TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Privacy Analyzer – See what data is exposed from the browser

4 pointsby realpanzeralmost 5 years ago

1 comment

hilbert42almost 5 years ago
Anyone who has read my recent HN posts would know that I proudly disable JavaScript in my browsers and have done so for several decades.<p>Now <i>Privacy Analyzer</i> has given me yet another excellent reason to continue doing so. Without JavaScript running <i>Privacy Analyzer</i> WON&#x27;T EVEN START let alone give you any useful information! These tests were done on both a PC and on an android smartphone with security plug-ins&#x2F;add-ons disabled and the results (given the differences in technology) were essentially the same. Note: several browsers had no plug-ins installed, only JS disabled.<p>As I&#x27;ve been saying for years, the first line in defence of your privacy is to turn JavaScript off, all other protection measures, whilst useful, are of secondary importance.<p>Moreover, <i>Privacy Analyzer</i> is essentially useless even with JavaScript turned on. With just one add-on <i>(Secret Agent)</i> running, it successfully spoofed my location (randomly put me on the other side of the world), put me on another—now incorrect—IP address, randomly changed my User Agent to nothing like the one I was using, and <i>Privacy Analyzer</i> didn&#x27;t know my PC&#x27;s processor (among other things that it had also gotten incorrect).<p>I know I sound like a repeating scratched record about JavaScript—but don&#x27;t take my word for it, just do the tests and prove what I&#x27;m saying for yourselves.<p><i>BTW, if you want to do these security&#x2F;privacy tests both with and without JavaScript enabled then I&#x27;d suggest you use Steve Gibson&#x27;s &#x27;ShieldsUP!&#x27; — GRC (Gibson Research Corporation) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.grc.com&#x2F;shieldsup" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.grc.com&#x2F;shieldsup</a>. It&#x27;s been around for years and works well.</i>