Google now tracks and targets by IP address & IMGUR blocked region - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 29, 2025, 10:58:56 pm
content: Not signed into ANYTHING. I use a browser profile just for browsing and not signed into anything and it did it after clearing the cache and another browser.I am in Cambridgeshire, I typed in say Romford and see popup.See attached picture and Imgur don't seem to be working to post a smaller one hereYes I did notice IP appearing at the bottom of the page but I did not give my consent for location to be used to target results and adverts towards me.Find that very intrusive. I knew this was going to happen one day.Oh yes as I was about to use Imgur to upload a smaller picture of what I mean but I get this message:Quotehttps://www.resetera.com/threads/imgur-now-appears-to-be-blocked-in-the-uk.1311961/So maybe the UK government approached them and told them that they had to do certain things and they couldn't be bothered.I'll take one guess and that'd be that Age Verification thing.Tech companies and governments now working against the web users in the UK.Maybe I should start using a VPN for certain things to.All I wanted to do was to post some pictures of some webpages about Google.If they keep on doing this they'd alienate quite a lot of people from doing their day to day things.https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1ntuyj3/the_uk_has_now_blocked_imgur_from_loading_images/I wonder has it gone too far?

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 29, 2025, 11:26:28 pm
content: Other than that lousy string message I see it is now official.Looking back my one of my post with an Imgur picture:See picture.Absolutely terrible and gone too far I think.Time to setup a VPN. I remembered setting one up back in 2020 with Hurricane electric that did IPV6 as I didn't have IPV6 and it appeared from the states I think.I'd only use it for certain things like this just to post pictures of web browsers/ web pages (pathetic) and I wonder if the EEVBLOG would be next somewhere down the line.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 29, 2025, 11:50:52 pm
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on September 29, 2025, 10:58:56 pmRecording someone's IP address is very common on many (most?) web pages. It would be part of their privacy policy. The company I work for also records IP addresses by virtue of the third-party services we use to provide our services.Even if you don't login and you clear cookies, you can still be (fairly accurately identified) based on your system's/browser fingerprint. See:https://amiunique.org/

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 08:05:40 am
content: It is imposible on a technical level to not transmit an IP to the server you connect to.You can use a VPN or a proxy to substitute that IP with the IP of the VPN/proxy, but that is about all that you can do.As Halcyon said, then there is browser fingerprinting, which is surprisingly effective. Even something trivial sounding, like a vertical taskbar and a therefore smaller, unusual, browser viewport size, can make you unique.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 10:24:24 am
content: Be careful with web proxies as they can be configured to send the client's IP address to web servers (X-Forwarded-For).

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 02:46:52 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on September 29, 2025, 11:50:52 pmDoesn't every server make a log anyway? When I was a forum admin somewhere else, under each users avatar as part of their user info was their IP address.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 08:16:03 pm
content: At least in the technical logs, there will be IP adresses.The EEVBlog Forum also logs IPs, just look into the lower right corner of every post you have made, it shows you your IP address, and i assume mods and admins can see that on every post.That's a GDPR grey area, unless you mention it in the ToC and have tight control over who can access this data, but I personally don't care, since i know what an IP can and cannot do or be used for, and i trust Dave and his team here.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 09:06:41 pm
content: 100% get a VPN. I useMullvadas they are 5EUR/month and have an explicit no logs policy so maximum privacy. But others are available too.An additional bonus is it bypasses all the UK's Online Safety Act bullshit as you look like you're from outside of the UK. The government is looking to ban VPNs for children too, as a result, which is utterly ridiculous and impossible to enforce, but what else do you expect from morons in charge of digital technology.

