Firefox tracking protection

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
To all "I give up" replies here, that's funny. Never give up folks. People like me are here to help you avoid the trackers. Maybe I even helped that web designer in this thread.


OK, guys; we are either being trolled or this guy has a Mystic-esque level of deliberate ignorance.

Either way, he seems entrenched - argumentatively - in his mindset, equating his ill-formed assumptions with facts; and any further attempts to elucidate him are doomed to be consigned to the oblivion of the internet (and to BITOG's databases, and Facebook's, ad infinitum...)
 
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
I Private Window most everywhere.
I have Adblock Plus
I log-out websites like this one when leaving
I remove cookies daily
I remove History daily


Tracking and data mining do not take place on **your** computer. Clearing your locally-stored browser cache, history and cookies and so on has nothing to do with anything in this thread. Using AdBlock Plus does and is a smart measure to take.

At the end of the day, I doubt whatever we argue about here will change anything; and none of the things we are arguing about likely impact our lives directly, anyhow.

Triple_Se7en, it is good that you take measures to secure yourself and your privacy while online. You are terribly off base about the issues of tracking and data mining (specifically exhibiting some confusion about what takes place server-side and client-side) but those things are largely immaterial to your web use experience - Certainly not worth arguing over!
 
By the way, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has some easy-readin' information on tracking here:

https://www.eff.org/issues/do-not-track

... And a browser add-on whose log files, if you looked at them after using it for a while, could scare the holy mackerel out of you here:

https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

They also have a neat browser add-on that defaults to any site's https:// (encrypted) version of a site when possible, called HTTPS Everywhere, here:

https://www.eff.org/Https-everywhere
 
Originally Posted By: 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!
cheers3.gif



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

Thanks Drew! Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been working on the sled re: emissions codes.

I dwnld'd Ublock on the new W7 machine instead of AB+ and like it. Then I discovered there's a fork between Ublock & UB Origin. So you prefer the later?

FF has indeed sped-up on this old machine (P4, 3.xxGhz, WXP). Rather amazing that....I definitely fall into the privacy group. I want to disable all that insidious SW on my machines. If they want it that bad, I'm going to make it very difficult!
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
By the way, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has some easy-readin' information on tracking here:

https://www.eff.org/issues/do-not-track

... And a browser add-on whose log files, if you looked at them after using it for a while, could scare the holy mackerel out of you here:

https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

They also have a neat browser add-on that defaults to any site's https:// (encrypted) version of a site when possible, called HTTPS Everywhere, here:

https://www.eff.org/Https-everywhere

Thanks UC! I'm interested in knowing more about this. Please post more either here or PM me. Thanks!
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Thanks UC! I'm interested in knowing more about this. Please post more either here or PM me. Thanks!


The Privacy Badger extension (for both Firefox and Chrome) is like AdBlock Plus on steroids. It blocks pretty much everything that could possibly be a conduit through which a third party could glean information about you. It nukes various types of cookies, blocks a whole bunch of intrusive content, disables a lot of scripts, etc. It gets to the point where it will interfere with the normal functions of a lot of site; but the icon it places on your browser's toolbar makes it very easy to view and allow certain items it is blocking or disabling.

I am pretty sure it can be used in place of an ad-blocking extension. EDIT - I did not think of this until I finished typing the above paragraph, so I disabled AdBlock Plus and went to a bunch of sites I know to be loaded with ads and none appeared. I feel a little silly now for using both at the same time.

The HTTPS Everywhere extension basically switches you to any given sites encrypted version of a page if it exists. Most sites will prefer you use unencrypted pages if possible because they are faster and less CPU- and bandwidth-intensive for the server(s); but encrypted traffic is always best. (BITOG not using a https:// page for login is very unusual and quite unsettling, in my opinion.) For example, if you are at http://some-site.com/some-page.html and there exists a https://some-site.com/some-page.html the extension will automagically redirect you to the secure version of the page. This does not directly interfere with tracking or invasive content methods employed by various sites; but it prevents malicious or unscrupulous parties from eavesdropping on your traffic between you and the server(s) you visit.
 
