this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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Privacy

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How do I poison my data (read body) (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 days ago by Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I want to poison as much of my online data as I can, and I know that companies can get it anyway if I delete it, but if I were to spam sheer volume, it would cost more than it’s worth to try and sort it.

Dad uses windows and the main device I use is his laptop, and I understand that Microsoft scrapes everything they can. He’s going to reset his laptop soon, so all the junk is erased, but would it be possible to temporarily poison most data on there (from ms perspective) until it’s reset?

Would it be possible to do that on other things too, say corporate owned software, social media, etc?

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[–] obsoleteacct@lemmy.zip 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I actually have some accidentally poisoned data out there. Many years ago I had a job that entailed doing red carpets. There were a lot of photos of me at small to mid-sized events with two of my business partners.

Then for two years in a row my partners went to the MTV VMAs with someone else. The VMAs are MUCH bigger in terms of media footprint. That guy got tagged as me in the photos. So now a Google image search for me will at least be mixed, and often the other guy comes up first.

So the idea is sound.

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

That's kinda funny it happened

thanks :D have a great day!

[–] Rikj000@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 2 days ago (3 children)

For M$ no clue, for browsing,
AdNauseam comes to mind.

It's a fork of uBlock Origin,
which instead of blocking all the ads,
hides all the ads + clicks on them all in the background, which:

  • Costs advertisers a lot of money
  • Poisens your data profile, since they can't make up your actual interests anymore

It's more protest-ware then privacy-ware though,
since you'll be overflooding them with bs data,
instead of minimizing the data collected.

[–] 418_im_a_teapot@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago

On the flip side, this makes a ton of money for ad platforms.

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

...and I'd like to add, if they are showing ads relevant to the website you are on, you are clicking those ads and thus giving away what interests you really have.

[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago

combine it with TrackMeNot and you can stop worrying about this

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

oh thanks! It wont let me upload to chrome, but it's probably user error. I'll figure it out

[–] PaddleMaster@beehaw.org 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because Chrome blocked ad blocking extensions.

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

It should still be possible to manually upload in dev mode?

[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Not really. Chrome specifically made it hard to install adNauseam, as it threatens their business model. This predates the extension API changes

[–] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The data has already been scrapped, processed, categorized and indexed. This is quite literally true.

Do not worry about it, and simply try to not give them much from now on.

Also filling the internet with junk is how our best ever collective project dies. Don't be a part of that.

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I don't mean flood on user side, I meant spamming data scraped by corporate. If it's too expensive for corporate to clean up vs how much it's sold for, they won't bother at some point. It's already been stolen... That's only true for the data that already exists.

Kinda like if you had a bunch of bots tied to the same IP as you, and you tell them to generate random searches, click random sites, etc, but never post/comment/vote on anything. They're all tied to the same address, and at some point, it will be to costly to continue stealing data, cleaning it up, and selling it than it will be worth.

They'd either try and clean it up (costs too much, may potentially give up) or stop stealing your data (consumer wins)

I won't spam online, but I don't want corporate having scary accurate info/data about me. I'd only want spam going to corporate, not to people.

Do not worry about it, and simply try to not give them much from now on.

Fair, buuuuuuut...

If you hide as much info as you can, whatever info they can get (likely through illegal means) is going to be accurate. They may have less info, but it is all stuff you definitely did (unless you do both methods at once)

What I'm going for is more I prefer to occasionally waste some corporate time, but the user experience isn't worsened rather than I will do whatever it takes to ruin megacorps

Either way, have a great day

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

How about fake real data instead? Like maybe there should be a tool that p2p shares real HTML cookies between peers, scrambles them and then serves them sanitized to the browser?

Cuz fuck them, two can play this game.

[–] NedRyerson@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

Come on down to real fake ~~doors~~ data

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Aren't cooked used to stay signed in websites? That's way too insecure

[–] sgtlion@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Meaningfully poisoning your data is like.. 10 books worth of stuff to know. I like the idea, but focusing on not sending it is usually the easiest route

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

like not full send, but the whole thing works better when more people poison stuff. I try to poison/glaze images before uploading (when I can) and whatnot, but scrambling data, even to a small extent, would probably help with how paranoid I am about megacorps

[–] tinfoilhat@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You'll never be able to poison existing data, only prevent them from gaining new data. Use email aliases, vpn, blocker tracking, and don't use the same username in 2 places.

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Alright thanks! :D have a great day!

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I would just block all the data collection dns names you can find. Easiest way is to setup a pihole and point your router's dns at it

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Don't know how to do that, also sadly using windows.

I kinda know how to install pihole onto a computer, as in I ran the command on mint once, but I did it slightly wrong potentially

[–] BigTechMustBurn@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

You can also use NextDNS which is kind of like a Pihole in the sky. Pretty easy to setup.

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The OS you are using doesnt matter. I didnt follow a guide or else I'd link one for you but even with little knowledge it could very well be done. All you are doing after installing is changing 1 IP on your router's DNS settings and setting a reservation for the pihole machine. Its practically setup at install. All I changed was blocking some extra microsoft stuff like their heartbeat monitor and setting my own DNS to Quad9. Might be worth it to look into if you are curious enough about privacy to poison your data.

[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago

ok cool cool thanks! :D have a great day, and I'll try it!

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Use adguard or nextdns for os wide protection and ublock for browser level protection. No selfhosting required.

Checkout betterfox for more info. If you want you can also install the user.js file for better cookie protection as well.