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It seems I was banned from TripAdvisor, which is no big deal. They easily blocked me from just using a new username, probably thanks to cookies.

I thought this would be a good test for TorBrowser to see how anonymous it can make me. All goes well for a few days but eventually they seem to catch on and I get disabled again.

Is something getting through Tor to make me recognizable? It could also be that other users keep reporting me but that seems unlikely.

Tor 4.5-alpha-2

thanks for any thoughts

PS I'm not doing anything illegal or obnoxious, just countering lies with plainly stated facts is enough to get you banned there

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You could be recognized / identified by a combination of factors: You are "that guy who is always countering lies with plainly stated facts", who always connects over Tor, always around lunch time east coast time, etc...

They may have very few visitors from Tor exits who login to accounts.

It is also possible that they do not know you're the same person every time, but they just ban anyone for countering lies with plainly stated facts, not just you.

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  • Yes, it's possible but I doubt it. I'm not that transparent, I hope! I'll try again with a new account and make no posts for a week. I thought I read somewhere about certain headers getting through. Maybe not enough to identify who I am but that I'm the same guy as before.
    – PaulW
    Dec 7, 2014 at 0:06
  • Or they've banned the IP of the exit node you happened to be on?
    – Kar
    Dec 11, 2014 at 18:26
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I've been banned from TA as well for tangling with a bitchy Destination Expert. I've tried re-registering numerous times but you've gotten further than I have. I have learned and deduced that TA is using multiple identifiers to identify banned users. These may include Cookies in your browser(s), so called Flash Cookies or Local Stored Objects, your operating system version, your browser type and version, your Ip address or partial address from the block of IP numbers available to your ISP. Who knows what else.

Also if you formerly signed into TA with Facebook or Google you should unauthorize TA from interacting with them, and perhaps sign-out from them when you use TA.

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The Tor browser is actually Firefox. When I went on Tripadvisor with a new account I saw a browser notice that TA was trying to use 'cross-site scripting XSS'and it was blocked. TripAdvisor may just disable accounts who consistently block their scurrilous attempts to learn your identity by stealth.

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