Slashdot Mirror
Over 400 of the World's Most Popular Websites Record Your Every Keystroke (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The idea of websites tracking users isn't new, but research from Princeton University released last week indicates that online tracking is far more invasive than most users understand. In the first installment of a series titled "No Boundaries," three researchers from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) explain how third-party scripts that run on many of the world's most popular websites track your every keystroke and then send that information to a third-party server. Some highly-trafficked sites run software that records every time you click and every word you type. If you go to a website, begin to fill out a form, and then abandon it, every letter you entered in is still recorded, according to the researchers' findings. If you accidentally paste something into a form that was copied to your clipboard, it's also recorded. These scripts, or bits of code that websites run, are called "session replay" scripts. Session replay scripts are used by companies to gain insight into how their customers are using their sites and to identify confusing webpages. But the scripts don't just aggregate general statistics, they record and are capable of playing back individual browsing sessions. The scripts don't run on every page, but are often placed on pages where users input sensitive information, like passwords and medical conditions. Most troubling is that the information session replay scripts collect can't "reasonably be expected to be kept anonymous," according to the researchers.
Quite often, these scripts are part of jQuery or some other JS framework that "needs" to know your keystrokes as a part of the web site interface, "application" if you will. Sure, this info can be used nefariously, but most likely the purpose is the web site interface mechanics itself.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Yandex searches as you type, so its hardly surprising it captures and sends the keystrokes in realtime....
But then again, so does Google, so why isn't Google on that list?
I started typing:
"I fucking hate you, Microsoft. I'm going to bomb your Azure datacenters and slit your throats. Eat shit and die, you incompetent fucks."
Then I deleted it and actually submitted:
"Dear Microsoft. I hereby request that you close my Azure account as I found the service unsuitable to my specific needs at this time. Thank you very much in advance. Sincerely yours, X."
So now you're telling me that they have seen the first version?
How about a list please, a useful list, name of company, data stolen, scripts and cookies to be killed upon a slow smouldering flame. How can you say 400 without having a list of the 400. That 400 players to add to noscript and cookiemonster.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
As one of the links even mentions, Facebook was caught doing the same with status updates (recording everything you type, even if you delete it before posting) back in 2013. What's news here is the extent to which websites are doing this these days.
For years now I've been operating under the assumption that websites collect as much data on user interaction as possible, even including things like what links you mouse over (not necessarily click on), how long you spend reading content before moving on, and how long the cursor remains on different parts of the page. This is yet one more reason why I never browse without NoScript and uBlock Origin. Fortunately, as reported in the first link:
Does tracking protection help?
Two commonly used ad-blocking lists EasyList and EasyPrivacy do not block FullStory, Smartlook, or UserReplay scripts. EasyPrivacy has filter rules that block Yandex, Hotjar, ClickTale and SessionCam.
Now that this practice is getting a little more attention, here's hoping that more of these sites will be added to popular blocklists.
I have a nervous habit of idly swirling the mouse around while I read, and I've long suspected that sites were logging these movements. So, it's a habit that I've never tried to break, but rather I've been hoping that by passing the cursor over all sorts of page elements hundreds of times in the course of a few minutes, I'm screwing with their data collection somehow.
The list of websites:
https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/no_boundaries/session_replay_sites.html
https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/no_boundaries/session_replay_sites.html
I guess they do really know what I'm thinking when I leave feedback but can never send the form.
--
"Ribbit" - Unknown frog
On the other hand, much of the web is run on advertising dollars, and we are in an arms race between intrusive tracking and privacy. It is therefore anyones guess how this will be used moving forward.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Obviously any autocomplete funcitonality, or the like, is going to require keystrokes sent to the server. A post will not suffice.
Cue the anti-script militants who prefer to download, compile, and install a native app when things like autocomplete are necessary.
And even in earlier versions, such as the Firefox 52 that people are using in order to give Mozilla a few more months to make necessary APIs available to WebExtensions, the user can turn on Tracking Protection system-wide by entering about:config and turning on privacy.trackingprotection.enabled. The drawback is that several sites, such as TV Tropes, intentionally conflate tracking protection with an ad blocker and block page views until the user activates the "Disable protection for this site" control.
Does disabling javascript help? I disabled it recently and the internet looks the way it used to. No fancy shit moving around with auto scrolling pages, very refreshing.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
The list is actually really long, over 90000 to be more precise. For 'session recording' web (aka tracking) it's over 7000.
