Slashdot Mirror

Ghostery I
    don't know if Ghostery still sells data: Ghostery
    sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013) Ghostery web site. See the article, Ghostery
    is Acquired by Cliqz! (Feb 15, 2017)

I am very happy with Ghostery, use it in all of my browsers. I also use their browser on my Android phone, mainly to stop any additional data consumption. To the best of my understanding you can opt out of their data collection.

I would also recommend ShareMeNot.. I don't use Facebook and do not want them (and others) tracking me.

Ghostery I
    don't know if Ghostery still sells data: Ghostery
    sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013) Ghostery web site. See the article, Ghostery
    is Acquired by Cliqz! (Feb 15, 2017)

I am very happy with Ghostery, use it in all of my browsers. I also use their browser on my Android phone, mainly to stop any additional data consumption. To the best of my understanding you can opt out of their data collection.

I would also recommend ShareMeNot.. I don't use Facebook and do not want them (and others) tracking me.

Add-ons Links
Firefox, WaterFox, and Pale Moon Browsers

For security: Get add-ons only from the Mozilla.org add-on web pages.

Visit those links with Firefox. Visiting with the latest version of Pale Moon (27.8.2) shows an error: """This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (at least version 52.0). You are using Firefox 27.9."
Pale moon add-ons

Adblock Latitude For Pale Moon browser only. Blocks display of ads. "Adblock Latitude is a direct fork of Adblock Plus made specifically for the Pale Moon browser."

BetterPrivacy Removed by the author. Deletes Local Shared Objects, LSOs. LSOs are files placed on your computer by the Adobe Systems Flash plug-in. Use of Adobe Flash allows web sites to track you, permanently even though your browser is configured to delete the files known as "Cookies" after each re-starting of your operating system.

CanvasBiocker Prevents websites from using the Javascript <canvas> API to fingerprint them.

Classic Theme Restorer Quoting 3 paragraphs:

"This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017."

"This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017 and Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons. It should still work on Firefox 52 ESR until ESR moves to Firefox 59 ESR in 2018 (~Q2)".

"There is no 'please port it' or 'please add support for it' this time, because the entire add-on eco system changes and the technology behind this kind of add-on gets dropped without replacement."

Cookies Manager+

Disconnect Updates to Pale Moon browser don't install.

Facebook Blocker Prevents Facebook from following you everywhere there are Facebook "Like" buttons.

Firebug "Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..." Firebug development page.

FlashStopper Stops video autoplay and shows a preview thumbnail. On Sept. 9, 2017 does not work with YouTube because it prevents reading comments; there is a working version in the development branch.

Ghostery I don't know if Ghostery still sells data: Ghostery sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013) Ghostery web site. See the article, Ghostery is Acquired by Cliqz! (Feb 15, 2017)

HTTPS Everywhere Doesn't install in Pale Moon. Encrypts traffic by using HTTPS encryption rather than HTTP wherever web sites accept HTTPS. See How to Protect You

Add-ons Links
Firefox, WaterFox, and Pale Moon Browsers

For security: Get add-ons only from the Mozilla.org add-on web pages.

Visit those links with Firefox. Visiting with the latest version of Pale Moon (27.8.2) shows an error: """This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (at least version 52.0). You are using Firefox 27.9."
Pale moon add-ons

Adblock Latitude For Pale Moon browser only. Blocks display of ads. "Adblock Latitude is a direct fork of Adblock Plus made specifically for the Pale Moon browser."

BetterPrivacy Removed by the author. Deletes Local Shared Objects, LSOs. LSOs are files placed on your computer by the Adobe Systems Flash plug-in. Use of Adobe Flash allows web sites to track you, permanently even though your browser is configured to delete the files known as "Cookies" after each re-starting of your operating system.

CanvasBiocker Prevents websites from using the Javascript <canvas> API to fingerprint them.

Classic Theme Restorer Quoting 3 paragraphs:

"This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017."

"This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017 and Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons. It should still work on Firefox 52 ESR until ESR moves to Firefox 59 ESR in 2018 (~Q2)".

"There is no 'please port it' or 'please add support for it' this time, because the entire add-on eco system changes and the technology behind this kind of add-on gets dropped without replacement."

Cookies Manager+

Disconnect Updates to Pale Moon browser don't install.

