Fingerprinting and Vmware

Kelly441 · #1 06-07-2013

I was told by another successful long term seller that when using Vmware you do not have to worry about browser fingerprinting. I have been running multiple accounts now for a good 3 months with no issues. Each Vmware session has the same fresh install of the same OS, same browser etc...

Has anyone else had the same success with Vmware?

barrycruan · #2 06-07-2013

amazon dont employ browser fingerprinting. there are way too many reasons as to why this is but they just dont. I know they can be very tough to deal with but people seem to forget that they have 100s of millions of customers.

They would need a database the size of england to keep track of all the things people seem to think they do, just to catch a few sellers who have been banned.

As a rough guess suspended sellers trying to get back on amazon would represent 0.0001% of amazons total customers, do you think they are going to be spending billions on trying to catch these people. This is not aimed at you kelly, just people in general who treat amazon like the CIA.

TonyAlmeida · #3 06-07-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelly441

I was told by another successful long term seller that when using Vmware you do not have to worry about browser fingerprinting. I have been running multiple accounts now for a good 3 months with no issues. Each Vmware session has the same fresh install of the same OS, same browser etc...

Has anyone else had the same success with Vmware?

I'm, but I use different browser for all accounts

rsot · #4 06-07-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrycruan

amazon dont employ browser fingerprinting. there are way too many reasons as to why this is but they just dont. I know they can be very tough to deal with but people seem to forget that they have 100s of millions of customers.

They would need a database the size of england to keep track of all the things people seem to think they do, just to catch a few sellers who have been banned.

As a rough guess suspended sellers trying to get back on amazon would represent 0.0001% of amazons total customers, do you think they are going to be spending billions on trying to catch these people. This is not aimed at you kelly, just people in general who treat amazon like the CIA.

Quite a few indications about browser fingerprinting - previous discussions about it:

http://www.aspkin.com/forums/subscri...h-cookies.html

http://www.aspkin.com/forums/amazon-...rprinting.html

are among the links. There is a bigger thread but I cant find it.

n8zzz · #5 06-07-2013

Companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook you may as well treat like the CIA. They're some of the largest corporations in the world. You can bet your ass that they have the highest degree of talent in their IT departments.

Do suspended sellers account for 1% of all Amazon sellers? Maybe, it could be more or less... but as much as Amazon holds customer service in high regard, you could imagine that they would invest some resources in removing the bad weeds that would tarnish their name.

barrycruan · #6 06-07-2013

the main problem with browser finger printing is that its so easy to get around. There would be no point in amazon implementing this for hundreds of millions of transactions when it can be bi-passed just by using a different browser or downloading a font. They have no doubt invested in the technology to link people and its very good. But it just wouldnt make any sense to use browser fingerprinting on such a huge scale for little or no return

n8zzz · #7 06-07-2013

https://panopticlick.eff.org/index.p...ion=log&js=yes

Gee, that was tough. "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 2,950,342 tested so far"

This little website figured out a lot about me with their very little resources. That amount of data collected is smaller than any amount of bandwidth a seller uses on any given day.

In my opinion, this aspect of stealth deserves its respect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrycruan

the main problem with browser finger printing is that its so easy to get around ...

Every part of account linking is "easy to get around," the challenge is knowing about it in the first place.

GreenBean · #8 06-07-2013

More myths.!!!

Way to go.

barrycruan · #9 06-08-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by n8zzz

https://panopticlick.eff.org/index.p...ion=log&js=yes

Gee, that was tough. "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 2,950,342 tested so far"

This little website figured out a lot about me with their very little resources. That amount of data collected is smaller than any amount of bandwidth a seller uses on any given day.

In my opinion, this aspect of stealth deserves its respect.

Every part of account linking is "easy to get around," the challenge is knowing about it in the first place.

Thats true, but you actually have to do something to get around those steps. If amazon used browser finger printing, you could go online for an hour and when you log back in you would be totally unique. If you were head of IT would you really recommend investing in that as a security system

Also a lot of the time its not accurate enough. Say two people get a brand new iphone on the same carrier. They log into amazon without downloading any apps. Do they both get suspended?

Anyone such as myself who uses an ipad and then deletes the cookies before using it to log into another account would be linked straight away. If they actually employed browser finger printing half the people in this forum would be done for as they dont take any steps to counter this and do just fine. I could give you half a dozen users right now whos set-up would be suspended.

Amazon never tell you why you were linked so anyone claiming otherwise is just spouting rubbish. Having said that if it makes people feel better then thats fine.

rsot · #10 06-08-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrycruan

Amazon never tell you why you were linked so anyone claiming otherwise is just spouting rubbish. Having said that if it makes people feel better then thats fine.

They keep that info proprietary

MICKY H · #11 06-08-2013

What we have to remember its not sellers they want to link, but people/crooks etc trying to buy goods of their site, other words people ripping amazon off and they use this technology against us sellers.

GreenBean · #12 06-08-2013

@MICKY

It's a combination of both sellers and buyers being looked at by amazon.

There are bad sellers just as there are bad buyers.

barrycruan · #13 06-08-2013

yeah amazon are no doubt looking for bad sellers. The annoying thing about stealth is that there are some sellers who should be banned and not allowed back. You see them with 82% feedback and you just know they have another account waiting in the wings. I guess its a double edged sword.

MICKY H · #14 06-08-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenBean™

@MICKY

It's a combination of both sellers and buyers being looked at by amazon.

There are bad sellers just as there are bad buyers.

I agree GB, but there will be massive percentage more buyers than sellers.

GreenBean · #15 06-08-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by MICKY H

I agree GB, but there will be massive percentage more buyers than sellers.

That is so.

rsot · #16 06-10-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrycruan

yeah amazon are no doubt looking for bad sellers. The annoying thing about stealth is that there are some sellers who should be banned and not allowed back. You see them with 82% feedback and you just know they have another account waiting in the wings. I guess its a double edged sword.

Those sellers are either lucky, or wise to know how to keep under the radar...or just plain stupid and keep on operating without change of customer service.