author: Cyclotron
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 09:12:53 pm
content: Tracking and fingerprinting is a huge business. The most interesting techniques I've seen is the incorporation of java script that watches the user's mouse and keyboard behaviors and develops signatures for a particular user. It is extremely accurate and fast at developing a profile. It can track you across browsers and computers too. It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 11:09:03 pm
content: It's official from Imgur but they don't say why but I think it has something to do with that Online Safety Bill.QuotePolitics got in the bath taps (which I noticed last year with mandatory tmv/blender valves)when living in Housing associations and I read tenants complaining they have to fill up how water in buckets to fill the bath up "because children can get scalded" and talking to a plumber they could get sued if they removed it. I only learned this when a plumber installed shower mixer pre set to like 30c, which I "what was the point in a shower if it doesn't perform) and wanted to get my own shower mixer, anyway he adjusted it to scalding hot so I can clean things properly at what temperature I want then I found out about the regulations.... "It's for chiiiiillllldreeeeen" /scarasm as if an old lady was saying it to me.Politics now got in general image hosting websites forcing them to alienate the country and I am not talking about naked people who like to wriggle their bums around all night or play with their bodily functions and backsides where they deemed it "dangerous" if I remember correctly for "chiiiiillllldreeeeen" which I thought was what the Online Safety bill was about and now it is affecting me just trying to upload a picture that does not have naked people in there.I wouldn't mind if politics left me alone but no it gets into things, goes much further than what was intended as it seems, interfere and ruins other things.I wonder if this website will be next at some point.Joke: Electronics can be very dangerous when advice given out and used incorrectly so now websites comply with this and that regulation.... "It's for chiiiiillllldreeeeen".Wikipedia lost it's case in August:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjr11qqvvwloQuoteI hope they successfully challenge them back,I was told earlier last year by someone and a few times before that it was turning into a police state and it's looking like they might be right.A bit annoyed I have to rely on someone else's connection to post pictures of things that has NOTHING to with that bill. I could find another image website but they may do the same there.Also there's "DIGITAL ID" around the corner, maybe they'd link it to that at some point.Very disappointed.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 11:20:56 pm
content: Quote from: metrologist on September 30, 2025, 02:46:52 pmBy default web servers like Apache and nginx do I believe. I find them useful to have when investigating web server breaches, or attempts to brute force admin credentials etc...

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2025, 11:24:42 pm
content: There was a Hurricane Electric thing i tried in 2020 where I get a static IPV6 address with Pfsense and it did actually work. My ISP did not and still does not support IPV6 despite it's wholesaler supporting it which is British Telecom. I remember seeing my connection from somewhere in the states. Whilst it worked it seemed to be causing issues. I can't remember exactly all , but I had connection sharing with two broadband lines. I don't expect it to work with that but other switch ports on the lans (all vlan'd apart and IPV4) were affected where the Pfsense would only seem to make connections to the first router and ignore the second despite them being tiered the same. I remember installing an old config, back to the way it was as before but the same problem as soon I set that IPV6 with Hurricane electric. Also it issues NAT 1:1 with the static IP's on the second router unless I disconnected the first router and it'd work through that.Maybe that could get around it the restrictions If it does I'll setup another machine with Pfsense just for that.Quote from: Ranayna on September 30, 2025, 08:16:03 pmI am aware with that and on Google at the bottom of the page but that was not my issue.My concern is the way adverts are targeted at me. In 2020, I heard people at my local pub asking me if there is a way to stop something. They'd be looking at something say on Amazon, they'd go elsewhere and they'd see an advert for that item they looked on Amazon." Then I started to notice it. Obviously they used the cookies and when I cleared it it'd display other stuff.If I am looking for things on a shopping website I don't mind the advertising targeting according to the category of things I am looking for on that website but I find it intrusive of my viewings of things being repeated in the form of adverts on other sites.I found a way around that at the time see attached picture:Chrome:QuoteVivaldi is based on Chrome.Firefox:QuoteLast year with Facebook (use it to communicate with the barman at the local pub and the local community) and I see "Are you born in.... receive a FREE government grant worth...." "I was furious. So I changed my birthdate. A month later similar advert about combi boilers or heatpumps, pensions and investments but with the new birthday I put in. Yes obviously they have used my personal details.So now when I setup accounts I put false personal information in them and just note them down somewhere for recovery.

author: peter-h
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 07:02:56 am
content: Vimeo.com have also removed their search facility for European IPs. You can find a video by its full URL, only.Or via google; they forgot about thatRepeated enquiries fail to get any response as to which Euro law they are afraid of.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 07:19:12 am
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on September 30, 2025, 11:24:42 pmThere is a way to protect yourself: Ad- and if you want also script blocking addons.I personally only use an adblocker. It includes filters for most trackingpixels as well.I would go so far as to say that using one is nearly mandatory on many sites. And if you actually want to support smaller sites that depend on ad revenue, you can always disable the blocker for specific sites.My recommendation would be uBlock Origin. Lite on chromium browsers that blocked the full version. Lite actually, surprisingly, still seems to do the job.I also hit deny, or "neccessary only" on each and every cookiebanner that i encounter. The majority of sites actually play nice there.

