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Linux has /etc/machine-id and you forgot to setup your init daemon to periodically truncate and regenerate a new machine-id so you can be tracked via user telemetry analytics. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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Ultimately, the problem is much bigger than /etc/machine-id since there are dozens of hardware IDs on any PC that can be used by malicious telemetry to silently to uniquely identify and track you, and the only solution to this problem currently is to make sure you really trust any software you use.

Systemd, in particular, acts a lot like malware for Linux because if you try to reset your machine-id a long list of stuff that breaks in in it. You could make a cron script to reset /etc/machine-id every day, but machine-id is so deep in the stack that you'd also have to reboot to ensure it's updated.

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[–] 27 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Wat? If you have something running on your system that's tracking you, you are already fucked. It doesn't require that file. It can just create one anywhere on the system and use it, if need be.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    The problem with machine-id specifically is that it's become a standard way for the browser to identify itself. There obviously other ways you can be tracked, but this is a very low bar and a common way of sites tracking people.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    this is really shocking. wouldn't browser makers concerned with privacy like librewolf, mullvad, ungoogled-chromium, etc, try to block this by default? is it that they don't know? is it that it can't be blocked?

    how does a regular user of a typical linux distribution like fedora or debian block this?

    is this machine-id used to track people on hardened distros like tails or qubes?

    can this machine id be read by sites when using tor browser?

    i don't understand why debian, for example, who removed telemetry from keepassxc before putting it in their repo because they didn't like a password manager phoning home, would allow a persistent id that could be easily read by many sites.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    A browser is one example, what's the alternative to that other than sticking it inside some sandbox or something?

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