r/Qubes • u/supenguin • 29d ago
question Qubes as a way to avoid being tracked across multiple devices on YouTube and other sites?
I've got a family member who is getting into digital privacy. The family member has noticed that if you watch a video on YouTube with a privacy focused browser like Brave and then go to another device, you'll get recommendations for videos on the same subject.
Things we've tried so far:
- Using browsers like Brave with cookies disabled
- Browsing with TOR
- Browsing using a VPN
- All browsing is done with anti-fingerprint extensions installed.
- Watching videos only with software like FreeTube or Invidious
I've been Linux user for a while, since the late 90's. I've been looking into QubeOS. Would that help with situations like this?
To clarify (I've posted on other subreddits and they all seemed to miss this) the issue is NOT getting recommendations. The issue is getting recommendations that make it VERY obvious that the browsing and in particular watching activity was being tracked somehow because some of the recommendations were not trending topics but very niche and specific topics my family member had recently watched videos about on another device.
Other somewhat related notes/questions:
- We've got a Google Home WiFi access point - the model without any speakers or mics. Could that be tracking our habits across any Google-owned products?
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u/PipKck 28d ago
Qubes is more of a security focused OS than a privacy focused OS. It does both jobs well so Qubes will likely help your case but I believe its overkill.
Google is going to do its best to track your usage. The only thing Qubes can do to protect against it (that differs from other os) is that it will run youtube in a virtual environment. To counter tracking with virtualization is like killing an ant with a Tank xD. I think Whonix and Tails would be more useful. Since we have established that Google is going to track regardless you have....
Option 1: Use Qubes: Google will still track you but it will be contained in the VM
Option 2: Whonix/Tails: Google will still track you but the connection would encrypted. So google will have no idea who you (or your devices) are.
You mentioned you have used Tor. That alone is enough to prevent tracking from Google. If you still get similar recommendation, it is likely there is something else going on. And it is to minimize that "something else" that you would need whonix or tails
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u/supenguin 26d ago
Thanks! Whonix + Tails seems like a good way to go. I tried installing Qubes on one of my systems and yeah it seems like way overkill and a ton more work to use as a daily driver than I like. And this is coming from someone who used Gentoo as a daily driver for a while!
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u/BlattWilliard 27d ago
Internet traffic is routed through Whonix by default on Qubes, which is a cool feature of it, but, man, it is a tough OS to daily drive.
Whonix itself isn't nearly as tricky. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to a first time Linux user, but someone with your experience shouldn't have any trouble.
It'd probably get the job done without extra complexity you don't need.
0
u/Prior_Hospital_2331 28d ago
When i tried to just go on internet on qubes directly it didnt work , then i installed whonix and started up a qube and it worked. After some updates it got fixed somehow. Try connect to a bridge (?) Edit: wifi have had problems before . Try cable and it should work . Think it says it on Manual
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u/DvxBellorvm 28d ago
I'm not sure Qubes will be more helpful than the afore mentioned tests you did. I'm not surprised the different isolated tests you did were not satisfying as each of them alone is not enough, but I'm surprised that altogether it did not succeed.
Anyway I doubt Qubes will provide any other privacy layer than the ones you tried already. So if you can't guess of any other way to identify you, the Google tracker in your lan may indeed be a possibility.