How to avoid being data mined / advertising surveillance

[mapleLC]

This thread is for those that do not need convincing.

Start with a PI-Hole installation.  You'll be amazed how much of internet traffic is really just junk.  23% in my home, now filtered.  Even if you have a crap router, you can still make very easy adjustments and use PI-Hole, I can help anyone.

The data mining machine relies more and more on linking concentric circles, evidenced by my recent VPN experiment.  I setup a VPN on a separate switch in my house, on 24/7.  I switched several computers there and google search went apoplectic.  I started getting challenges constantly, every search.  They can't stand you on a VPN because they can't data mine you and so they annoy the shit out of you until you search somewhere else because they actually DONT WANT your search data if they cannot mine you.

I'm in the middle of several other experiments around data mining I can report back on.  This problem is way worse than I ever imagined it would be at this point.  There is a company called Palantir that is fundamental in much of this, or at least what it represents.  They are actively trying to link us together across their data mine streams because they are way more valuable that way.  This is why the cell phone number as a bullshit security measure is becoming so prominent now.

Quite a lot of the data mining out there is masked as "security". 

My personal takeaway here is that I see things moving in a direction that data mining us is more important than what is actually made on a particular widget you are sold. All the unnecessary "create an account" bullshit is part of this.  Research how much revenue is generated per individual, if your numbers approach mine, you will not find it believable, I struggle to.

[Psi]

How does a pi hole work with regard to websites that require you to disable ad blockers?

[BradC]

With the greatest of respect, this kinda sounds like the 10 year old who has just discovered David Bowie "teaching" his parents about their "new discovery".

Welcome to the cesspool that is the 'net. Believe it, and also you've only just scratched the surface.

[mapleLC]

You setup PI-HOLE as a DNS server, it then becomes a passthru service, but filters out the junk.  At this point, though, its actually NOT a DNS server, its a passthru.

Adblockers are a bit different. 

Pi-hole gets into the middle of the DNS process and filters the lookups.  It doesn't block every ad, or is meant to as far as I understand. It's more about getting at the nefarious stuff.  There is more of a security side to pi-hole than an ad blocker.

Example install (you can install on an old PC):

https://www.crosstalksolutions.com/the-worlds-greatest-pi-hole-and-unbound-tutorial-2023/

Next stage with Pi-hole is to install Unbound.  That will turn PH into a DNS server, cutting out all the data mining and income generated by the DNS queries you generate.

https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/

With these 2 together within weeks I even started to notice the snail mail at my house started to change.  Now I do not get the bullshit 100,000 free silicon dollars letters I got regularly by tech lending startups.

[mapleLC]

With the greatest of respect, this kinda sounds like the 10 year old who has just discovered David Bowie "teaching" his parents about their "new discovery".

Welcome to the cesspool that is the 'net. Believe it, and also you've only just scratched the surface.

The person who replied a second ago had no awareness of Pi-Hole, but is certainly aware the net has a lot of bad things.  Life works like that sometimes.

[AndyBeez]

Would someone define "data mining"? Do you mean data analytics, banner ads and third party cookies from the likes of Google and Amazon?

Blocking does not stop data mining when logged in as you're "consenting" to what ever the site owner wants to do with your metadata.

DNS filtering is more practical when it comes to protecting devices and networks from known malware sites. But it can only block whole sites and not parts thereof. Adblockers are often browser level filters, offering frame, division and wildcard protection, per web page.

The most effective data mining counter measure is to clear history, data and cookies on a browser's exit.

[mapleLC]

Would someone define "data mining"? Do you mean data analytics, banner ads and third party cookies from the likes of Google and Amazon?

Blocking does not stop data mining when logged in as you're "consenting" to what ever the site owner wants to do with your metadata.

DNS filtering is more practical when it comes to protecting devices and networks from known malware sites. But it can only block whole sites and not parts thereof. Adblockers are often browser level filters, offering frame, division and wildcard protection, per web page.

The most effective data mining counter measure is to clear history, data and cookies on a browser's exit.

It deserves a narrower definition than when it started.   Originally it was analyzing raw data for patterns, really useful. 

Then, because we can't have nice things, it started being abused.  Data mining, as I see the definition, is a mechanism to profit from you unwittingly/unknowingly/unwillingly.

The cache was a good defense, and now the system has evolved to counter that, this has gone way beyond the cookie/session.

[TERRA Operative]

Pi-hole
Firefox Browser with:
NoScript
Ublock Origin
Privacy Badger
Decentraleyes
Facebook Container


And on my phone I added the github version of NetGuard which gives me device-wide adblocking and allows me to block everything from network access except the few apps I allow.