Give me a spec for what such a tool should do, and I might see if someone can build one and release it as free software. Does this feature set sound right for a minimum viable product?
Thick Thigh Tranny Bitches.com
Thick thighs, automotive gearboxes, and female dogs? That's an odd combination of topics for a website.
My cat was walking on the keyboard again.
Have gnu, will travel.
Manual Tranny or an Automatic Tranny?
Ford or Chevy?
What Engine and Year?
from the browser. It's the only way to be sure.
Can anyone suggest an extension to totally block this illegal 3rd party key logging? Ty.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Previously I would have said NoScript
Use it again. NoScript has been released for Firefox 57.
Tell me again why Noscript isn't the default mode of every browser?
Why does, for example, slashdot think that I want to run software provided by truste.com, janrain.com or pro-market.net? I don't know any of those sites, and while I appreciate that slashdot trusts those sites not to harvest my data or harm my computer, they aren't exactly the party with skin in the game.
If you want to see how fucked up the web is, how fucked up we've allowed it to become, install noscript and set your browser to treat OCSP failures as hard errors. We have the technology to fix this. We just don't care enough to use it.
See that "Preview" button?
[ ] Don't pay for every website you access, that's what ads are for. Let advertisers be unable target you and unable to track you specifically, etc., which means sellers of ads won't make as much money, and certain companies won't have billions or trillions of dollars that they only have because people tolerated this behavior. I typed a bunch of stuff after this, but no one is going to read it anyway.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
It seems like these websites are going to a lot of trouble to discover that I can't type and can't spell.
I do not much like this mis-behaviour and mostly browse using `links2`, a lynx-like text browser. Missing images is a feature :)
so if the website steals the errant/orphan/reconsidered keystrokes does that mean windows doesn't capture them maybe this is the lesser of two evils.
Nullius in verba
what are they doing with that information? I mean 99.99% of that is completely boresome, and for the rest, they'd need a quite capable AI algo to extract relevant information. Unless there is a 24/7 staff in charge of checking the crap that's been entered then deleted... which I doubt.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
That proves (even if we've known that for a while) there is no control of web sites behavior. A concrete analogy is, you're angry after the tax office because you pay too much taxes, and start to write a letter, joking around, "go f..k yourself" etc... then throw that paper away and write the real one. Following this web site behavior, the tax officer is constantly looking over your shoulder - without you being even aware of that. This is totally unacceptable. The user should be at least made aware of that spying policy.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
BigBrother.com
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
it's now part of IBM so we can assume it will stop working soon.
lucm, indeed.
The editors are much too lazy to implement something like this in their 20 year old Perl abomination.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Mine just synced to 57 recently, and I hate it though. I'm not sure if I'm actually temporarily enabling sites or not. It used to have text that *said* temporarily allow. Now it's nothing but icons. Dam it. What do those icons mean? How can they screw up something so simple. It seems slow too. I hate these kinds of UI changes in general though, so maybe I'll give it some time... but... why??? The UI wasn't broken. Also, everything in FF 57 looks like it was drawn with a fine-point pencil. Yuck. It's like the arrow is barely there. Fucking shit designers, just making changes to justify their existence.
My current position about privacy is acceptation of the reality (everyone, everywhere dealing with my a-priori-not-too-relevant data without my express consent) + neither liking nor really minding it. The key issue allowing me to think in that way is knowing what is being mostly done with that data now and in the near future: not too much.
Most of big-data efforts have been focusing on gathering and managing, but not on properly understanding; that's why and despite its huge potential value, most of this information isn't being properly maximised. In any case, I certainly don't support any kind of against-intention-of-user actions, I have never developed or used anything on so invasive lines and look forward to legislations to keeping up with all what is happening on the online/software privacy front.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
If you want UI changes in NoScript then tell the developer of NoScript. He says he wants to hear everyone's UI ideas.
Capturing my keypresses without my permit would be illegal almost everywhere.
The most ironic part is that you have most likely given your permission, but only in a generic or even just implicit way. Additionally, most of users aren't even completely aware about what web-based anything basically implies: browsing through files stored on a third-party computer, where every action can be easily tracked and stored. Another aspect to bear in mind is that a big proportion of modern functionalities do need to rely on visitor's information; temporary and without-allowing-access-to-anyone-else data gathering should be fine.