Facebook Blocker Prevents Facebook from following you everywhere there are Facebook "Like" buttons.

Firebug "Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..." Firebug development page.

FlashStopper Stops video autoplay and shows a preview thumbnail. On Sept. 9, 2017 does not work with YouTube because it prevents reading comments; there is a working version in the development branch.

Ghostery I don't know if Ghostery still sells data: Ghostery sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013) Ghostery web site. See the article, Ghostery is Acquired by Cliqz! (Feb 15, 2017)

HTTPS Everywhere Doesn't install in Pale Moon. Encrypts traffic by using HTTPS encryption rather than HTTP wherever web sites accept HTTPS. See How to Protect You

A great way to confound these trackers everywhere is to use an addon like AdNauseam. It will click on everything for you, generating a massive, and false, report regarding your activities.

I'm not sure about the relative merits of that or just using something like ghostery to simply block trackers. I'd expect that if someone wanted to they could still track you from the clicks with AdNauseam, but it probably wouldn't be worth doing the analysis.

Ghostery, probably because it keeps you private while, guess what?, selling your data... https://www.ghostery.com/faqs/...

Ghostery does basically the same thing, and probably better. It works with the new version of firefox. (it's a WebExtension)

https://www.ghostery.com/

1. Adblock Latitude For Pale Moon browser only. Blocks display of ads. "Adblock Latitude is a direct fork of Adblock Plus made specifically for the Pale Moon browser."
2. BetterPrivacy Deletes Local Shared Objects, LSOs. LSOs are files placed on your computer by the Adobe Systems Flash plug-in. Use of Adobe Flash allows web sites to track you, permanently even though your browser is configured to delete the files known as "Cookies" after each re-starting of your operating system.
3. CanvasBiocker Prevents websites from using the Javascript <canvas> API to fingerprint them.
4. Classic Theme Restorer Quoting 3 paragraphs:
   
   "This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017."
   
   "This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017 and Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons. It should still work on Firefox 52 ESR until ESR moves to Firefox 59 ESR in 2018 (~Q2)".
   
   "There is no 'please port it' or 'please add support for it' this time, because the entire add-on eco system changes and the technology behind this kind of add-on gets dropped without replacement."
5. Cookies Manager+
6. Disconnect
7. Facebook Blocker Prevents Facebook from following you everywhere there are Facebook "Like" buttons.
8. Firebug "Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..."
9. FlashStopper Stops video autoplay and shows a preview thumbnail. On Sept. 9, 2017 does not work with YouTube because it prevents reading comments; there is a working version in the development branch.
10. Ghostery I don't know if Ghostery still sells data: Ghostery sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013) Ghostery web site
11. HTTPS Everywhere Doesn't install in Pale Moon. Encrypts traffic by using HTTPS encryption rather than HTTP wherever web sites accept HTTPS. See How to Protect Your Data After Congress Passed Legislation That Allows Your Internet Search History to Be Sold (Vogue Magazine, March 29, 2017)
12. Mozilla Archive Format For Firefox and Waterfox only. Saves web pages. For the Pale Moon browser, use MozArchiver.
13. MozArchiver For Pale Moon browser only. Like Mozilla Archive Format that is used with Firefox. Saves w

1. Adblock Latitude For Pale Moon browser only. Blocks display of ads. "Adblock Latitude is a direct fork of Adblock Plus made specifically for the Pale Moon browser."
2. BetterPrivacy Deletes Local Shared Objects, LSOs. LSOs are files placed on your computer by the Adobe Systems Flash plug-in. Use of Adobe Flash allows web sites to track you, permanently even though your browser is configured to delete the files known as "Cookies" after each re-starting of your operating system.
3. CanvasBiocker Prevents websites from using the Javascript <canvas> API to fingerprint them.
4. Classic Theme Restorer Quoting 3 paragraphs:
   
   "This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017."
   
   "This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017 and Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons. It should still work on Firefox 52 ESR until ESR moves to Firefox 59 ESR in 2018 (~Q2)".
   
   "There is no 'please port it' or 'please add support for it' this time, because the entire add-on eco system changes and the technology behind this kind of add-on gets dropped without replacement."
   
