Asklemmy @lemmy.ml guckfoogle @sh.itjust.works 1 yr. ago

price discrimination

So we took a family vacation recently and we had to drive halfway across America and what creeped me the fuck out was how we were getting such different prices on different phones while looking at the same hotel room on Priceline. For example I would look for a hotel in Chicago and find a room for a $180, then my cousin is also looking for a room on his phone and I look over and the same hotel room is $50-$70 cheaper. This kept on happening in every city we went to, like there was such a huge fluctuation between the prices one person would get on their phone and what someone else was getting. We noticed that the people with higher end Samsung phones were getting a much lower rate than those with cheaper phones. Have you ever experienced such price discrimination and is there really anyway to protect yourself from it? And do you think it's ethical for companies to charge different rates for the same product? Should there be some legislation to protect consumers from this seeing as how AI is just going to make it easier for companies to price gouge consumers to the max.

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There is a theory that travel websites use trackers and other information readily available about your device and browser to advertise different prices to different people. A lot of VPN companies use this in their marketing actually— showing different prices for the same airline tickets depending on which VPN server you’re connected to in the world.

I haven’t done much research on this personally, but you may be able to see it in action by opening the same site in a normal and an incognito window and searching for a flight/hotel. Or trying the aforementioned VPN trick. There however doesn’t seem to be any specific rhyme or reason for it, and no one can say that XYZ browser connected to ABC server will get you the cheapest prices. There are just way too many variables in play and these kinds of algorithms the websites use are all well-guarded secrets.
- Permanently Deleted
  
  You’re right- theory probably wasn’t the best word. It is known that companies do this but it’s impossible to concretely say how and in what circumstances prices change.
  
  Permanently Deleted
- VPN won't protect from browser finger printing.
  
  It is just a part of a OpSec set up
  
  Explain
  
  https://amiunique.org/
  
  Holy fuck Javascript is a cancer.
  
  So if I understand correctly, its just the unique cocktail of settings and OS identifiers that mark your print?
  
  So keeoing things default should mask you to some degree, right?
  
  Try it. Put whatever settings you want to default and rerun the scan.
  
  Hooray, I am unique! Oh wait...
  
  If you don't use hardened browser, you leave a trail that uqniue enough to ID you across web.
  
  Facebook and google have scrypts monitoring your moves on most of the websites.
  
  They sell this info
  
  An uncommon browser setup is also distinctive, though. One thing to do is use something like NoScript to not allow FB, Google etc to run scripts on pages. But how many people do that, like 1%? So it's another data point.
  
  No doubt it has huge benefit as does unlock
  
  Using a few different browser for different uses cases will limit data point and keep clean profiles.
  
  So there is that.
  
  No easy way to do it.
  
  Hardened browser being what, like tor? Cause I thought tor functioned somewhat similarly to a vpn.
  
  Firefox needs to be configured.
  
  Librewolf works
  
  Mullvad browser too
  Maybe brave
  
  Tor too limiting for daily use
  
  Do I need addons to do this for firefox, or is it some settings I need to fiddle with?
  
  Not to out my browser lol
  
  If you want to harden Firefox, use ffprofile.com. It makes creating a custom profile very easy, and it should have good defaults. This should provide you with decent privacy and also allows you to remove annoyances like sponsored sites.
  
  Or if you are lazy, use LibreWolf which, as far as I know, basically does just that, but preconfigured for you.
  
  For addons, I would go with: uBlock Origin, CanvasBlocker, Privacy Badger and Decentraleyes.
  
  Finally you can test your setup with Panopticlick.
  
  Deff will need a cocktail of extension.
  
  Ublock privacy badger noscrypt
  
  But people do different combos depending on their needs
  
  However each one makes you make unique, so back got he same problem so can't load up too much nor is it needed.
  
  Can you not set up to change the requested data each time you change sites? Or some other way of altering the print such that you arent the same print each time?
  
  I don't sufficient expertise to answer that tbh
  
  I just know to reduce parameters to limit ability to track. How mechanics would actually work is mystery to me lol
  
  doing my part.jpeg
  
  Any level of answer is appreciated, I hadnt realized I was this detailed trackable without what you commented so far
  
  You should consider switching your user agent. It is often used to track and identify you, by sending stuff like OS and browser version.
  
  You can find a better explanation, and your current user agent here: https://whatmyuseragent.com/

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