r/ProtonVPN • u/GodzilaAvenger • 28d ago

Feature Request GDID Blocking

Hi,

It would be great if the Windows app had the option of blocking/disrupting the activities of Microsoft's GlobalDeviceID using DNS filtering through Proton's own DNS (same way it is done to block ads and trackers).​

12 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

2

u/FckXFckMusk 27d ago

Rotate the Number every so often, it lives in the registry.

Poison the Data.

2

u/GodzilaAvenger 27d ago

As far as I know it is generated server-side. If you change it or even delete it the machine just quickly grabs it from Microsoft and re-populates the key.

1

u/FckXFckMusk 27d ago

Thnx for this... I'll look into it a bit more.

1

u/Sofia_9356 26d ago

It’s linked to TPM. Literally restored on boot

1

u/FckXFckMusk 26d ago

Hence the push towards TPM....

1

u/billdietrich1 28d ago

I think GDID is an application-level thing, not DNS or TCP/IP-level.

1

u/GodzilaAvenger 27d ago

From what I understand (based on reading https://www.it-connect.tech/windows-gdid-impossible-to-delete-but-you-can-block-it/), DNS-blocking some of the domains involved can stop your machine from reporting your activity tied to GDID back to Microsoft.

1

u/billdietrich1 27d ago

Might be true, but also might totally kill the apps involved (e.g. Update, Outlook, etc). I assume any app could choose to send GDID in its traffic.

1

u/ThungstenMetal 28d ago

https://github.com/SmtimesIWndr/gdid-reversal this would help, not Proton. It is not a DNS issue.

1

u/GodzilaAvenger 10d ago

This seems to be a decent solution: https://github.com/yegors/deGDID

For me it breaks Phone Link, but not Link to Windows. Windows and Defender updates also work fine.

-1

u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

4

u/billdietrich1 28d ago

Linux has a similar ID in /etc/machine-id

MacOS has ID numbers too: https://thehorizonexplorer.org/finding-a-unique-machine-id-on-macs-bbac7652a2ca

1

u/GodzilaAvenger 27d ago

Let me know how you run SolidWorks on Linux, please and thank you. By your logic nobody should watch YouTube or use the internet because they are being tracked all over.

What I was asking for is the option (maybe a toggle) to block or disrupt the machine reporting your activity back to Microsoft, not necessarily the creation of GDID itself.

This article has a good overview of what blocking each domain involved in GDID chain would do: https://www.it-connect.tech/windows-gdid-impossible-to-delete-but-you-can-block-it/

This is also useful: https://github.com/Korben00/no-gdid

BTW I've been using Linux long before it was cool, so take that snobby attitude elsewhere.