On my Phone I also use Firefox with Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger and Decentraleyes

I use Protonmail for email with the settings set to block remote content, and I use FairEmail for other accounts with the settings set to harden security and block remote content (unless I say).

[NiHaoMike]

Another thing to do is generate fake data for them to track.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015784/adsense-google-surveillance-adnauseam-obfuscation/
http://makeinternetnoise.com

[mapleLC]

Decentraleyes

This is interesting because it feeds the data miners content in place of what they expect.  You mention it under phone, just phone?

Another thing to do is generate fake data for them to track.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015784/adsense-google-surveillance-adnauseam-obfuscation/
http://makeinternetnoise.com

I love this idea.  Google banned it from their Chrome store?  That means it has merit.  I wonder, are the advertisers getting raped with ad clicks?  I dont want to hurt the mom and pop types.

[Kjelt]

Or you just realized that they already got what they needed the last couple of years and whish them good luck with their useless big data storage.

[mapleLC]

Would someone define "data mining"? Do you mean data analytics, banner ads and third party cookies from the likes of Google and Amazon?

Blocking does not stop data mining when logged in as you're "consenting" to what ever the site owner wants to do with your metadata.

DNS filtering is more practical when it comes to protecting devices and networks from known malware sites. But it can only block whole sites and not parts thereof. Adblockers are often browser level filters, offering frame, division and wildcard protection, per web page.

The most effective data mining counter measure is to clear history, data and cookies on a browser's exit.

I changed the title and added Advertising Surveillance.  This is kinda the rubicon that has been crossed.  We went from interns building spreadsheets with some advertising metrics to an all out onslaught where you are being tracked across platforms with tools like Palantir.

The difference is the express intent to generate profit off of your identity vs find you to advertise to you.  That's a pretty cataclysmic difference going unfettered.

The best equivalence I can think of is High Frequency Trading. Its a problem whose scale is so massive it touches everyone, but nothing stops it, no matter how aware some folks claim to be.

[Berni]

The reason that using a VPN tends to get you captcha verification screens is different.

Typically a VPN will put a large number of users on the same WAN IP and some users might be running bots on it, so they end up tripping various bot detection mechanisms. Can happen even if the bots are scraping a different site since a lot of websites use cloudflare as protection/cache so they put IP addresses with suspected bot activity onto a special suspicious list. Among other things cloudflare also leaves cookies to remember users who seamed to be able to solve captchas, so that they stop nagging them with it.

Personally i use PiHole too runing as a docker container on a Unraid NAS server. It works nicely. As for bypassing sites that don't like you blocking ads, you can usually 'hack' them with the F12 menu to remove it. Worst case you can set up a second browser that is set up to reach past the PiHole DNS wall.

[TERRA Operative]

Decentraleyes

This is interesting because it feeds the data miners content in place of what they expect.  You mention it under phone, just phone?

I use it on both phone and PC.

[mapleLC]

The reason that using a VPN tends to get you captcha verification screens is different.

Typically a VPN will put a large number of users on the same WAN IP and some users might be running bots on it, so they end up tripping various bot detection mechanisms. Can happen even if the bots are scraping a different site since a lot of websites use cloudflare as protection/cache so they put IP addresses with suspected bot activity onto a special suspicious list. Among other things cloudflare also leaves cookies to remember users who seamed to be able to solve captchas, so that they stop nagging them with it.

Its partly true, though the reason is not as clear as it used to be.  There are technical reasons to be challenged with a captcha, but there are more non-technical reasons now than before.

My observation is systems are now very sensitive to the data stream being interrupted. For example, try signing up on a large enterprise type website, then go to your email behind a vpn and click the verification link.  It doesn't like it.  You see the systems reacting, captchas challenges, escalations, account reviews, its all murky but seems more and more connected to creating and keeping a contiguous data stream about you going, way beyond what was once called a "user profile" into something much more real time.

[Haenk]

My observation is systems are now very sensitive to the data stream being interrupted. For example, try signing up on a large enterprise type website, then go to your email behind a vpn and click the verification link.  It doesn't like it.  You see the systems reacting, captchas challenges, escalations, account reviews, its all murky but seems more and more connected to creating and keeping a contiguous data stream about you going, way beyond what was once called a "user profile" into something much more real time.

Not sure if that is a bad thing. Initiate a verification and then don't carry that site cookie from seconds ago? That's dubious. Initiate a verification and carry a nigerian VPN IP? That's sketchy.

Bu then they may fingerprint me as much as they want to - I will only buy things that I want to buy, I will only vote my way and no, I won't buy your illegal pills. Advertisement thrown at me is a complete waste of money, but glad you paid for my data anyway.