   
5. Cookies Manager+
6. Disconnect
7. Facebook Blocker Prevents Facebook from following you everywhere there are Facebook "Like" buttons.
8. Firebug "Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..."
9. Ghostery DON'T UPDATE. New versions don't allow sufficient user control.
   USE THIS: ghostery-5.4.10-sm+an+fx.xpi Link: Version 5.4.10
   Ghostery sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013)
   Ghostery web site
10. HTTPS Everywhere Doesn't install in Pale Moon. Encrypts traffic by using HTTPS encryption rather than HTTP wherever web sites accept HTTPS. See How to Protect Your Data After Congress Passed Legislation That Allows Your Internet Search History to Be Sold (Vogue Magazine, March 29, 2017)
11. Mozilla Archive Format For Firefox and Waterfox only. Saves web pages. For the Pale Moon browser, use MozArchiver.
12. MozArchiver For Pale Moon browser only. Like Mozilla Archive Format that is used with Firefox. Saves web pages.
13. NoScript "The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows

1. Adblock Latitude For Pale Moon browser only. Blocks display of ads. "Adblock Latitude is a direct fork of Adblock Plus made specifically for the Pale Moon browser."
2. BetterPrivacy Deletes Local Shared Objects, LSOs. LSOs are files placed on your computer by the Adobe Systems Flash plug-in. Use of Adobe Flash allows web sites to track you, permanently even though your browser is configured to delete the files known as "Cookies" after each re-starting of your operating system.
3. CanvasBiocker Prevents websites from using the Javascript <canvas> API to fingerprint them.
4. Classic Theme Restorer Quoting 3 paragraphs:
   
   "This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017."
   
   "This add-on will stop working when Firefox 57 arrives in November 2017 and Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons. It should still work on Firefox 52 ESR until ESR moves to Firefox 59 ESR in 2018 (~Q2).
   
   "There is no 'please port it' or 'please add support for it' this time, because the entire add-on eco system changes and the technology behind this kind of add-on gets dropped without replacement."
   
   
5. Cookies Manager+
6. Disconnect
7. Facebook Blocker Prevents Facebook from following you everywhere there are Facebook "Like" buttons.
8. Firebug "Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..."
9. Ghostery DON'T UPDATE. New versions don't allow sufficient user control.
   USE THIS: ghostery-5.4.10-sm+an+fx.xpi Link: Version 5.4.10
   Ghostery sells data it collects. (Business Insider, Jun 18, 2013)
   Ghostery web site
10. MozArchiver For Pale Moon browser only. Like Mozilla Archive Format that is used with Firefox. Saves web pages.
11. Mozilla Archive Format For Firefox only. Saves web page

I'll be removing the black hole I had set up in my dns for Sourceforge

Sourceforce is (quite properly) blacklisted by default in the Ghostery browser plugin.

And you think Slashdot doesn't share it for some reason?

Ghostery is blocking the following on Slashdot:

Doubleclick (advertising)
Google Adwords Conversion (advertising)
Google Analytics
Janrain
Scorecard Research Beacon
Taboola

It's on Slashdot, and everywhere else.

Here's a quote from TFA:

Most troubling is that if you use your browser setting to say 'Do Not Track' me, the explicitly stated policy of nearly all the companies is to flat-out ignore you

What we need is 9 out of 10 users to start explicitly blocking tracking and advertising, and then flat-out ignore the companies who complain about their bottom line. That article from the advertising industry group talking about how they screwed up rings a little hollow when they are obviously not interested in respecting the requests of consumers to not track them. Enabling Do Not Track is fine, but that only works with the good actors. For everyone else, see below.

https://www.ghostery.com/
https://www.ublock.org/
https://adblockplus.org/

Indeed, I don't block ads, I use Ghostery to stop all of the corporate stalking, if ads are collateral damage then so be it.

So block them all. Ghostery - Download Page

Google are the worst IMO.

I use Ghostery and Adblock Plus on my PC and devices, I feel like I've opted out.

You can if you install Ghostery https://www.ghostery.com/en/

I also recently switched to Duck Duck Go, since I'm sick to death of all the spying and tracking my internet habits attract.

Include AdBlock of some sort, and you've just made the internet a much nicer place again (assuming you stay off Facebook and Twitter ;-> ).

I find Ghostery to be helpful with that.

"Because when you do this, you are giving google information on all the websites you visit."

