working batch script that randomizes "stuff" in a directory?

    rather than mess with the fonts themselves, can you hide most of them
    from websites using browser settings, e,g for firefox

    font.system.whitelist

    Are you even sure that it's fonts which making you appear unique?

    There is nothing wrong with approaching the problem browser by browser by browser by browser by browser, but the maintenance of that is an issue.

    Better to approach the problem outside the browser itself, such that it
    works with all browsers and the maintenance, once running, should be none.

    As for being unique, I think you misunderstood so allow me to explain that it's the sum total of your "entropy" which makes you unique.

    However, the browser fonts are a major contributor to that entropy.

    The proposed solution will work to lower that entropy, however you may
    still have a unique set of characteristics - but - an important variant to
    be aware of is that you will be unique each time (which makes it harder for them to correlate that it's you).

    If you need me to explain that point further, just ask as it's not
    understood byo 99 out of 100 people what I just said so it's OK if you wish me to clarify.

    I notice that 'Brave' browser claims some sort of
    randomization,maybe that helps.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From mike@21:1/5 to mechanic@example.net on Wed Mar 22 21:14:40 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    On 22-03-2023 13:28 mechanic <mechanic@example.net> wrote:

    I notice that 'Brave' browser claims some sort of
    randomization,maybe that helps.

    There is nothing wrong with approaching the problem browser by browser by browser by browser by browser, which is what most people do I'm sure.

    I want to approach it without caring what the browser is.

    There are many advantages, one of which is works on all computers, for
    example. Instantly, it works on every Windows PC in the world.

    The browser by browser by browser by browser method can't do that.

    All I need is a good way to randomize the contents of a Windows folder.
    Using the native tools that come with every Windows 10/11 installation.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From mike@21:1/5 to usenet@andyburns.uk on Wed Mar 22 21:40:15 2023
    XPost: alt.msdos.batch

    On 22-03-2023 14:09 Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

    As for being unique, I think you misunderstood so allow me to explain that >> it's the sum total of your "entropy" which makes you unique.

    No, I understand that it's the pieces they put together that make you uniquely identifiable, but some factors contribute a little, others a
    lot, e.g. here they're coded red/amber/green ...

    OK. Good.
    You understand that some things give you more/less entropy than others.
    You understood the fonts are just one of those many things.

    <https://amiunique.org/fp>

    I was unique (which I had expected) using a default Firefox browser.
    I saved the results as text from Firefox.
    Please see my AmIUnique.txt values at the end of this discussion.

    On this machine there are two factors which are unique individually, and several others which each pin me within less that 1/100th of a percent
    of all users, so fiddling about with fonts would be kind of pointless.

    OK. Good.
    You understand that you take anti fingerprinting issues one by one.

    You start with the worst situation and when you fix that, you move down to
    the next worst situation, and so on, until you're no longer unique.

    To that end, I never said the only thing you "fiddle around with" are the fonts. Fonts are just one of the things you "fiddle around with" in fact.

    Generally the approach is to take the worst entropy situations in order.
    That's why they give you the entropy in the first place.

    One by one you whittle them down until you get to the fonts.
    Then what do you do?

    I just wondered if you knew that fonts were your worst "giveaway", or
    there might be something else you could focus on?

    I've run those EFF panopticlick style tests for so many years I can't count
    how many. Let's say for at least five or ten years (I don't remember).

    Often it's my fonts, but I have special fonts that I use for editing
    documents that have to be printed to exacting trademark standards.

    However, I could temporarily delete those fonts so I didn't bring up that
    point because I think MANY PEOPLE have the problem that fonts have an
    entropy which puts them higher on the list than if they didn't have fonts.

    Looking at my numbers for entropy at that site you suggested, here
    are my current AmIUnique.txt values using that one Firefox browser.

    As expected, many things are worse than fonts in terms of entropy.
    But fonts aren't good either.

    All I want is an easy way to randomize the contents of a Windows folder
    using the native tools that come with every Windows 10/11 installation.

    AmIUnique <https://amiunique.org/>

    * //My fingerprint <https://amiunique.org/fp>
    * //My history <https://amiunique.org/history>
    * //My extension <#>//My timeline <https://amiunique.org/timeline>//My
    fingerprint stability <https://amiunique.org/stability>
    * //Global statistics <https://amiunique.org/stats>
    * //FAQ <https://amiunique.org/faq>
    * //Privacy policy <https://amiunique.org/privacy>
    * //Privacy tools <https://amiunique.org/tools>
    * //Links <https://amiunique.org/links>
    * //Survey <https://amiunique.org/survey>
    * //Jobs <https://amiunique.org/jobs>
    * //About <https://amiunique.org/about>
    //My fingerprint <https://amiunique.org/fp>
    //My history <https://amiunique.org/history>
    //My extension <#>//My timeline
    <https://amiunique.org/timeline>//My fingerprint stability
    <https://amiunique.org/stability>
    //Global statistics <https://amiunique.org/stats>
    //FAQ <https://amiunique.org/faq>
    //Privacy policy <https://amiunique.org/privacy>
    //Privacy tools <https://amiunique.org/tools>
    //Links <https://amiunique.org/links>
    //Survey <https://amiunique.org/survey>
    //Jobs <https://amiunique.org/jobs>
    //About <https://amiunique.org/about>

    My browser fingerprint
    Are you unique ?
    Yes!
    You are unique among the 1529201 fingerprints in our entire dataset.

