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Visualizing Behavior-Tracking Cookies With Firefox

Posted by Soulskill on from the dangerous-webs-we-weave dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Using Firefox, and a new (open source) add-on called Collusion, you can see for yourself just how extensive the third-party behavior-tracking system is. Simply leave the Collusion website open, browse the web for a bit, and then return to see that your favorite websites are letting at least four or five behavior tracking companies follow you around the web."

10 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Google Analytics by cgeys · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google Analytics is the largest offender in this. There are others, but they have their fingers everywhere. Here on slashdot too.

    1. Re:Google Analytics by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 2

      Are you saying that GA is tracking users between sites and that data is being used to inform the advertising?

      I was under the impression that GA was simply used by webmasters to track their own usage only, which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable. But if the same data is being further exploited then that would be an issue.

    2. Re:Google Analytics by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2

      Are you saying that GA is tracking users between sites and that data is being used to inform the advertising?

      Of course it is. To think otherwise is naive at best. Google's sole business model is to provide services in exchange for targeted advertising. They aren't going to give away the GA service for free any more than they give anything else away for free.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  2. Or use Ghostery by DeHackEd · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

  3. Re:Broken Web site. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    4.0? Try using an up-to-date browser like Firefox 3.6!

  4. Big deal, you think? by arisvega · · Score: 3, Informative

    Then use Adblock Plus, NoScript, header spoof and allow session-only cookies from specific sites only. Apart from IP profiling, there is not much mainstream techniques one of said sites can use for tracking.

    --
    The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
  5. Hosts file by drooling-dog · · Score: 2

    There are over 10,000 entries in my /etc/hosts file pointing to 127.0.0.1, and this is the main reason why.

    1. Re:Hosts file by Abstrackt · · Score: 2

      You can download one from here It's about 600kb and works fairly well.

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  6. Re:Broken Web site. by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is not flamebait: 3.6 has security support, 4.0 is EOLed already. And 3.5 has third-party support from Debian and Red Hat for long years to come.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  7. Use Permit Cookies by JSmooth · · Score: 2

    Permit Cookies is very useful (need to disable extension checking and it works with FF5) in limiting tracking while still providing a usable web experience. It turns all cookies into session cookies that are gone when you close the browser and has a shortcut to override for sites that you do want to allow permanent cookies to be set. When I restart my browser I am a new person. For complete protection I also use NoScript, Ghostery and Better Privacy.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/permit-cookies/