You must be new here, almost every website you visit has ad/trackers embedded in the webpage. Go get ghostery and look at all the shit on slashdot by itself.

https://www.ghostery.com/en/

Go to other places on the web and see all "hidden servers" you're pulling data from. All the webpage has to do is refer to the server for them to track you. There is an infinite number of ways for you to be tracked without your consent. It's the nature of the internet itself unfortunately, any time you need to communicate (send a packet) you need a receiving address and a destination.

.
imo, Ghostery is very helpful in this scenario.

Use noscript , disable cookies. If your tin foil hat is too thick , Tor it out.

This is not sufficient, a web page could also embed an image of some advertisers server. By simply requesting this image, the server already knows you by IP.

To prevent that, try Ghostery or Disconnect

Ads are a pain but I use Ghostery and DoNotTrackMe which takes care of most of the crap.

This is exactly the same as Facebook, Google, and other social network do with their buttons. And this is in no way different from tracking by ad networks.
Just use Ghostery.

Ghostery blocked five trackers on this page. http://www.ghostery.com/

Facebook cookies on my browser contradict your statement.

If you put it like this (quoting me incompletely), yes.
But there was another sentence on the next line which you neglected to quote. It's OK, I know how slashdot discussions are. Nerds just love to show how wrong the other is.

I'll get to blocking facebook from hosts file later, but most people won't.

And why would you do that? There are better options: https://www.ghostery.com/download and also https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere while you're at it. And throw in Adblock for a thorough experience.

When using Google search engine and the Firefox extension Ghostry https://www.ghostery.com/ I find that in some cases I have to unblock / allow Doubleclick to function otherwise Google seems to choke on something when attempting to provide results. By the way running Ghostery sure gives a good idea of who is tracking you and who may well have a financial interest in your browsing habits. I fear that I only get a pay back if I click on something and accept any discount they decide to offer but if I click or not they (whoever they are) have my data to pass on to trusted partners at I expect a good price.

There's extensions for just about every browser. Good stuff.

http://www.ghostery.com/

There's also https://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php which is what I decided to use after being a longtime Ghostery user especially since it would appear that Ghostery has had some memory hogging issues lately.

There's extensions for just about every browser. Good stuff.

http://www.ghostery.com/

Use Ghostery to escape this.

While I think a lot of people would want this and buy this (the facebook addicts who are constantly posting that is), Facebookstrikes me as the web company with the worst outlook to privacy out of the lot. They seem to change their T&Cs to suit them and only apologise when they are caught in something nefarious.

The problem is that (I cannot see) a useful alternative. Facebook and Google have integrated themselves so into the general internet that even Slashdot seems to have Google and Facebook login options. Google seems to be slightly better with regards to privacy, but their recent actions have made me actually switch from Chrome back to Firefox. I've even started investigating moving some of my 'services' to smaller brands, running services on my Synology NAS, or even thinking of hosting my own virtual server for privacy.

I even found an extension called Ghostery which disables advert tracking in Firefox and it is quite astounding how much tracking gets done on the internet. Whilst I appreciate you can't get something for nothing, we (as a society) seem to now throw our privacy more and more out the window without realising the implications. Facebook's alledged phone is just another nail in the coffin of our privacy.

Ghostery (Firefox plugin) allows you to block these trackers, it works great and you can also see when sites are loading the tracking code.

https://www.ghostery.com/

Ahh. LMGTFY.

Ghostery (Firefox plugin) allows you to block these trackers, it works great and you can also see when sites are loading the tracking code.

https://www.ghostery.com/

Mod up parent.

It's being tracked that freaks techies out. Not the ads.

http://www.ghostery.com/

Relying on the people who want to track you to honor your "Please don't" request is just guaranteeing disappointment.

Now there are plenty of ways you can clamp down on the tracking and cross-site leakage, from NoScript to RefControl, but the single easiest cross-browser cross-platform way to do it is Ghostery: https://www.ghostery.com/

Most importantly, unlike the other methods (NoScript in particular) it only very rarely breaks a page. So it's just set up and forget.

I'm sure it's not as effective as some other tactics, but the 'works on everything' and 'just works' is really key to just using it all the time everywhere.

If you want to know which trackers are in use on a page, install Ghostery

I also run AdBlock Plus and NoScript.

Any other plug-ins that I'm missing?

