Website is able to find out real location

Support Tor Browser Desktop
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1

Long time Tor Browswer lover here. Yesterday and today surprising workflow.

Running:

Debian Sid, Tor 15.0.19 (based on Mozilla Firefox 140.13.0esr) safest setting, sometimes safer settinge.g. for protonmail

Tried to order a product via Tor Browser. Website uses guest checkout, so everytime a fresh start. No address entry or something else.

The website was able to set my home country by itself and no my country is not the first country in their list.

Tried:

  • multiple stop and fresh start of Tor browser
  • changing language to en-US + fresh start
  • not using any direct link to the product, fully navigating
  • checked browser headers sent by Tor browser (looks ok to me)
  • full system reboot

whatever I do, their shop software still sets my home country in the dropdown box.

any suggestions are greatly appreciated?

I saw somebody else had a similiar problem 2 years ago:

2

Have you tried the suggestion in that link below to put a line like ExitNodes {xx} in your torrc file? Use a country which is not your country then remove it when finished.
Now when you check your circuit in the top left corner icon (left of the lock) does it match the country you specified in torrc?

Does that site actually list your ISP assigned IP?

Can you give us the site you are taking about?

If what you say is true then the whole idea of Tor becomes useless.

I just did that using se and I am on an exit node of se
Error on my post. Removed NOT. I was exit node se

3

I have not tried the exit node, but I have geo checked the IP of the used exit nodes. This is not my home country. In no test of many.

No, the site only selects a country in the drop down box. But the country is not the first in their drop down, so they set it based on something on every try.

I can give the site to somebody is investigating this. But I do not post it public because I do not blame somebody before it is 100% clear that it is not my fault.

4

Hey,

Have you tried just installing a fresh version of the tor browser?

5

till now I have not tried to install a fresh version because this maybe would clean up the problem for now with this site, but still would let some bad smell open because of their dropdown setting.

I am unsure how to debug this one, but I would prefert to find out why they can set it or if this is by accident.

6

This may be a long shot but could it maybe be because you imported bookmarks from another browser. And for some reason your information is in the URL itself???

7

Just to be sure i installed Tor Browser on a xrdp Debian Sid here in the LAN. Also here my home country is set, even the exit node is Sweden.

Need to check if my home counrty is their default for whatever reason. I go search for a non Tor box outside my home country.

8

I know and no, I type the FQDN into Tor browser.

9

can you please check what you see on this website - https://check.torproject.org/
It allows you to check if you use tor

10

also we have discovered that traffice from some tor exits sometimes is being attributed as iraninan traffic, it affects some Netherlands exits and now some Sweden exits as well.
And that happens with tor users from any location in the world, regardless if they are in Iran or not

11

Congratulations. This browser is configured to use Tor.

Your IP address appears to be: 185.220.100.248

12

The iranian stuff i have from time to time too. the websites shows add in their - for me unreadble - letters

But no, my home country is within Europe.

13

Quick question, is your browser set to clear history each time it closes?

14

Another question: is the website you’re visiting a geography-agnostic one? As in, is it visited by many people from around the world or is it a website that mostly people in your region / country visit?

Happy to investigate if you want to share the website URL.

15

yes, Tor by default clears everything on close. But on the other box in my LAN the fresh setup reacts same.

The website is a worldwide used one.

I try to figure out how to send you a private message with the URL.

16

you can contact us via support channels -
Telegram - @TorProjectSupportBot
WhatsApp - +447421000612.
Signal - +17787431312, or Signal username, @torsupport.89.
email frontdesk@torproject.org

17

Thank you for investigating into this and finding out it was a very surprising combination of defaults of the website visited and my country. Happy that this is found out now an I will use the site now without bad feeling. THX alot.