Firefox tracking protection

[Drew99GT]

Just found this out; Firefox has fairly extensive tracking protection built in, but you have to know how to turn it on. It's hidden in about:config apparently at the request of the online advertising industry. The feature uses Disconnects lists for blocking online ad tracking. I can confirm websites load faster. With several tweaks, I have Firefox running lightning fast now.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/firefo...ws-sites-by-44/

 

[Drew99GT]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection-firefox?as=u&utm_source=inproduct

http://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-abandons-firefox-tracking-protection-initiative/

With this enabled, I notice Ublock doesn't block as many things on web pages and it makes it even faster.

 

[RazorsEdge]

This works with Waterfox as well.

 

[shiny]

This is incredible! Thank you!

 

[yougoJAY]

Thank you, this is awesome!

 

[Blueskies123]

For those of you that cannot find about:config, you have to type it into a browser tab

 

[Lubener]

Works great. I wonder if you have to do this everytime after a firefox update?

 

[doitmyself]

Two questions:

- What does the "might void your warranty" mean?

- Are there any dangers/cons to enabling this?

Thanks.

 

[Drew99GT]

No dangers other than some websites might not function correctly. The "might void warranty" is basically a joke; it means you might cause problems by messing with the configuration. You can always change it back if you encounter issues, and you can turn off the tracking protection on a site by site basis in the address bar.

 

[Garak]

Yep, and a good joke, since there isn't a lot of warranty on a free product.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Yep, and a good joke, since there isn't a lot of warranty on a free product.

That's what I was going to say. BTW, that "warning" has been around for years- I first noticed it when I was trying to speed my internet surfing up a little by going in there and tweaking some settings after reading about it on a website.

 

[Jetronic]

THIS is an excellent tip!

recently BITOG was loading slow for me, waiting for some or other server (different ones at different times) but this has all ended now.

Got any more tips to speed up firefox?

 

[The_Eric]

Thank you for the tip Drew!

 

[sleddriver]

Very interesting. I've used Disconnect for a few years since reading about it. I may 'disconnect' it since Moz reportedly uses the same list, once activated. For awhile, I'll watch Disconnects' hit counter to see if it drops or not.

I'm rather amazed when I use someone elses confuser and see pop-ups, ads, and other intrusions. I wonder how they concentrate with all that mess?

No doubt marketers/google/yahoo/FB/MS/salesreps/trackers LOVE this junk as they make billions from it. If THEY like it, I don't. ADP along with NoScript keeps my views clean, though they do break some pages. That's an interesting clue right there.

Thanks for the post Drew!

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic
THIS is an excellent tip!

recently BITOG was loading slow for me, waiting for some or other server (different ones at different times) but this has all ended now.

Got any more tips to speed up firefox?


Use Ublock Origin to block ads/more tracking.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

You can try using this tool to compact the profile. CCleaner will do the same thing.

http://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox

Try to limit the amount of addons you use as they will gradually slow down Firefox. That's about all I've done. I tried all the pipe-lining tricks but had problems. I also tried enabling the HTTP cache but had issues.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Very interesting. I've used Disconnect for a few years since reading about it. I may 'disconnect' it since Moz reportedly uses the same list, once activated. For awhile, I'll watch Disconnects' hit counter to see if it drops or not.

I'm rather amazed when I use someone elses confuser and see pop-ups, ads, and other intrusions. I wonder how they concentrate with all that mess?

No doubt marketers/google/yahoo/FB/MS/salesreps/trackers LOVE this junk as they make billions from it. If THEY like it, I don't. ADP along with NoScript keeps my views clean, though they do break some pages. That's an interesting clue right there.

Thanks for the post Drew!

Apparently the Easy Privacy list blocks as much as Disconnect/Ghostery, so they are basically redundant addons you don't really need. Try Ublock Origin as you can also use the enhanced tracking list and the MVPhost tracking list.

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2011/09/tracking-trackers-self-help-tools

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I found a sore-spot with switching that privacy setting from false to true.

All major newspapers online require a Facebook sign-in for commenting on articles, both political and sports topics. If I use the 'true' setting, my comments page that appears is blank. If I set it to 'false', then I can log-in and comment on my favorite MLB / NFL sports teams.

Every other non-Facebook sign-in forums I visit on the web work fine with the 'true' setting.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
I found a sore-spot with switching that privacy setting from false to true.

All major newspapers online require a Facebook sign-in for commenting on articles, both political and sports topics. If I use the 'true' setting, my comments page that appears is blank. If I set it to 'false', then I can log-in and comment on my favorite MLB / NFL sports teams.

Every other non-Facebook sign-in forums I visit on the web work fine with the 'true' setting.


Having Facebook follow/ track you everywhere you go and hold records of everything you type at any and every site that uses their API for comments and likes and so on is precisely the type of tracking this setting was designed to stop.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I don't use Facebook and I'm not active on Facebook. I don;t even have one single friend and refrain to talking with anyone there.

2-3 times a week I will post a comment about a sports team at the newspaper website, which uses Facebook sign-ins.

So what are they tracking from me?.... when I show nothing to track...... everything personal / private about me at Facebook is set to the OFF position. I do not allow anyone to see anything about me. Every possible option available at Facebook I have listed as being Denied or Off. All people can see about me, are the posts I write at the newspapers or sports websites like ESPN, Fox.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
So what are they tracking from me?....


Every ounce of Facebook-related activity you do on Facebook or any other site that uses Facebook for comments or "likes" - **even if you do not use it on any given page**.

Examples:

You go to espn.com and comment on a sports story. You call the Lions "perpetual underachievers" in a comment. Facebook now knows where you were, when, and what you said. They use this information to cater the things that are presented to you when you are at Facebook (not being active there, you're simply not too affected by this; but remain aware that the gold all advertisers seek is **your attention**) AND they sell that information to advertisers.

OR...

You go to some-lingerie-site.com to check out something for the Mrs. At some product pages there are reviews, which use the Facebook API. You do not use any of those functions, HOWEVER, Facebook still knows you were there, for how long, what pages you viewed, etc. and uses that very valuable information accordingly.

For people who track you, YOU ARE the product. They sell your surfing and navigating habits, likes and dislikes, visit frequencies and who knows what else to market research companies and directly to advertisers.

Many people are also uncomfortable with anyone - commercial, gov't or anyone else - having that information about them. We may not be far off from you getting some unwanted attention because Facebook knew (and sold or surrendered that information) you'd been at some-gun-site.com a few times too many for someone's liking; or from a prospective employer forming a judgement about you because of the review for "50 Shades of Grey" you left at Amazon.