A counter is pretty benign. Most of the linked articles are a dense nest of tracking sites.

Don't mind me, I use Ghostery. Seems like damn near every website (including the ones I'm responsible for) is a nest of tracking sites these days.

It's ugly, and the fine Ghostery extension tells me that Atlantic page has 15 web bugs and ad trackers from AdThis, Bizo, Chartbeat, Disqus, Doubleclick, Facebook Connect, Facebook Social Plugins, Google +1, Google Analytics, Omniture, Outbrain, Parse.ly, Quantcast, Scorecard Research Beacon, and Twitter Button. Each one of those is another image and/or increasingly, another 10kB of JavaScript crap just so third parties can watch what I'm doing on that page.

A Wikipedia page: not one.tracker or web bug. "You're beautiful to me on the inside."

Good add-on. I wonder whether Chrome and Chromium provide anything equivalent.

Ghostery is available for Firefox, Chrome(ium), Safari, Opera, IE, and iOS.

http://www.ghostery.com/

Tor won't help you if the website puts a cookie in your browser (which this discussion is about). What you need is a selective cookie policy (like Ghostery) -- it makes my Collusion graph blank.

Sure, there's transparency. There's total transparency. Everything you enter into your GMail account is property of Google. Everything you enter into your Facebook account is property of Facebook.

I think you just proved my point.

A hell of a lot of more than that is collected about you. Every page with a facebook like button on it reports back to facebook that you browsed there. Same thing with all of those web pages that use googleapis.com - pages that you have no idea are ratting you out to google. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Go install Ghostery to get a feel of just how much your online life is being spied on by companies you've never even heard of.

Or Ghostery

The Ghostery plugin http://www.ghostery.com/ does that, and more.

Don't forget http://www.ghostery.com/

Ghostery to the rescue. Don't be the product.

Also known as:"actively make the effort" :P

Ghostery to the rescue. Don't be the product.

They've managed to do some price support by mailing $100 adword credit vouchers to anyone and everyone (I've thrown two of them out so far) - the idea being not so much to get new customers as to help generate more of a bidding competition in each market. After all, if you're spending "free money", you can bid higher - and whoever was bidding for the same term now has to fork over more real money.

However, that just means in the long run that there's less meat on the bone in terms of results per dollar spent, so while it gives a short-term bump, long-term, it encourages people to look at the competition.

And the competition, in this case, is Microsoft. They've pretty much killed! off! Yahoo! with! a! fake! bid! that they later withdrew ... so who's left?

I installed ghostery, and it's a bit of a shock to see up to two dozen ad trackers, ad servers, and analytics packages on a page load - this is out of control. One or two ads, I don't mind - but that sort of invasion of privacy, waste of bandwidth, and making everything load slower, I'm more than happy to block the peeping toms.

Try ghostery to diddle the site reporting.
http://www.ghostery.com/download

I use Ghostery. Have for years.

It's beginning to worry me. Who's all the captital behind this effort? I mean, Better Privacy and AdBlock are pretty grass-roots, got a bee-in-a-bonnet based efforts.

But Ghostery is a small part of a well-funded startup - with well-paid developers. And graphic designers!
http://www.ghostery.com/

"© 2011 Ghostery, a service of Evidon, Inc. All rights reserved."

http://www.evidon.com/faq

7. Explain your relationship with Ghostery.

Ghostery is the same service it used to be, only better, because now it has the resources of a substantial company to develop even better capabilities for helping consumers discover and control the entities that track them across the web. Moreover, Evidon is not an advertising company; we're an assurance company built to facilitate compliance with OBA regulations. Ghostery's founder, David Cancel, is a shareholder in, and advisor to, Evidon.

You only "send your traffic" to facebook, if you choose to click on the link to Facebook.

?

Wrong. Many sites share information on their visitors to 3rd parties, this allows said 3rd parties to track and profile you. You do not have to click a link, it happens in the background.

Use this to find out who the main players are: http://www.ghostery.com/

Ghostery sees the invisible web - tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons. Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.

And obviously ad-block plus, NoScript at al...

Facebook specific:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-blocker/?src=userprofile

Maybe browsers are following the "default to opt-in" strategy Facebook has pioneered. I am all for Facebook being a good citizen, but a "trust, but verify" policy is also good. One tool I can recommend is Ghostery.

From their website:

Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.