[OU] How to anonymize Opera?

Sat Aug 2 09:34:40 UTC 2008

Hi Bessenyei Balázs

Bessenyei Balázs wrote:
> Hi, I'm Balázs, sorry about the missing introduction.
> 
> I'm not on opera developer team or associated with the company any way.
> 
> The link you have provided to the privacy optimized FF profil. States in  
> the second sentence, the following:
> "We recommend using JonDoFox together with JonDo"
> So they admit that even with that profil you are not "safe".
They are not admitting nothing there.
Just test the site-test from your opera, try to amsk and everything, you
will see it don't works: The test reveals to any one who uses the same
test technique (Paypal, Google, Opera, hackered/spoofed sites) your real
user-agent details: Opera browser and worst, your OS.

> 
> As I have said before that information is required for normal site  
> operations, also that information can be used to track your activities.
> You can remove that information useing proxy servers, but it will cause  
> issues with some sites.

Yes, you may need to allow for specific sites you feel are safe cookies,
javascript, plugins (e.g. your banking, gmail , , youtube, etc.

(gmail allows NOW (result from many user protests) for a version without
javascript -only cookies needed- (yes, some reduced functionality, bad
webmasters job or intentionally done)

But as javascript and plugins are VERY dangerous for your data
protection, there are many webmasters and corporations swithcing to more
secure web-designs, pure html, etc.
Javascript should be banned as evil, or bundle with some kind of secure
filterings for bad/dangerous/unnapropiate/unnacepted behaviors. Privoxy
(a must in your privacy/securuty toolbox) does a bit of that already .

> Nowdays sites are using javascript to determine the capabilities of your  
> browser and lots of other information regarding your browsing session. 
Every security Internet advisor will reccomend ALWAYS to swith-off your
javascript.
Javascript is a beautiful way to design powerful sites, BUT that was
before Internet become so dangerous and unsafe.
An easiest way to infect your PC with keyloggers, rootkits, trojans,
spambots and viruses FOR life is via javascript.
A huge % oft he worldwide computers are infected.

So
> even behind proxies you can be identifed and profiled. 
If you are so innocent and ignorant to still leave enable javascript!

You only make it a
> bit harder for them and much less inconvinient for yourself. Forget the  
> top of the page and see the bottom of it, there are lot more interesting  
> data regarding you that is apparent at first.
> Also there is the IP address, which simply can't be filtered out. You can  
> however use anonimizer networks to hide it like Tor, or JonDo. 
The IP should always be masked via an anonymizer network. Ig f the
hacker (robot or human) knows your Ip they got 80% of the job done to
hack your PC.
Soon all ISP will offer those anonymization services, for free or for a
litle extra, besides an https proxy to hide from neigbour sniffering.
The UN will anyway enforce govs and ISP to provide them to protect
citizen privacy rights.

But even
> those network can't protect you completly. Traffic analysis are one of the  
> possible methods to break them.

Security, as privacy is never absolute, but you will not drive a car
without your safety belts. Only a few decades ago those didn't exists.
Today cars and road must specify a security specifications that only one
decade ago cars couldn't satisfy at all.
Thank to this progress, fatal accidents have lowered perhaps to 50%.
Even today, you are quite SAFER on a big Audi or Saab, than in a litle
corean car.

> 
> As you can see, with external software and settings you can make yourself  
> less profilable. But this way you will be give up correct rendering and  
> speed (Tor and such networks are not very fast). But you can rest assured,  
> if they want to track you, they will track you. 
No and no, you can protect you quite a lot.
You must defend yourself and your family and your world, you must fight,
protest, react, and denounce, a passive fatalist attitude don't will
gave a chance to human being to progress to a fairer world.

Internet is like
> interpersonal communication, if you are interacting with people (or  
> servers) you will leave traces. In both cases it can be used against you.  
> If you want to avoid that, have a life that can't be stained, after  
> reassembling those information, live without regrets.
> 
> If you think you can't have fine grained control in Opera than in FF  
> regarding information sent to the page you are completly wrong. Just rigth  
> click on the page and choose site preference. If you want to do this  
> before visiting sites, modify the global defaults CTRL-F12 / Advanced, and  
> use the previously mentioned site specific settings for sites you trust.
> 
> The only sure identification method I know of on the internet is the IP  
> address. 
Yes, not any more with strong anonymizers as tor, jap(jondonym), i2p or
many apid ones as anonymizer.com, steganos.com, etc.

The information in the header or the top of the JonDoes website
> is irrevelant by itself. Whey is it hurt you that the site you are  
> visiting wants to know that how many of their vistors useing windows, or  
> opera or any other browser?
> Without the ip address it is problematic to link it to you, and nothing  
> more just a nameless statistical data (if that brothers you use a proxy,  
> global and site specific settings).
> For hideing the IP you can use Tor or some other networks, if it is big  
> enough and useing appropiate criptografic algorithm and you are not too  
> important you can get lucky and not be traced. If you are interesetd,  
> recently even skype's encryipted voice traffic can be reconstructed,  
> without breakingg the encryption, over 50% accuracy, thanks to the  
> variable bit rate encodeing.
You are right. Interesting info about skype and voip.
> 
> Also I will rest my case with the following information. The "Optimized"  
> profile is nothing more than a javascript. 

You didn't make your home job.
This JONDOFOX https://www.jondos.de/en/jondofox  profile for FF (It
should be good to create a similar pre-set-for-privacy profile-settings
for Opera, my opera has lots of custom settingn and extra toolbar
buttons enabling and disabling at one mouse click cookies,javascript,
etc, but still at as whole browser sets, need a button for quick setting
the tabbed specific current site (instead of menu-editsiteferences...-
todo) and includes lots of privacy specific settings and extra privacy
tools (pre-setted for a good protection) addons:

Noscript http://noscript.net/features (please read this: 25,331,347
total downloads, twenty five millions) (javascript blocker/allower per
site wih lots of per site/global extra privacy tweakings (allow/block
iframes,flash,Silverlight.Java,other plugins, etc.

Other amin addons are adblockplus, coockieswap, cslite (cookie
allower/blocker/+per-site-settings), etc.

Plus privacy focussed settings.

Try FF3! You can't speak about Opera without testing regularly
competitors, the most relevant now is FF3 with the Jondofox profile,
pointing to an anonymizer proxy network.

Since Opera supports user
> scripts that profile can be applied in Opera as well. Unortunalty you need  
> to addapt it to be Opera specific, or use it to rewrite the opera6.ini.
> 
> 

It should be good to create a similar pre-set-for-privacy
profile-settings for Opera, my opera has lots of custom settings and
extra toolbar buttons enabling and disabling at one mouse click
cookies,javascript, etc, but still at as whole browser sets, need a
button for quick setting the tabbed specific current site (instead of
menu-editsiteferences...)- todo.

I have to learn on using user scripts, still an obscure Opera tweaking
way for me, Opera remains badly tweakeable for common mortals.

Thanks Bessenyei Balázs to talk about all this, I am reading you with
attention.

I have posted a new thread to refresh this annoying user's privacy
rights lacks from Opera, titled "Updating to 9.51 don't respect my
preferences"
See you there also!.

Mac