Although I still have not seen an ad using *just* Privacy Badger and *no* AdBlock plus, I did just find this at the Privacy Badger site's FAQ:

Why doesn't Privacy Badger block all ads?

Because Privacy Badger is primarily a privacy tool, not an ad blocker. Our aim is not to block ads, but to prevent non-consensual invasions of people's privacy because we believe they are inherently objectionable. We also want to create incentives for advertising companies to do the right thing. Of course, if you really dislike ads, you can also install a traditional ad blocker.
 
Thanks UC. I gave PB a look and will try it out. I'm long familiar with noscript breaking some sights, but the big reduction in junk is worthwhile. Thus, no worries with PB.
 
I looked at PB but there were a lot of complaints about broken websites; the Easy Privacy list combined with Fanboys enhanced tracking I'm sure covers all tracking concerns.
 
Facebook got convicted in europe yesterday for keeping all info from europeans on US servers and giving the NSA access to all the info.

Whatever you did with your facebook login stays forever on these servers, there's no way to delete it (as the user).
 
Originally Posted By: Jetronic
Facebook got convicted in europe yesterday for keeping all info from europeans on US servers and giving the NSA access to all the info.

Whatever you did with your facebook login stays forever on these servers, there's no way to delete it (as the user).



... And perhaps it bears repeating that **any** page you ever visit with a Facebook "Like", "Share", "Comment" button(s) or any other such thing, while you are still logged into Facebook, is part of the data that Facebook keeps on you.
 
Exactly.

And facebook keeps track of visitors without account aswell. First time you visit facebook they install a cookie and start tracking your browsing habits.

Zuckerberg ain't no sucker!
 
Originally Posted By: Jetronic
Exactly.

And facebook keeps track of visitors without account aswell. First time you visit facebook they install a cookie and start tracking your browsing habits.

Zuckerberg ain't no sucker!



I'm signed-in to Facebook thru the Detroit News and there's no Cookie listed when using Firefox Private Window Browser.
 
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted By: Jetronic
Exactly.

And facebook keeps track of visitors without account aswell. First time you visit facebook they install a cookie and start tracking your browsing habits.

Zuckerberg ain't no sucker!



I'm signed-in to Facebook thru the Detroit News and there's no Cookie listed when using Firefox Private Window Browser.


It isn't necessary: you're signed in to Facebook already from a prior login directly with them. The Detroit News is simply using Facebook's API and therefore Facebook's login mechanisms. **There may more likely be a script coming from a server of Facebook's** in the Detroit News page(s) being loaded that checks for and confirms your identity. The Privacy Badger extension would show that info to you. I will head over to the Detroit News site in the next couple of minutes to check...

EDIT: Privacy Badger detected 19 tracking scripts at a page at the Detroit News site; 3 of which were Facebook's: one came from Facebook.com, one from static.ak.facebook.com and one from s-static.ak.facebook.com. (Several others were from Twitter, Google, etc.) One script (among a few dozen atop the 19 that it thought were trackers) that Privacy Badger reported "was not likely tracking me" was from connect.facebook.com.

This next part is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Both Firefox's Private Windows and Chrome's Incognito Windows do ZERO to prevent tracking beyond any normal tab or window: They ONLY prevent any history of your browsing from being recorded **on your local machine**. They do not prevent others from spying or recording your browsing at all.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Supposedly, Firefox 42 is being beta tested and includes tracking protection when using the privacy mode?

Comments?

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/09...ivate-browsing/


There is a heated and lively debate happening right now among the varied parties involved in making the web work (standards bodies, web browser developers, major sites, etc.) about the balance needed in addressing users' demands for privacy and protection versus the desire for sites to generate revenue from ads and tracking.

It really is not all that difficult to make yourself, for all practical intents and purposes, anonymous and private on the web by using Tor and/ or browser extensions like NoScript, Privacy Badger, etc. The cost of that is that most major web sites will not not function properly for you.

