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Browser Spyware: Watching Where You Linger

Posted by timothy on from the matter-of-time dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Just when you you'd installed Junkbuster and thought it was safe to go back onto the web, the BBC runs this story which tells you that webshites will soon(?) be able to tell whether you are reading the page, what parts of it are of interest to you, etc. Guess we can expect porn sites to be the first to take advantage of this." Or perhaps someone else is already doing this, and hasn't told you.

6 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. marketing by Spagornasm · · Score: 3, Offtopic

    Get ready for the "marketing geniuses" to take advantage of this...by having new windows pop up right when you move your mouse to the back button...

    Anyone else up for using keyboard shortcuts now?

    --

    When nuance becomes the only objective we lose the ability to function
  2. Finally, a decent use for comet-cursor tech! by moogla · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I mean, this can have some positive usage; if anything, for getting input on how to redesign a site to make it easier/faster to use.

    If you're paranoid, this is one more reason to disable javascript when browsing the web. Of course, his has been blown a little out of proportion: this "mouse watching" can only take place at a site that is hosting the page that has this ability. If you don't like it, don't visit the site.

    --
    Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
  3. What?? by brunes69 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I can tell because when you read a webpage, you do one of a couple of things. You either shovel the mouse off to the right so that it is out of the way, or you will walk down the page with your mouse," he told the BBC's Go Digital programme.

    Hasn't this guy ever seen a scrollwheel? I rarely move my mouse around a page. I sit it somewhere in the midle, and scroll. I also wonder where he gets this idea of "wanting to click a link, but you don't". Who does that? If I want to click it, then I will. Whose stopping me???


  4. Re:"Cheese"? by snake_dad · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Wouldn't a better title have been "Cat"?

    And be sued by the CueCat people? After all, that thing or its software uses some dodgy tricks as well, so people might get confused... Remember legOS from a couple of articles ago? :)

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    karma capped .sig seeking available Slashdot poster for long-term relationship.
  5. Required Web Privacy Software (for Windows Users) by Quarters · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    1) WebWasher (www.webwasher.de). It blocks cookies, scripts animations, web bugs, referer URLs, images, and a whole host of other things. It is highly configurable can be used as a proxy server if you have an in-house LAN connected to a shared broadband connection, and is much more powerful than Guidescope (which Junkbuster recommends for use under Windows).

    2) Ad-Aware 5.6 (www.lavasoftusa.com). Run this at least once a week. It will find any ad tracking cookies, spy-ware and various other privacy invading data/programs that get left on your machine. The new version scans your memory, your registry, and your entire HD (very quickly). It finds and removes everything privacy invasion related.

  6. Re:watch out for internet explorer 6.0 and spyware by Legion303 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Now if they only had Lynx for the MS desktop...

    They do: http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm

    -Legion