Not An Issue: Detectability of POOP and its impact on browser's fingerprint.

[rarecaller]

If possible, I'd like to know how POOP matches Tor's uniformity strategy. In other words, if POOP is installed in my Tor Browser, can the websites detect its activity on my side and thus distinguish me from other Tor users? It'd be great to understand the overall impact on the browser's fingerprint.

[claustromaniac]

if POOP is installed in my Tor Browser, can the websites detect its activity on my side and thus distinguish me from other Tor users?

I already answered this particular question here. The short answer is yes.

It'd be great to understand the overall impact on the browser's fingerprint.

The impact is described in the documentation. This extension is not a tool against fingerprinting: it's a tool that prevents some fairly common very specific data leaks. POOP does not actively try to make you stand out, but the difference in your fingerprint is very intentional, because said difference is merely the absence of those data leaks. When servers expect your browser to leak that data and then notice it didn't, that automatically makes your browser look different to them than the rest of its visitors who don't have POOP (or a similar extension) installed. That is all there is to it.

[rarecaller]

Oh, the world is small! At first I didn't realize that the man from that community and the man behind the POOP is the same person.

But since this issue is already created anyway, may I additionally ask for your subjective opinion: comparing the privacy risks that POOP eliminates with privacy risks caused by sacrificing Tor's uniformity for POOP's sake - what would you choose to reduce traceability?

[claustromaniac]

The Tor Browser is a tool, and like any other tool, it can be misused. Someone who misuses it might actually benefit from installing POOP in some scenarios, but I would generally advice against installing any extensions in that browser (POOP included).

[rarecaller]

The problem is that today there is just no desktop browser, properly designed for everyday privacy needs, so I don't see any other choice but to misuse something like Tor Browser. Almost all the browsers that are said to be privacy-focused are actually leaky faucets which still reveal many enough parameters convenient to track us easily. If I were adverting company, I'd just drop the points altering by this placebo tools and focus on the rest.

Previously, I also had spent a lot of time trying to make something decent from the basic Firefox, but then realized that it was just as pointless as trying to cook soup in a colander. In my opinion, only the Tor Browser developers really do something out of the placebo category. That's why I use it as the basis for my setup. And I'm also excited about last year's Safari update with its "Fingerprinting defense", as it could be a big step towards true uniformity. However, I have not yet investigated it closely.