    The following informations reveal your OS, browser, browser version as
    well as your timezone and preferred language.

    Moreover, we show the proportion of users sharing the same elements.
    Windows 47.49%
    Firefox 38.17%
    Firefox v109 1.11%
    Timezone UTC+5.5 1.57%
    Language en 77.89%

    Similarity ratio duration :
    7 days = no
    15 days = no
    30 days = no
    90 days = no
    All time = yes

    //Download your fingerprint
    <xxx>// Download our browser extension <https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/amiunique/>

    Search:
    /HTTP headers attributes/
    Attribute Similarity ratio //All time Value
    User agent // 0.42% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/109.0
    Accept // 27.86% text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,*/*;q=0.8
    Content encoding // 95.73% gzip, deflate, br
    Content language // 31.76% en-US,en;q=0.5
    Upgrade Insecure Requests // 90.76% 1
    Do Not Track // 28.50% 1
    Referer // 0.71% https://amiunique.org/fp
    If none match // Unique

    Showing 1 to 8 of 8 entries
    Search:
    /Javascript attributes/
    Attribute Similarity ratio //All time Value
    User agent // 0.46% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/109.0
    Platform // 34.68% Win32
    Cookies enabled // 86.73% yes
    Timezone // 1.57% -330
    Content language // 40.66% en-US,en
    Canvas // 0.23%
    List of fonts (JS) // <0.01% Arabic Transparent, Arial, Arial Baltic, Arial Black, Arial CE and 129 others
    Use of Adblock // 65.67% no
    Do Not Track // 23.83% yes
    Navigator properties // 0.22% 43 properties in navigator object
    BuildID // 31.96% 20181001000000
    Product // 87.55% Gecko
    Product sub // 32.37% 20100101
    Vendor // 32.75% No value
    Vendor sub // 87.77% No value
    Hardware concurrency // 23.88% 4
    Java enabled // 87.43% false
    Device memory // 39.67% No value
    List of plugins // 34.62% Plugin 0: PDF Viewer; Portable Document Format; internal-pdf-viewer. Plugin 1: Chrome PDF Viewer; Portable Document Format; internal-pdf-viewer. Plugin 2: Chromium PDF Viewer; Portable Document
    Format; internal-pdf-viewer. Plugin 3: Microsoft Edge PDF Viewer; Portable Document Format; internal-pdf-viewer. Plugin 4: WebKit built-in PDF;
    Portable Document Format; internal-pdf-viewer.
    Screen width // 22.33% 1920
    Screen height // 21.04% 1080
    Screen depth // 79.05% 24
    Screen available top // 78.37% 0
    Screen available Left // <0.01% 1982
    Screen available Height // 7.81% 1080
    Screen available width // 0.11% 1858
    Screen left // 0.49% 1920
    Screen top // 32.16% 0
    Permissions // 2.27% geolocation : denied
    notifications : denied
    persistent-storage : prompt
    push : denied
    WebGL Vendor // 8.30% Google Inc. (NVIDIA)
    WebGL Renderer // 0.19% ANGLE (NVIDIA, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Direct3D11
    vs_5_0 ps_5_0)
    WebGL Data // 2.31%
    WebGL Parameters // 0.18% 26 different extensions
    25 different general parameters analyzed
    36 different shaders precisions analyzed
    Use of local storage // 86.38% yes
    Use of session storage // 86.46% yes
    Use of IndexedDB // 87.20% yes
    Audio formats // 16.36% No value
    Audio context // 16.36% No value
    Frequency analyser // 16.36% No value
    Audio data // 16.36% No value
    Video formats // 87.78% video/mp4; codecs="flac" : probably
    video/ogg; codecs="theora" : probably
    video/ogg; codecs="opus" : probably
    video/webm; codecs="vp9, opus" : probably
    video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis" : probably
    Media devices // 5.29% Timeout
    Accelerometer // 78.59% false
    Gyroscope // 79.05% false
    Proximity sensor // 79.05% false
    Keyboard layout // 46.27% Not supported
    Battery // 40.62% Not supported
    Connection // 44.35% Not supported
    key // 87.56% cookie
    Location bar // 87.19% Visible
    Menu bar // 87.22% Visible
    Personal bar // 87.20% Visible
    Status bar // 87.20% Visible
    Tool bar // 87.20% Visible
    Result state // 87.56% No value
    List of fonts (Flash) // 87.45% Flash not detected
    Screen resolution (Flash) // 87.45% Flash not detected
    Language (Flash) // 87.45% Flash not detected
    Platform (Flash) // 87.45% Flash not detected

    Showing 1 to 59 of 59 entries ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Plugins detail
    Number of plugin Similarity ratio All time Name of plugin
    Plugin 0 35.34% PDF Viewer
    Plugin 1 37.12% Chrome PDF Viewer
    Plugin 2 36.01% Chromium PDF Viewer
    Plugin 3 35.42% Microsoft Edge PDF Viewer
    Plugin 4 36.15% WebKit built-in PDF

    We use cookies and other storage mechanisms to make sure you can have
    the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site, we
    assume that you will be happy with it.Ok <#>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)