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Firefox is identified on a website no matter what I do, Opera and Edge and Chrome can all be cleaned and return to that site.

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There's a news site with limited articles then a paywall, I used to be able to clean browsing data, history, use ccleaner, reboot and be able to revisit that site for 5 more articles, now no matter doing all the above, using a VPN, or reinstalling Firefox, with generic profile the site still remembers Firefox as me. In Opera, Chrome, Microsoft Edge I can clear browsing data and go straight back to that site. Its the same thing on NBC Sports. I have internet explorer off in Programs and features, I use W10

There's a news site with limited articles then a paywall, I used to be able to clean browsing data, history, use ccleaner, reboot and be able to revisit that site for 5 more articles, now no matter doing all the above, using a VPN, or reinstalling Firefox, with generic profile the site still remembers Firefox as me. In Opera, Chrome, Microsoft Edge I can clear browsing data and go straight back to that site. Its the same thing on NBC Sports. I have internet explorer off in Programs and features, I use W10

All Replies (8)

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Type about:preferences#privacy<enter> in the address bar. The button next to History, select Use Custom Settings.

Turn on Remember My Browsing And Download History At the bottom of the page, turn on Clear History When Firefox Closes. At the far right, press the Settings button. Turn on Cache and Form And Search History and whatever else you want.


There is also;

https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History#w_how-do-i-remove-a-single-website-from-my-history

Remove History For One Site

Open the History Manager <Control><Shift> H. In the search bar, enter the name of the site. Right-click on one of the listings and select Forget About This Site. This should remove all information, including any settings.

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I can go back to the site with a newly downloaded Firefox install, new profile, no cutomized effects and and the site still knows its me, I use Ccleaner, remove all cookies, even those within the past 24 hours. Delete Data, history, check cache, and its empty same thing happens. I can go to the site with Chrome, Opera, Edge, read articles, hit the paywall, exit clear browsing data and cookies and go back to the site for another series up to the paywall, I just want to know how they are doing it.

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"...I just want to know how they are doing it." Me too! It makes me wonder if they are fingerprinting your Firefox somehow. Even though your useragent looks normal & you use a VPN. I'm running thru a list of possible ways to fingerprint you Firefox. A few of which can be detecting what version of Adblock Plus you have installed, your OS, your screen resolution & a few unique fonts you have installed. Combine all that together & they could make a unique fingerprint to identify you.

I'm really curious if just flipping on the Custom > Fingerprints mode in Firefox's Content Blocking options will be enough.

See here: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting-with-firefox/ https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/trackers-and-scripts-firefox-blocks-enhanced-track#w_fingerprinters

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Does this work in a Private Browsing mode window?

A major difference between a regular window and a private window is that the private window doesn't use the disk cache and use a separate cookie jar and cookies used in the regular window can't be accessed.


You can remove all data stored in Firefox for a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History -> Show All History" or "View -> Sidebar -> History").

Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox for this domain like history and cookies and passwords and exceptions and cache, so be cautious. If you have a password or other data for that domain that you do not want to lose then make sure to backup this data or make a note.

You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of involved files.

If you revisit a 'forgotten' website then data for that website will be saved once again.

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Noah_SUMO said

"...I just want to know how they are doing it." Me too! It makes me wonder if they are fingerprinting your Firefox somehow. Even though your useragent looks normal & you use a VPN. I'm running thru a list of possible ways to fingerprint you Firefox. A few of which can be detecting what version of Adblock Plus you have installed, your OS, your screen resolution & a few unique fonts you have installed. Combine all that together & they could make a unique fingerprint to identify you. I'm really curious if just flipping on the Custom > Fingerprints mode in Firefox's Content Blocking options will be enough. See here: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting-with-firefox/ https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/trackers-and-scripts-firefox-blocks-enhanced-track#w_fingerprinters

Have that on too. It does the same thing on NBC sports

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cor-el said

Does this work in a Private Browsing mode window? A major difference between a regular window and a private window is that the private window doesn't use the disk cache and use a separate cookie jar and cookies used in the regular window can't be accessed.

You can remove all data stored in Firefox for a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History -> Show All History" or "View -> Sidebar -> History").

Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox for this domain like history and cookies and passwords and exceptions and cache, so be cautious. If you have a password or other data for that domain that you do not want to lose then make sure to backup this data or make a note.

You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of involved files.

If you revisit a 'forgotten' website then data for that website will be saved once again.

Yep that too I clear everything I can clear except passwords, I wonder if they can tell the size of my passwords file? I use two computers sometimes at the same time and it still has me pegged through Firefox. . Just wonder why Chrome,Edge and Opera can stay anonymous?

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You can create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

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I went there with a fresh install of Firefox with the basic profile it comes with, cleaned out all Firefox folders in programs and app data before installing, it still identified me with an instant paywall, it's usually 5 articles before paywall. I'm boggled, it must be that fingerprinting thing. I wonder if the monitor is exposing itself through a windows update?