Mozilla and other organizations have been trying to come up with a set of standards or best practices (here is a blog entry from Mozilla - https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/10/07/proposed-principles-for-content-blocking/) that outline how far browsers, sites and service providers ought to go to protect a users' presumption of privacy before those measures impede web sites' ability to use you as a cash cow. It's a tricky issue!

It sounds like Firefox 42 Beta aims to "bake in" a Privacy Badger Lite that blocks 3rd-party scripts and cookies while allowing either whitelisted or 1st-party scripts and cookies; all while allowing you some control over it in real-time. I am anxious to see how it performs in the wild.
 
I went and enabled this,i did a restart and now most pages wont fully load including here.maybe i did something wrong i dont know.
 
Originally Posted By: CT Rob
I went and enabled this,i did a restart and now most pages wont fully load including here.maybe i did something wrong i dont know.


You did not do anything "wrong", per se: Some (read: "most") sites use various technologies that are considered invasive and anti-privacy. Prohibiting these technologies often breaks some or all of a site.

Most of the pro-privacy things I have used and use now err on the side of overkill for the sake of comprehensive privacy protection; but a lot of our use of web sites is a deliberate compromise of our privacy. (eg. Whenever I visit a Google service site like Gmail or Calendar or Music I am already signed in. Why and how? They've left a cookie on my machine that indicates who I am, among other things. I am OK with that.) To that end, I like to use uBlock and Privacy Badger as Firefox and Chrome add-ons because they both allow me to "tune" their blocking to allow the things I want to continue to block the things I either do not want or am not familiar with. Sometimes it takes a few kicks at the can when a site is not working properly to enable and disable certain scripts and cookies and so on!
 
Note: Revisiting an Old Thread

I enabled this protection after learning about it from Drew. Then later installed Ublock Origin. However, I never did go back and disable the former. Today I was attempting to listen to a streamed college football game and the "player" window was blank. I tried a local "sports" FM station's site and they just redirected me to the college's site.

Spent most of the first half trying to figure out WHY it wouldn't work. I turned off UO early on, but no joy. Then disabled it: Nothing. Played around with some FF settings: No joy. Checked about:config for adblockers, etc.: No joy.

Then remembered Drew's post. So I looked up PRIVACY.TRACKINGPROTECTION.ENABLED again and found it set to TRUE. I flipped to FALSE, quit FF, restarted, went back to the college site and I now have streaming audio of the game!!

The little sneaky B$%^&@!...they want their tracking info just to listen to the dam game!

Evidently, whatever black-list is being used, is different from UO's. That's why temporarily disabling it resulted in no joy.

I've become increasingly interested in security, privacy, and tracking topics as the 'net is just infested with gogglefacebooktwitteradstrackersbeaconsspybotsinstagramlinkedinpintinterestblahblahblah, pushing billions to these companies. I do all I can and UO is great at keeping most/much of this junk from loading much less running.

Back to the game.........
 
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
I'm signed-in to Facebook thru the Detroit News and there's no Cookie listed when using Firefox Private Window Browser.


You wouldn't make a chess player: you count your moves very well, but you are unable to count moves of your opponent. Whatever it is, be happy in your ignorance.

Social activity is the best invention since the sliced bread. Billions are compiling their own KGB, CIA, FBI, BND and such other profiles by volunteering and providing free info from the moment of their birth (by their naive parents) to the very end. My hat is off!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

wwillson
  • Locked
Answers - Pennzoil Technology behind "Made From Natural Gas" and Vehicle maintenance while driving less Q&A
Replies
5
Views
31K
RateNate
wwillson
  • Locked
Pennzoil Answers-Complete Protection and Oil Myths
Replies
3
Views
16K
clarkz71
wwillson
  • Locked
Pennzoil Answers - Thinner Viscosity Grades
Replies
10
Views
18K
GaleHawkins
dave1251
  • Locked
Exxon Mobil
Replies
19
Views
14K
MolaKule
O
  • Locked
Castrol GTX gets caught again
2
Replies
34
Views
20K
lexus114
Back
Top