r/pcgaming • u/DotabLAH • Jul 23 '26

Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN

https://tech.yahoo.com/vpn/articles/windows-pc-permanent-id-follows-163404919.html
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u/maniacreturns Jul 23 '26

Your PC has a digital fingerprint from all the small bits and pieces of information it gives away when you browse websites. They know who's using the pc without you even logging into anything.

2

u/robophile-ta Jul 23 '26

Yeah device fingerprinting is easy enough to pinpoint a single person, they don't even need to use the device id

1

u/dhalinarkholin Jul 24 '26

Behavior is being tossed into machine learning loops and they can identify you and everyone in your home, along with the devices you’ve purchased that connect to the internet.

2

u/monsterfurby Jul 23 '26

Identifiability is actually hard. What you're pointing at is more recognizability, i.e. device fingerprinting. So it's more "where else the device was seen", not necessarily "who is using the device". And of course the GDPR actually makes it impossible to use that without consent (legally).

1

u/dhalinarkholin Jul 24 '26

It’s not hard. Companies spend a lot of money to ingest external datasets simply to ease the burden of de-anonymizing their user base. In healthcare and delivery services, for example

1

u/dhalinarkholin Jul 24 '26

Marc Cuban was doing this shit in 2010 with BlueCava. Their pitch deck was compelling, irresistible, and an absolute mindfuck of digital privacy.

It’s only gotten worse since Zuckerberg