1 year anniversary of my Reddit ban. I was directly targeted by one of the site's admins for mocking them over their censorship and rampant banning of harmless communities and users.

submitted by EternalSunset from i.imgur.com

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[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

That makes sense. But even then, reddit should not be able to figure out who I am when I'm creating a brand new account on a totally different network on a device I've never used before. There's no information about me on there.

[–]EternalSunset[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

In a case like that, yes Reddit probably wouldn't be able to know it's you, but that would be a very rare case. In almost all cases there will just be far too many ways to fingerprint a user. You deleted your cookies? They can still identify you via the unique settings and configuration of your browser. Using a different browser? They can still just look at your IP address. Using a VPN? They can still know your device's MAC address. Using your notebook instead of the PC? They can look at the MAC addresses of the other devices in your Wifi network and find that you are in the same network as before. Using your phone on a public network? You better not have linked it to your actual google account, etc...

[–]RaverJodes 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

But how do they get all that when you access via a browser? It's only supposed to relay very limited information about the browser and OS etc

[–]EternalSunset[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Your browser actually sends out a lot of information that can be used to identify your device, even if you have cookies disabled. For example, your screen resolution, your configuration settings, the extensions you have installed, your timezone, details about your hardware such as your CPU and GPU models, etc... They cross-link all this stuff to create a digitial fingerprint of your browser. It is extraordinarily rare for two different users to have the same combination of all of the individual settings unless they are both running on a freshly installed and completely vanilla device.

Watch this video if you want to understand more about how they do it:
https://youtu.be/JqO-WIG3GBY?t=76

[–]RaverJodes 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Thanks. what about things that could identify a user even if they use a fresh device on a fresh network? How does Reddit do that?

[–]EternalSunset[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If it's a smartphone it might be due to your tied in google/apple account. Otherwise it might be either due to IP address or being connected to a wifi network that also contains other devices that have been "red flagged".

[–]PIPESOCKS 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it's hilarious that you people find it so hard to believe that Reddit knows your real IP address and read it knows your exact GPS coordinates.

Let me ask you this.. did I read that a Chinese company called tencent owns Reddit? I think I read that.. so you guys think that you're clever because you use a VPN? How many major VPN companies are there? Do you think that $0.10 / Google / Facebook that between the group of them they don't have the money to gobble up these major vpns?

Let me just tell it to you straight.. when you log into any of the major social media networks, they know your exact physical location on planet Earth, can't get no better than that can you?

Please continue waddling around the room pretending that you're so smart, don't pay no never mind to me.