Vytal
Security and privacy
browser anti-fingerprinting extension
SHOW HN2022
313points
94comments
#127of 2,570 in 2022
Top 5%of 2022 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
6 positive, 21 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 14 critical, out of 42 comments about the project. Thread score -0.13.
Performance: 1 for, 5 againstIdea: 3 for, 3 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 3 againstDesign: 0 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Interesting approach using the debugger API
From 2 comments
I didn't know how extensive and interesting the chrome debugging API was until today[1]..thanks for sharing! [1] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/messaging/
orliesaurus on HNThis extension takes an interesting approach to spoofing data, which is nice! In my case, I’m interested in doing the same thing inside of Puppeteer for web scraping,…
stevewatson301 on HN
Useful for geo-locked sites such as Bumble
From 1 comment
Wow, this is the first solution to getting around Bumble's geo-locking that I've seen since 2021. And it's simple too. Great job!
puffpuffisbuff on HN
Objections
Browser shows a 'started debugging' banner on every tab and reload
From 3 comments
Just installed it, it's showing a message on top of each tab in Chrome "Vytal" started debugging this browser Is there a way to get rid of it?
tauwauwau on HNUsing Brave browser. Every page, and every reload brings up a "'Vytal' started debugging this browser" message.
InCityDreams on HNGreat project! However is there any features over just going to developer tools > Sensors > Location and overriding it manually? Is it just to be able to match your IP…
jacooper on HN
Debugger use is likely detectable by websites
From 2 comments
> It also makes the spoofing completely undetectable. It's my understanding that the usage of the debugger is detectable by scripts running on the page. I've actually come across…
VWWHFSfQ on HNThe fact that the debugger API is active is almost certainly detectable. I haven't tried recently, but it's been possible in older versions - and I've yet to come across a…
ryan-c on HN
Does not work on Firefox
From 1 comment
Recently made this extension and interested in getting some feedback on it. Vytal can Spoof your timezone, locale, geolocation and user agent. This data can be used to track you…
z0ccc on HN
Sites still detect VPNs and proxies despite spoofing
From 3 comments
So I've installed it. I'm tunneling to another country. Vytal says everything is correct for country B. However the site I'm testing posting to still detects that I'm outside…
beatthatflight on HNI use google DNS - surely that's mostly agnostic? I think I've worked out how tho. They detect VPN/proxies, where there are plenty of libraries to do so. So I tried creating a…
beatthatflight on HNVery few websites/services actually use location to test geo-restriction (especially on browser. it's more common for mobile apps). The most common reason why you VPN didn't work…
thrdbndndn on HN
Requests
Firefox support
From 2 comments
Recently made this extension and interested in getting some feedback on it. Vytal can Spoof your timezone, locale, geolocation and user agent. This data can be used to track you…
z0ccc on HNI dont want to dislike firefox, but I am starting to find new reasons to resent it. It seems like every other week there is something new I'm finding out about that gives me…
0des on HN
Remove the debugger banner
From 2 comments
Just installed it, it's showing a message on top of each tab in Chrome "Vytal" started debugging this browser Is there a way to get rid of it?
tauwauwau on HNGreat project! However is there any features over just going to developer tools > Sensors > Location and overriding it manually? Is it just to be able to match your IP…
jacooper on HN
Puppeteer/scraping support
From 2 comments
Vim mode is pretty neat. It seems like the whole app is kind of just like a python gui app wrapper around webkit? Looks like it would be pretty good if I was using linux and a…
jamal-kumar on HNThis extension takes an interesting approach to spoofing data, which is nice! In my case, I’m interested in doing the same thing inside of Puppeteer for web scraping,…
stevewatson301 on HN
Questions
How can the debugger use be detected by sites?
From 2 comments
How can you detect it? Which websites refuse to activate their features if the debugger is active?
z0ccc on HNHow can you detect it?
z0ccc on HN
Does it spoof IP location?
From 1 comment
Does it spoof IP location?
alam2000 on HN
Does it work with per-site proxy split tunneling?
From 1 comment
The idea for this extension is really cool! However I use a proxy switcher extension to connect to my vpn client on a per website basis (tldr split tunneling). Is there any way…
i13e on HN
Alternatives named
Firefox about:config geo.enabled or dev tools location override
From 3 comments
If you use Firefox, you can set your location in about:config without an extension: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/147166/how-can-you-fake-geolocation-in-firefox
rgbrenner on HNGreat project! However is there any features over just going to developer tools > Sensors > Location and overriding it manually? Is it just to be able to match your IP…
jacooper on HNGo to about:config () and set geo.enabled to false. : if you're on Android, you'll need either an unstable version (Beta, Nightly) or a fork (Fennec from F-Droid) of Firefox to…
jeroenhd on HN
CanvasBlocker and Spoof Timezone Firefox add-ons
From 1 comment
I'm using these FF addons CanvasBlocker and Spoof Timezone to spoof UA and timezone. I checked vytal.io and it shows those addons can't fully spoof web worker method. I usually…
curben on HN
User-agent switcher extension
From 1 comment
In addition to this I can recommend user-agent switcher: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher-revived/
walrus01 on HN