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 08:13:40 am
content: I do use some but not for the main purposes of blocking adverts. It is for things like suggestions, dimming overlays (where possible), animated skeleton placeholders, excessive use of spinners.Here's my network blocklist see attached text file since 2020 that I have been using to hide bloat and the above and now about 9800 lines.I do know they need to make revenue but I will block adverts for a website if they behave the same as above, if they are set interfere in front of the contents by getting in the way of the instead of being on the side, cut off the user with a dimming overlay (that's when I'd block it from that point onwards) where it covers up large parts of my screen area behind it whilst straining my eyes or making it uncomfortable in the process due to the sudden changes from light to dark and back to light and disrespectful too but denying me the opportunity to read in areas I could if it wasn't for the dimming overlay.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 08:29:06 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on September 29, 2025, 11:50:52 pmIt is basically a requirement to resolve DOS and DDOS attacks and other issues, really. All web stuff I've made records visitor IP addresses for security purposes (by the server process itself, Apache or Nginx in my case).But, that's not the issue. The issue isusingthat information fordirected advertising(and possibly selling the aggregated user profiles), without consent from the end user. It is what the various EU requirements try to combat, but basically fail to.If your service/pages uses visitor IP addresses to package and sell user profiles to advertisers (which is essentially what directed advertising is, even if you only select the ad based on visitor IP), I'm not gonna use your service/pages without an IP-obscuring NAT or VPN. I'm a human, not a number to be sold for the highest bidder!

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 09:33:30 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on September 29, 2025, 11:50:52 pmThis is two runs of that amiunique website - UsingLinux Mint & FireFoxwith some "trickery tools" installedSeems like i'm unique for each run, meaning i'm not that easy "fingerprint" .../Bingo

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 11:42:53 am
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on September 30, 2025, 11:09:03 pmYep, it's about child protection violations:- After announcement of fine: Imgur no longer available in the UK -https://www.heise.de/en/news/After-announcement-of-fine-Imgur-no-longer-available-in-the-UK-10688783.html- Imgur blocks access to UK users after regulator warned of fine -https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 12:45:12 pm
content: Quote from: madires on October 01, 2025, 11:42:53 amYou mean, when Icomplainedthatmembers use imgur instead of uploading imagesis problematic because the images can be deleted afterwards and the thread no longer makes sense, Iwasn't accusinganyone of a conspiracy, but simply warning of a likely problem scenario?Oh my, who would've thought.

author: peter-h
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 07:38:56 pm
content: AFAICT, Imgur and Photobucket became useless for this purpose years ago, because Imgur deletes images not accessed for x months, while Photobucket blocked embedding (this being evident in many old forum threads).I run a community forum and we support image upload there, avoiding these problems of trashed threads. Actually, a lot of forum posters delete their (embedded) images out of spite, when they have an argument with somebody and leave. We give them a 2hr edit window but if somebody used Photobucket etc, they can trash their threads anytime. But then that site is moderated, at multiple levels, so we don't have a dodgy image problem.I read somewhere that Imgur were hosting p0rn, in some hard to find corner of their site...

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2025, 07:45:04 pm
content: The OSA needs to be killed dead, it's insane how much of a chilling effect it is having upon the internet.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2025, 07:32:56 am
content: Quote from: peter-h on October 01, 2025, 07:38:56 pmI have no qualms admitting that i look at porn. Imgur did host porn for a long time, and they were a very popular image hoster in many subreddits, because imgur was also easy to use (IIRC they didn't even require registration).But a couple of years ago they changed their terms and porn was banned and actively removed.