Update: I think I may have found what I was looking for. Posted in Edit 3.

I know this isn't a tech forum, but I know there are some users here that know a decent amount about these sort of things.

I try to do what I can, within reason, to stop sites from tracking me.

Clear history, cookies, and all other options available everytime I close my browser.
User an adblocker with numerous lists including privacy, tracking lists, and social blocking.
Enable do not track setting in browser and disable 3rd party cookies.

I also have a batch file that I made that deletes and recreates a few folders and I use this every once in a while. I created this because I found that Flash was storing information on all the sites I visit, like it's own cookies, and it never gets deleted, so I wanted to manually clear it every once in a while.

Now that pretty much all sites have switched to HTML5, I was wondering if there is something I can do to prevent websites from tracking me through HTML5. Whether there is a setting I can change to not allow them to collect certain information through it or if HTML5 keeps it's own information somewhere on my computer like Flash does and I can manually clear it once in a while.

I am interested because even after doing all that I do, there are still websites that identify me. One of these sites is volafile.org. Even though I clear everything I listed above and the last few digits of my IP address changes, every time I visit the site, it recognizes me and shows my previous conversation in chat from months ago. I don't even have an account on the site and just post anonymously.

Edit: I was just doing some reading on canvas fingerprinting and found that there are some add-ons that will let you send fake information. Does anyone have any experience with these? Do you think they are safe or even work?

Edit 2: I just installed Canvas Defender for Firefox and Volafile is still able to identify me. I'm guessing they are using a local HTML5 cookie that is being stored on my computer and not deleted by my browser.

Edit 3: I just found the folder where Firefox permanently saves information that does not get deleted through the browser and was able to delete the information that Volafile was using to "remember" me. The folder in Win 7 is: C:\Users\ your username \AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ your Firefox profile \storage\default

I really don't understand why these files aren't deleted when they give you a check box that specifically says "offline website data" when you clear your history. Have a look for yourself what it saved in this folder. I will be deleting everything in it on a regular basis from now on. You may also want to clear the temporary folder since it is not so temporary considering my folder still has stuff from last year even though I clear everything I can that the browser allows multiple times per day.

Some other folders in there that I don't like are "saved-telemetry-pings" and "datareporting". Not sure why it has any telemetry when I have telemetry disabled through about:config. I also have reporting disabled, but I guess Firefox still saves this information locally on my machine, but doesn't send it anywhere if you have reporting disabled, at least that is what I have read.

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Deponia Doomsday
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The Deed

5 years ago*

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Wish I could help, but I have been slowly losing the privacy battle. I am just worn out. I try to do things to keep my privacy, but it's a real uphill battle and I find myself letting things go here and there. Browser fingerprinting is one of those things. I hope you get some good, easy solutions though. Maybe I'll finally do something about it, then.

5 years ago
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Disable javascript everywhere. Also addon uMatrix can disable some third party elements

5 years ago
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I would, but unfortunately that destroys a lot of features of sites that I use and want.

5 years ago
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Blame devs for not making website functional

5 years ago
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But just about everyone has javascript enabled and they are programming with that in mind, so technically I would be making the site not functional by disabling javascript. I wouldn't blame them for that.

5 years ago
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I would suggest noscript to block some javascript. With noscript you can allow only the scripts you really need on a site and disable all the others. For example here on SG I've disabled the scripts from goolge-analytics.

5 years ago
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I might give it a try, I just don't know if I want to go through the constant hassle of having to unblock certain scripts from websites that it breaks. I already run uBlock Origin with tracking script blockers, but I'm sure it doesn't get everything.

5 years ago
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I have both uBlockO and NoScript and I'll say they're both worth having, even though they can cause issues every now and then.

I was surprised just how many unnecessary scripts a lot of the websites have. Of course it can be a time consuming hassle having to figure out which scripts you have to unblock to have the site work properly and which ones to keep blocked, but I still prefer this over having websites use bunch of unnecessary scripts on me, some of them being some kind of ad or analytic ones.

5 years ago
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Yeah, it's a hassle. That's why I resigned from using NoScript.

I open webpage and see blank page or without any formatting. Videos doesn't load and button doesn't work. So I unlock script that may look like it's necessary to run the site without problems and it turns out that site still doesn't load, and now next 20 scripts want to load.

But it's interesting to block scripts on google search engine. It looks like it did 10 years ago before they made those UI changes and hide most of features under extra clicks.

5 years ago
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I recommend checking out uBlock's medium mode. Their own description sums it up pretty well:

Roughly similar to using Adblock Plus with many filter lists + NoScript with 1st-party scripts/frames automatically whitelisted. Unlike NoScript however, you can easily point-and-click to block/allow scripts on a per-site basis.

