I see that people recommend not using many extensions in the browser because that way you leave a “unique footprint” and they can “identify” you
ok, aren’t these people confusing privacy with anonymity?
As far as I know, the more extensions in the browser, the less trackers track you…
So, even if you can leave a “profile”, if they get less information, it’s more private, right? even if it is less anonymous.
If a person you like is having a coffee on a bar terrace, and you put on a speaker without anyone seeing you and say “I love you” at full volume, it is anonymous, but not private.
but if you go in person and deliver a letter with the same message without anyone seeing the letter, it’s private but not anonymous…
well am I wrong? Can someone tell me why I’m wrong?
Afaik, the number of extensions doesn’t increase or decrease the number of trackers.
Fingerprinting relies on how unique your profile is.
So, for example, if you install a lot of popular extensions, it might be harder to distinguish you from thousands (or more) of others who use the exact set of extensions.
Afaik, the real benefit of having fewer extensions is reducing attack surface for malicious actors.
Some extensions like adblockers require high privilege and lots of permissions, so if the developer of an adblocker extension goes rogue for whatever reason or is compromised, your browser may become vulnerable through that adblock extension.
Fewer extensions you have, less chance of a scenario like that unfolding.
I generally just keep uBlock Origin (cos open source, well-known, fairly well-scrutinized by experts and the community) on my browser, because I don’t really want to have to rely on trusting some unknown extension developer to be legit or have good opsec.
I assume there’s many others like me too, even if not for the same motivation. So there’s some privacy benefits, I think…
Considering the number of malicious apps disguised as legit apps on Google Play and etc (which supposedly have lots of people and resources to monitor apps), it’s a fair bet that there’ll be some malicious extensions disguised as legit extensions with innocent sounding names (scree capture, editor, etc.).