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  • Baccusboy

    Teecha, teecha
    Oct 10, 2010
    13,881
    Seoul
    Use Brave on YouTube, and do not sign in.

    Blocks the ads and videos
     

    Baccusboy

    Teecha, teecha
    Oct 10, 2010
    13,881
    Seoul
    Brave is supported by Linux. I'm running it on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

    EDIT: I went to their site hoping to find a link for download and strangely they say there is no direct support. I'm running it and it works great. I wish I could remember how the hell I got it on there (I've been running it for a year probably on this particular machine.)

    Brave works on my MX Linux machine, and Linux Lite.
     

    Baccusboy

    Teecha, teecha
    Oct 10, 2010
    13,881
    Seoul
    Okay. I'm up and running Brave. In the system tray I see two dots, which in Firefox I've got two iterations of Firefox running. In Brave it appears on is Brave the second is Brave running a private TOR window. Is this typical?

    Brave gives you the option of browsing with TOR or not. It asks you very openly if/when you want to use it. Default is normal non-tor browsing.
     

    toppkatt

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 22, 2017
    1,185
    Brave gives you the option of browsing with TOR or not. It asks you very openly if/when you want to use it. Default is normal non-tor browsing.

    Apparently either I changed a setting, or maybe not, but when I sign on to my e-maill account it automatically opens a TOR window. I don't have a problem with that, just wasn't expecting that.
     

    sickpuppyz

    your mom sends me care packages
    Jun 14, 2020
    120
    MoCo
    a simple search will reveal some less known browser that have enhanced privacy and even built in vpn. I haven't tried them yet but I am seriously debating between TOR and UR browsers. I have to admit that I am hooked on Chrome mostly because it may take me some time to import all of the bookmarks and arrange settings in a new browser. But even if you have chrome, VPN services like CyberGhost offer a free browser extension VPN that gets turned on and off with a simple click and it works. I have verified that my IP is not what others see when I use the VPN service.
     

    Derek1320

    Active Member
    Nov 10, 2009
    791
    I have to admit that I am hooked on Chrome mostly because it may take me some time to import all of the bookmarks and arrange settings in a new browser. .

    Brave has a nice handy import feature that can pull bookmarks from other browsers. Chromium based Edge does the same if you can stomach it (consider it slightly less offensive Chrome.)
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    a simple search will reveal some less known browser that have enhanced privacy and even built in vpn. I haven't tried them yet but I am seriously debating between TOR and UR browsers. I have to admit that I am hooked on Chrome mostly because it may take me some time to import all of the bookmarks and arrange settings in a new browser. But even if you have chrome, VPN services like CyberGhost offer a free browser extension VPN that gets turned on and off with a simple click and it works. I have verified that my IP is not what others see when I use the VPN service.


    For me it depends on the level of security or anonymity I feel I need.

    Low level like general browsing or online shopping I use VPN with a local US host and browse through DDG. This is for both PC and Mobile use.

    Next level might be for browsing risky sites or anything I really don’t want prying eyes to see, I turn off the VPN and just use TOR from windows.

    If I want to step it up another notch and say browse the dark web or send the most secure emails through protonmail, I now use Tails OS and it’s self contained TOR vm browser. Tails will scramble your MAC address when connected via Cat5 ethernet cable, but not WiFi.

    I’ve tested all three configurations for computer fingerprint and the Tails OS really does a good job making sure your online fingerprint is not unique.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    I’ve been toying around with the features of my new Synology NAS and discovered a linux app called Whoogle. Basically it works as a locally hosted search that uses the Google search data, BUT filters out all of the google spy-crap.

    https://pypi.org/project/whoogle-search/

    Features
    No ads or sponsored content
    No javascript
    No cookies
    No tracking/linking of your personal IP address*
    No AMP links
    No URL tracking tags (i.e. utm=%s)
    No referrer header
    Tor and HTTP/SOCKS proxy support
    Autocomplete/search suggestions
    POST request search and suggestion queries (when possible)
    View images at full res without site redirect (currently mobile only)
    Dark mode
    Randomly generated User Agent
    Easy to install/deploy
    DDG-style bang (i.e. !<tag> <query>) searches
    Optional location-based searching (i.e. results near <city>)
    Optional NoJS mode to disable all Javascript in results

    Here is a screenshot from my phone.

    f67b27056db12d37dca84acb5f2d0025.jpg




    I did a comparison on my phone and just searched for the word “Spyderco”

    Even using DDG the first two sites listed paid ranked links.

    ca7c95f69f1a9d8602436df16f02febc.jpg


    Then searched the same term again using the NAS hosted Whoogle link.

    d12f8c9656f5fb72ef5a60b0ee4e6346.jpg


    It’s nice when you search for a company brand name and the actual company is the first link in the list.

    I’m going to keep playing around with this and see if I like it.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    Well I was testing Whoogle again just now and I wanted to pipe my searches through one if the Express VPN servers just to further obfuscate my identity from google’s prying algorithms.

