Slashdot Mirror

Cookies are absolutely not the problem, the vast array of sites installing facebook tracking scripts on their pages is the problem.

In which case, use http://www.ghostery.com/ to block trackers.

Sooner after his departure Ghostery went from reporting zero to 4, and as of today 5, web-bugs on most slashdot pages.

Could just be a coincidence, and awfully big coincidence though.

Ghostery looks to be available on all major browsers including Chrome.

There's an extension Adblock which is similar to AdBlock Plus. It isn't identical, but other than issues with video-embedded ads (which I remember having with Adblock Plus occasionally) it works just as well as far as I'm concerned.

As other posters have mentioned Chromium. Here are the major differences. "User metrics" and "crash reporting" are the only two differences with potential privacy issues, AFAIK.

Ghostery works well for that sort of thing.

It should achieve the effect you are looking for in preemptively blocking the content before it hits your browser.

Supports most major browsers too.

http://www.ghostery.com/
Used with adblock it's very effective.

I could mess around with ad-blockers and flash blockers etc, but frankly it just ain't that big a deal to me.

It's one of those things many people don't realize is annoying until it is gone.

I've set up ad-blocking for people and, when a browser update breaks it, they let me know right away.
Try it sometime. Ghostery is a good one to start with, since it won't accidentally block anything that's not an ad.

And if you aren't using Chrome... Ghostery for FF works great too

Plugin for most browsers. Blocks tracking cookies, including the multiple ones that facebook uses. An added benefit is that (for me anyway) it speeds up rendering of a lot of slow gawker and gawker-like websites. Probably because they have so many trackers (record is 25). http://www.ghostery.com/

http://www.ghostery.com/

For everyones reference, it's currently blocking facebook connect here on slashdot.

Just use Ghostery, available for all the popular browsers (IE, Safari, Opera, Firefox, Chrome): http://www.ghostery.com/download

Yay Ghostery and NoScript!

You can use Ghostery to block this and many other tracking scripts.

http://www.ghostery.com/download

Or you can put their domain in your /etc/hosts files:

127.0.0.1 www.kissmetrics.com
127.0.0.1 trk.kissmetrics.com
127.0.0.1 i.kissmetrics.com
127.0.0.1 kissmetrics.com

You can use Ghostery to block this and many other tracking scripts. http://www.ghostery.com/download

Ghosteryexists for Firefox/Chrome/IE/Safari, and can be taught to behave as noscript.

Ghostery is another Firefox add-on that does much the same, except also supports blocking the cookies.

To riff on your post - there are firefox addons that significantly reduce, if not outright kill, these cookie-less tracking techniques. Given your knowledge of the problem, I think you are aware of the addons, but for anyone else reading along who wants to start to take control back themselves rather than rely on the political process to come up with a "compromise":

noscript - http://noscript.net/

Yes, Noscript is very useful -- In fact, it implements the very "DNT:1" HTTP header that I mentioned -- Firefox4 does (my build does, not sure if all Firefox4 versions do, but the current trunk & nightly builds do. Microsoft has said that IE9 will support the anti-tracking header. Google chrome of course will not -- and that my friend's is why I don't use chrome (I have an ugly Chromium patch that adds this feature though!)

Here's a PDF if you would like to read more about the DNT:1 header.

ghostery - http://www.ghostery.com/ Ghostery specifically blocks when one page pulls in javascript and other "bugs" from those tracking sites. It will even give you a quick list of the trackers on each page when it loads.

I use noscript with most, but not quite all, javascript blocked in conjunction with ghostery to keep guys like facebook and doubleclick/google from tracking me. Of course I block all cookies and do other things too, those two are just the most pertinent to the discussion.

Of course, this doesn't keep the partners of Facebook and Google/doubleclick from tracking you. Imagine if slashdot and othe sites you visit were paid a small fee per line of their server logs -- No sort of client side solution will stop them from tracking you this way short of not using the web. (What if they partner with your ISP!?)

Unfortunately legislation is the only answer -- Without any monetary penalties for ignoring our privacy demands, these companies will continue do just that.

The DNT:1 header tells Slashdot and any 3rd party hosts that your user information should not be saved -- This nips the problem in the bud, as evidenced by the outcry of some of the largest web-tracking companies.... If it wouldn't work, they wouldn't care!

To riff on your post - there are firefox addons that significantly reduce, if not outright kill, these cookie-less tracking techniques. Given your knowledge of the problem, I think you are aware of the addons, but for anyone else reading along who wants to start to take control back themselves rather than rely on the political process to come up with a "compromise":

noscript - http://noscript.net/
Noscript is the heavy-hitter, with all of the settings turned up to the max, no javascript gets executed from any site and it won't even try to access those tracking sites like facebook and google analytics, much less pull in javascript code from them. But, running with that configuration can make the web a harsh and unlivable place due to all of the useful javascript that gets blocked too.

ghostery - http://www.ghostery.com/
Ghostery specifically blocks when one page pulls in javascript and other "bugs" from those tracking sites. It will even give you a quick list of the trackers on each page when it loads.

I use noscript with most, but not quite all, javascript blocked in conjunction with ghostery to keep guys like facebook and doubleclick/google from tracking me. Of course I block all cookies and do other things too, those two are just the most pertinent to the discussion.

Also
Ghostery => http://www.ghostery.com/
Https-Everywhere => https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Beef Taco => http://jmhobbs.github.com/beef-taco

then you will have a chance of good browsing without telling everybody where you have been and who you ate for lunch

So eight out of 10 browsers running the test failed it? That's not terribly surprising, since I have to install a plugin to run the test.

I don't know Qualys from Quantas, so I'm highly unlikely to install their plugin just to find out whether my browser has vulnerabilities. In fact, I'm not terribly likely to install any plugins at all (though I'm enjoying Ghostery immensely).

Now, let's assume for a moment that I'm the type to install any plugin that asks nicely and looks shiny. Gee, is it any surprise that Qualys' plugin isn't the first one I've accepted? And is it any surprise that I've got other issues?

This test suffers from a terrible self-selection bias. Those most likely to take the "test" are the ones most likely to fail it.

How does this compare to Ghostery?
http://www.ghostery.com/

I recommend Ghostery. Detects and optionally blocks tracking sites and receives updates every once in a while to keep up with new ones. I just had a look and sure enough they already know about Demandbase.

The info page reveals that Demandbase offers to track "all Web site visitors in your target market, including those who do not submit their contact information" and allow you to "integrate them with your direct marketing programs - from email campaigns to telesales". So yeah, they advertise knowing uncomfortably much (from the trackee's perspective) about your visitors.

The Ghostery addon also blocks Facebook and most other tracking. IME, has worked invisibly; it's never stopped a webpage from working normally.

Another useful tool is ghostery http://www.ghostery.com/

I have found using Ghostery added on to FireFox has cut down on a lot of this sort of cross site tracking for me.

http://www.ghostery.com/

Then...
1) Don't login while searching.
2) Clear your flash cookies.
3) If you logged in while searching, regularly clear your search history from the Google control panel. It will still be retained for several months, but probably won't be actively used to serve you anything. Just passively used for larger scale statistics.

Note: You will still be tracked. For more info, read on: http://www.ghostery.com/

P.S. I respect Google for being so truthful about how things are.

Adblock wont stop Google Analytics. Get the Ghostery extension for Firefox and set it to automatically block all those spiders and creepy crawlies of the advertisement web.

Ironically, that site uses Google Analytics. Go figure.

Also, you could use a Greasemonkey script that I can't find right now that removes those crappy ad-click links from Google that are very common now. For example, search Ghostery in Google, and copy the link location. Paste it. Look at that mess...