Here's a quick guide how to use the dynamic filtering feature. Learning all this can be a little overwhelming at first but it's pretty straightforward to manage after using it a while.

5 years ago
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Thanks! Will check it later today :D

5 years ago
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Im using noscript addon for firefox that disables javascript by default, but lets you whitelist sites.

It would at least let you block tracking that imports scripts from other sites, like I have google analytics blocked everywhere

5 years ago
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I am already running uBlock Origin with tracking scripts blocked. It probably blocks all Google analytics, but I'm sure noscript blocks a lot more stuff.

5 years ago
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It's hard to fight for privacy when all companies are fighting to gather always more data of you

5 years ago
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im no expert but if you believe the information is stored on your computer you could run your browser in sandboxie it basically makes a fake partition that runs the program and any files associated with it which gets "formatted" whenever you tell it to.

as for remote caching idk

5 years ago
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I would be interested to know if HTML5 has its own files stored on my computer that keeps track of sites I visit like Flash does so I can delete them. I don't mind manually deleting them every once in a while.

I think most sites now track people with identifying information, such as your OS version, browser version, GPU version, and other stuff like that. I did just find out about something called canvas fingerprinting and there are add-ons that you can use to send out fake information and then change the information whenever you want to give yourself a new identity. I don't know how well it works though.

I will look into sandboxie, but I don't know if that is what I am looking for.

5 years ago
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Sandboxie gives you tools to view all the files created within the sandbox and their "locations" so i suppose you could use it to test it out.

if it dosen't help for that its still a useful tool that I've used on quite a few occasions playing around with dangerous programs. Hope someone else with more insight can help you out!

5 years ago
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I'll look into it. I can probably find the local HTML5 files, I just haven't searched for them yet. From what I have read, it is called LSO data.

5 years ago
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I just found where the local files were saved for Firefox and deleted them. The location is posted in Edit 3.

5 years ago
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There are add-ons that can change your fingerprint every time and there is the one that i use (canvas defender) that generates noise to add to your real fingerprint.
This way your hash is different for the site than your real one. This is not exactly what you want but i read somewhere that it is better to keep a single different fingerprint than generating new ones every time. This variation from the same ip makes you a deviant and more easily traceable.

5 years ago
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Darn it i just woke up.
Re-reading your post, the edit part, i can answer you why volafile identifies you. Canvas defender generates a hash noise that then insert in you real fingerprint. That way your fingerprint is the same for volafile the second time you visit it. At the same time though, it is different than your real one.
Has your ip changed anytime between those tests? Maybe it tracks your ip so it remembers based on a combination of IP and fingerprints or something else.
If you have a router with dynamic IP just restart it for science.

5 years ago
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My IP changes on a regular basis, probably every day, but only the last 3 digits. Volafile has been able to identify me as the same user for months even though I never log in and always clear my cookies. I just installed Canvas Defender today and tried it and Volafile was still able to identify my as the same user. I think they are using a local HTML5 cookie that is stored on my computer forever and not erased through the browser. I need to locate the folder where those are saved and manually delete them. I know where these are stored for Flash, but I have not searched for the HTML5 files yet.

5 years ago
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This can explain the way html5 stores data in a simple way. You just need the top information don't dig too much.
Then search for a local storage clearing add on. I can see some for chrome but not for firefox.
/edit and this!

5 years ago
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Thanks. I did some digging through the files on my computer and managed to find where Firefox saves local data that never gets deleted. I'm not sure if this is where the HTML5 data is saved, but it was what I was looking for. I posted the location in Edit 3 in the OP.

5 years ago
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Happy to help.

5 years ago
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Thank you for this info!

5 years ago
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xD

5 years ago
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Maybe this will help https://www.digitalprivacywise.com/browser-extensions-protect-digital-privacy/
lost battle, but we can try.

5 years ago
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Thanks for the link. I am already doing most of the things they list, but I will check out the other stuff.

5 years ago
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I hope you will find something that will help you. Do you block stuff with the host file?

5 years ago
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No, I don't really see a reason to do that, I wouldn't know what to block.

5 years ago
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Not specify for this case, but in general. I'm using this https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

5 years ago
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Thank you for the link, I will check it now.

5 years ago
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Bump :)

5 years ago
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Bump!

5 years ago
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That's a very interesting read. I clear cookies from time to time and use AdBlock but I'm a bit wary of using NoScript as I know it makes some pages to load incorrectly.

Thank you for making this thread (and GAs ;)) and thank you to everyone who contributed :)

5 years ago
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thx this was helpful

5 years ago
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