    Looks like google is able to detect that someone is attempting to access their web services without agreeing to be tracked....No Bueno.

    046d0f0c03fde04038ea9a778842fb99.jpg


    I turn off the VPN and the search works without ads or paid ranking of links, so I’m not sure what data that the Whoogle/VPN combo is blocking that triggers the google violation if terms.
     

    Derek1320

    Active Member
    Nov 10, 2009
    791
    A whois lookup of that IP address shows that it belongs to a block of IPs registered to Web2Objects. Searching for that ISP reveals that several sites identify them as "high risk" for fraud. Google's infrastructure assuredly maintains reference lists of IP ranges belonging to VPN services and deliberately captchas or outright blocks that traffic both for legitimate reasons and butthurt reasons (want to hide your "true" IP? No fair!)

    Can you cycle through other datacenters and try to hit the site from other countries/IP ranges?
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    A whois lookup of that IP address shows that it belongs to a block of IPs registered to Web2Objects. Searching for that ISP reveals that several sites identify them as "high risk" for fraud. Google's infrastructure assuredly maintains reference lists of IP ranges belonging to VPN services and deliberately captchas or outright blocks that traffic both for legitimate reasons and butthurt reasons (want to hide your "true" IP? No fair!)

    Can you cycle through other datacenters and try to hit the site from other countries/IP ranges?


    That IP address shown in my post is my own Synology NAS address. Whoogle runs on the NAS so my searches first pass through my own network then through a VPN to google. So google doesn’t actually see my browser at all, which is why the results are totally devoid of google ranked manipulation.
     

    Derek1320

    Active Member
    Nov 10, 2009
    791
    I see your local IP in the URL field of the browser but what is the 45.56.183.151 IP address shown in the output right above the timestamp closer to the bottom?

    I don't know anything about Whoogle but I'm assuming it's still somehow reaching out to the Internet at large to make the queries. I assumed that IP was the one assigned to you by the VPN provider. I need to do some research about what Whoogle does since I'm making a lot of assumptions.

    EDIT: Thanks for the explanation about how Whoogle works. I think that other IP is the public IP your VPN service is assigning and since its a commercial VPN it might just be on a "bad" list.

    EDIT EDIT: I found a Whoogle install guide for Docker and they list no IP tracking as a feature. I don't know if that means they proxy your traffic so Google doesn't see your public IP at all, or that they just don't maintain any tracking of the IP from one page to another. Still, that output at the bottom of your screenshot sure seems like Google is unhappy with the 45.x.x.x address, whatever it is.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    I see your local IP in the URL field of the browser but what is the 45.56.183.151 IP address shown in the output right above the timestamp closer to the bottom?

    I don't know anything about Whoogle but I'm assuming it's still somehow reaching out to the Internet at large to make the queries. I assumed that IP was the one assigned to you by the VPN provider. I need to do some research about what Whoogle does since I'm making a lot of assumptions.

    EDIT: Thanks for the explanation about how Whoogle works. I think that other IP is the public IP your VPN service is assigning and since its a commercial VPN it might just be on a "bad" list.

    EDIT EDIT: I found a Whoogle install guide for Docker and they list no IP tracking as a feature. I don't know if that means they proxy your traffic so Google doesn't see your public IP at all, or that they just don't maintain any tracking of the IP from one page to another. Still, that output at the bottom of your screenshot sure seems like Google is unhappy with the 45.x.x.x address, whatever it is.


    That IP is 45.56.183.151 is the one that ExpressVPN has assigned. I’m going to experiment a bit more tonight and select other VPN locations to see if there is one, not blocked by Google. I’ll report back.
     

    LCPIWB

    Needs an avatar
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 17, 2011
    2,001
    Underneath the blimp, Md.
    That IP is 45.56.183.151 is the one that ExpressVPN has assigned. I’m going to experiment a bit more tonight and select other VPN locations to see if there is one, not blocked by Google. I’ll report back.

    When originating from your home IP source IP traffic is limited and Google algorithms not picking up...You go through VPN and 5000 other people doing the same thing....That will trip some algorithms...
    If you stood up your on server on some cloud provider to act as a VPN it probably would not trip.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    When originating from your home IP source IP traffic is limited and Google algorithms not picking up...You go through VPN and 5000 other people doing the same thing....That will trip some algorithms...
    If you stood up your on server on some cloud provider to act as a VPN it probably would not trip.


    I’m beginning to understand how the internet works behind the scenes. As long as I dont use a VPN Whoogle works actually pretty well. I really like that my searches are NOT manipulated by paid ranked listings. For most generic searches I will continue to use it.

    For stuff anything else that I want to search for that I feel is none of anyone’s business I working with 3 layers of search.

    Basic anonymity -> Windows DDG through Express VPN US servers

    Sensitive searches -> Windows TOR browser through VPN Switzerland Servers

    Highly Sensitive Searches -> Tails OS with TOR settings on most Secure without VPN. There is some serious debate in the Tails development community about using TOR with VPN and from what I can tell, it’s not recommended if you are trying to have the most secure most anonymous connection.
     

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