Fauxx is an open-source Android privacy tool that poisons data broker and ad-tech profiles by generating continuous, plausible, off-demographic synthetic activity from your device. The goal is simple: make your real behavioral signal statistically indistinguishable from noise.

https://github.com/digital-grease/fauxx

  • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    40 minutes ago

    this seems to be a heavily vibecoded project, the readme has at least one contradiction and weird statements and formatting.

    I mean now is it clicking ads or is it not? and what’s the reason for including the “tech stack”?

  • BehavioralClam@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 hour ago

    Any ELI5 on how to run this for someone that is a zero on Android code?

    Edit: nvm found the app on F-droid and it just installed and now running it

  • crandlecan@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    9 hours ago

    Fauxx isn’t responding for the last half hour when it started to query ad networks what they knew about me. I am using a vpn so maybe if it’s querying that public IP… It might get overloaded. I have a reasonably modern and beefy phone.

    Update: and after closing it and starting it again the service starts as disabled, yet the app still crashes with a not responding warning. There is no time to even go into the settings.

  • washington_irving@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    13 hours ago

    The concept is very interesting, I used the app for a while but I don’t get one thing. Why would you want to randomize fingerprints? If the goal is to pollute your profile with random data then it does the exact opposite thing and makes it harder to assosiate the noise with actual user activity.

      • washington_irving@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        10 hours ago

        yes, but when you spoof fingerprints the only thing connecting the noise generated by the app to the user is then the IP address and ironically the README recommends using it alongside a VPN to hide your IP, which means that the queries made by Fauxx are, like you said, “just noise”, not noise associated with your profile, the noise could as well be generated by any other device

        also, I think that the extensive use of LLMs should be stated in the description, not burried in a closed issue, as it is an important matter especially when creating a privacy oriented project

          • washington_irving@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 hours ago

            Still, browser fingerprints are most commonly used and spoofing them seems counterproductive. If the goal is to maximize confusion about users interests and search history it should mimic actual users’ behavior as closely as possible.

              • washington_irving@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                35 minutes ago

                ahh, sorry what I meant is that the app shouldn’t randomize identifiers, such as browser fingerprints or even cookies, because the goal is to make the noise associated with the user’s profile, otherwise it’s just random requests and it becomes pointless.

        • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 hours ago

          Maybe it is because the data brokers will still identify you buy your device fingerprint even when using the vpn

          • crandlecan@mander.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            9 hours ago

            Yep. They look at way more than your IP. The one I can’t tackle yet is window sizes… I have asked a dev to see if he can slightly randomize new browser window sizes just for that. Otherwise I have a bunch of anti fingerprint extensions. And I often find myself unable to pass captchas or services because of it. But most of the time, that works. That and using a non-tracking search engine. I like presearch. And their browser on android supports extensions, just like Edge.

  • Cherry@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    12 hours ago

    Where would this be ran at device level or can it be ran at server router level to generate activity at full property/users level?

  • crandlecan@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    11 hours ago

    Oh wow!! You really went above and beyond! Any chance non coders get this on their phone? And does it need a local vpn connection? Or can I keep DuckDuckGo anti app tracking too?

    Edit: thanks repliers