What Does Google Know About My Mac

its g00gle who makes millions $$$ each year from the internet so of course they have their own special ways to identify users:rolleyes:
 
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goinviral said:
I run multiple machines that I run vmware on (7 actually). However you can run different versions of windows from the same machine I do do this on 1 or 2 machines. I run each instance off of external hard drives, it is a bit slower but not noticeably. Once I have the vmware booted I fire off my macros and bots and walk away. SO I dont really care if the machine is slow to boot. My office also has 4 different broadband providers and I have lots of proxies, some on my own dedicated servers. My wife calls my office "the factory" which is pretty close to the truth. Yeah I checked a few of my machines on eff awhile ago and all considered different machines. So yes it works.
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Now that's the kind of thorough I can get behind.

Thanks for your answers guys and gals. I suspected it was a bit more complicated than cookies and caches but I wasn't sure how deep they could see. It feels right that the browser/OS leaves a unique enough sig to identify, um, my friend unless some measures are taken.

Panopticon confirms it: "Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 20.83 bits of identifying information."

I would imagine G takes all that info and throws it in a copyscape-like application, sorts out the repeats, and bans all my (friends') accounts! Not for every user of course, which is why a lot of the time you can fly under the radar for a while before pulling anything really risky. Then, enough trouble out of you and bam. Off to the public library with ya.
 
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mouthpaw said:
Geez guys. Now you got me all paranoid. I look up, but nothing there. I look down to type again, and out of the corner of my eye I can see furry little preference-sniffing porn-busting pussies looking in my windows.

The G:batman::batman:gle Pussy Update: stealthiest, most sophisticated algorithm yet.
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You can change your Mac from Windows
 
Truly this in an invaluable thread. Thanks again for all the info.

After looking at the panopticlick proile of my comp again, It's clearly the browser plugins and system fonts that kill me, while user-agent isn't necessarily helping.

user agent uniqueness: 1 in 8,600+/-
browser plugin uniqueness 1 in 1,895,756
system fonts: same as plugins (interestingly)

turn off js and the most unique thing anyone can grab (according to panopticlick) is http_accept headers, at 8,500+/-.

The above comment about being able to view system profiler info is far above the worst however, as the mac address is listed there, and that's 100% unique and (as far as I know) unchangeable. Can anyone verify or deny this one? I can't seem to find anything in my searches.

If true, I'm gonna need 7 computers too. :D
 
mouthpaw said:
Truly this in an invaluable thread. Thanks again for all the info.

After looking at the panopticlick proile of my comp again, It's clearly the browser plugins and system fonts that kill me, while user-agent isn't necessarily helping.

user agent uniqueness: 1 in 8,600+/-
browser plugin uniqueness 1 in 1,895,756
system fonts: same as plugins (interestingly)

turn off js and the most unique thing anyone can grab (according to panopticlick) is http_accept headers, at 8,500+/-.

The above comment about being able to view system profiler info is far above the worst however, as the mac address is listed there, and that's 100% unique and (as far as I know) unchangeable. Can anyone verify or deny this one? I can't seem to find anything in my searches.

If true, I'm gonna need 7 computers too. :D
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MAC addresses cannot be found without the use of JS plugins, possibly just based on javascript - if you disable JS, you're in the clear there. I DID find some ancient PHP code that is supposed to be able to grab a MAC address, but from my testing it was inaccurate.

Btw, you don't need 7 computers, just run VMs. Look into Oracle VM VirtualBox - it's free! I believe it can run on Mac/Linux, too.
 
Jrim_Software said:
MAC addresses cannot be found without the use of JS plugins, possibly just based on javascript - if you disable JS, you're in the clear there. I DID find some ancient PHP code that is supposed to be able to grab a MAC address, but from my testing it was inaccurate.

Btw, you don't need 7 computers, just run VMs. Look into Oracle VM VirtualBox - it's free! I believe it can run on Mac/Linux, too.
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You can't get the MAC address using javascript because js is sandboxed from hardware by the browser. The only way to get a MAC address via a browser that I know of is using ActiveX, which does allow direct access to hardware. So, don't use IE.
 
Ahh and for the topic:

Use CCleaner and remove google cookies from the "to not erase" list,
disable plugins. Google may be powerfull... But not THAT powerfull ;)
You should be fine.

If you really want to do save just use a Linux USB distribution or something like that.

Cheers,

Black.Star
 
OK, I found this: "when information leaves your computer it has your computer's MAC address, but when it arrives at your router that MAC address is removed. When the information is sent by your router further upstream to your ISP's router, it contains the MAC address of your router. When it moves from the ISPs router to another router on the internet, it contains the MAC address of the ISPs router. And so on."


But also, as mazgalici said above, this: "The MAC address can be set in software in many network interfaces, meaning that whatever the original MAC address, it can be overridden later."
 
Autumn said:
You can't get the MAC address using javascript because js is sandboxed from hardware by the browser. The only way to get a MAC address via a browser that I know of is using ActiveX, which does allow direct access to hardware. So, don't use IE.
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You're correct, sorry! I was thinking of using the router configuration page where you can change the MAC Address and there is always a button to clone the MAC of the PC you're accessing from... but it must be getting your MAC based on your connection to the router rather than through the browser.
 
mouthpaw said:
The above comment about being able to view system profiler info is far above the worst however, as the mac address is listed there, and that's 100% unique and (as far as I know) unchangeable. Can anyone verify or deny this one? I can't seem to find anything in my searches.:D
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Hi, mate.

It was me who previously commented about system profiler. I'm very afraid that I cannot remember the URL where I found my Macintosh fully exposed; but every specification from my computer appeared onscreen while visiting this website, that's for sure.

(It was a promotional page about some software. Sort of CleanMyMac, CCcleaner... that kind.)

Last months I've been thoroughly researching on anonymity, as I intend to build a lot of Micro Niche Sites for Adsense, through several different accounts, and, perhaps, a private blog network too (in due course).

On my view, some posters here have given you the best possible solution: install VMWare Fusion and several instances of Windows on top of it, so that your Mac specs don't be leaked any longer, but the ones from a ficticious PC computer appear on instead.

Just make sure to change your MAC Address in VMWare, for the default one that this software asigns to you smells "virtual" from miles away.
 
Autumn said:
I have java disabled in my browser and it still ID'd me. Not to say that java isn't a big security risk, but you can still get all of the info on panopticlick by just using javascript.
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You're right about that.

The nice thing about virtual machines is that in most cases (like VMWare ones) you can run them inside a window and have the resolution change dynamically as you resize it. That takes care of the resolution variable and the OS one as well. Then you're left to deal with the user-agent string, the plugins you've got installed, your IP, etc.
 
Search for Panopticlick and you'll see a fingerprint of everything that's readily retrievable. This data can be easily aggregated to figure out your habits.
Additionally you'll see that your configuration is highly unique.
 
Of course they can tell what OS you are using. Your browser passes along that information. You can see the data in Google Analytics.
 
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