This is why I call anti-fingerprinting efforts, a losing battle.
It's good that GOS prevents apps from accessing hardware identifiers, as those are literally like "fingerprints", as they cannot change no matter what you do.
Wallpaper "fingerprinting" is not as permanent as a hardware ID, nor a physical fingerprint, since the user can change them.
SeaSaltIceCream Would having an app that cycles through (personal) images and set these as backgrounds every X time help reduce wallpaper tracking?
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In my opinion, if anything, this would make you unique and easily trackable.
"Tracking" requires a unique identifier that remains static over time. If you are changing your fingerprint every X hours, there is no way to track that to a single user. That is the concept behind random MAC addresses for BLE, and Wifi.
SeaSaltIceCream Wallpaper tracking does sound like it would be a great way for tech companies to have a unique identifier on me
Yes, but for now, it is much easier for them to focus on hardware identifiers as the vast majority of users don't protect those with a custom OS like Graphene.
[deleted] Ask yourself if your threat model is that extreme for this to matter.
This is a great point that needs to constantly be restated. IMO, this particular threat is overblown. There are only a handful of real people who have this threat model where they will be targeted from fingerprinting. In the real world, fingerprinting is a commercial enterprise to target ads (which you should be blocking anyway).
The problem I'm seeing now is that people have been worked into frenzy to prevent fingerprinting that they are actually reducing their security and privacy posture in an attempt to blend in as much as possible. Not blocking javascript because it makes you stand out, letting apps have permissions it doesn't need, because the app could see that configuration as "unique", etc.
I personally don't mind big tech companies getting what they think are unique identifiers. When they try to build a profile on me and serve me ads, I won't see them and their profile isn't even close to my real identity.
So I ask, whomever is seriously worried about fingerprinting, "what exactly are you concerned they will do with a fingerprint?"