In summary, what is required is much more control on the visitor data non-temporary storage, sharing and usage fronts. Also clearer/express indications (and ideally the option to freely reject non-essential data collection; now, you are usually forced to accept everything in order to use whatever application) about what is happening with your data at each point like via a popup before using whatever functionality.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
So, this is completely overblown out of proportion. I'm a web dev, and more. Basically I've been deciding and implementing all sort of web things, including this "tracking" everybody is hung up about. Everywhere I worked at, the "tracking" is used for the good of a consumer as in ... analyzing data to provide better user experience, to make it easier for the users to find what they need ( granted: in effort to increase sales ), when they need it, and overall just increase user experience.
After 15 years of being in the business, I never seen tracking for malicious purposes (or purposes other than attempting to make it easier for YOU to use the website ).
I understand the concerns people are having, but jesus christ you people talk about it like we're filming you while in a shower, just because websites track where people click and what they insert into a web form ( on their own sites ) does not mean they CARE about you. No business cares about the individual.. but about statistics, percentages, numbers.
It's even said so in the article summary:
"Session replay scripts are used by companies to gain insight into how their customers are using their sites and to identify confusing webpages."
What on earth is so wrong about this ?
For people doing it, this is you "a3727fd0a20d5eef697d3c2f41bf0e4d". This is what they see and track, and care about.
Get over yourself, for god sake.
Gee, you don't make it sound very welcoming or enjoyable. I can only imagine you think the best way to make yourself feel better about your miserable life is to drag other people down to your level. It stinks of a trap. Or, maybe that wasn't your intent and in reading this you just realized you're still a petulant child after all?
You know how Goggle and others do autocomplete on your search entries?
Yeah I do. They don't typically do so on username or password fields. Maybe read the entire summary or article and actually understand the topic at hand before posting. Your UID is too low to be spouting something so silly.
Here's a fun party trick: go to Google.com, type in "Hillary Clinton", and try to get autocomplete to say something bad about her. Then, try it with "Donald Trump" (impeachment was the first auto-complete result I got, it may vary with your location).
During the James Damore scandal, I couldn't get Google to suggest anything at all about his name. It just suggested variations on "d'amore", the French word for love. Weird, eh?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
It's almost as though the web were some sort of client-server technology!
You know how Goggle and others do autocomplete on your search entries? Or spell check in text boxen? Or mouse zooming? How could they do this if every mouse/keystroke was not sent to them?
You know you can turn off autocomplete in your browser search field, right?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Or the CSV file here
https://webtransparency.cs.pri...
Yes, at least some browsers have this setting. And as another poster mentioned, scripts do not autocomplete all fields (uid/pwd). But this does not necessarily stop the scripts from running and sending running data, even if the browser does not show any useful return. Websites can adjust their behaviour per user, and might appear less intrusive to some users. Cookies & per-user scripts. That does not mean that they do not track and capture data, just that they are more subtle in displaying the results of tracking.
Use uMatrix
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
I suspect 'cat' and 'video' is going to show up a lot in the data.
love is just extroverted narcissism
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is a3727fd0a20d5eef697d3c2f41bf0e4d."
Twinstiq, game news
Anyone ever come up with software to just pile shitloads of fake data into all these sniffers? I'd like every web page to think I hovered over every fucking link and wrote a bunch of random shit. All day every day.
Would like to see something that requests pages off completely random websites every few seconds. Sure would make GCHQ style pricks work for their dinners.
If you can't stop the trickle, make them drink from the fucking firehose.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Well well well how predictable that search engine companies are still "in bed" with the NSA and all those Nosey shady government entities. .....
#RIP Privacy
Switch it Off,Switch it On[SOSO] Solves 95% of all IT problems!
If you're a proper manual driver, you don't have need of space for a rollback. I never had rollbacks after about 3 months of practice. It might be a little harder on your clutch, but you don't have the right to randomly back into cars because you don't know how to drive yours.
I am using Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/... for this only reason, can keep using the add-ons i want. They are currently at version 52.5
I think I understand your point, there ARE valid uses for this.
It's frustrating to develop software and not have full understanding about how your clients use it. There is a desire and a need to have that information in raw data that can be used to make the product better. It could even be used by client support and to help prevent bugs. I'm not talking about shopping carts or blogs, but enterprise-level systems that are very complex.
But let's not kid ourselves... that isn't what this story is about.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
jail time for somebody for illegally snooping without consent. Oh, we are in the USA, sorry for bringing that up.
So the page can refresh itself for live updating content.
Likely reply of anti-JS hardliners: "I don't want live updating content in the web browser. I'll press Ctrl+R to poll for new content when I want new content, thank you very much. If I wanted live updating content, I would download, compile, and install a native application that provides live updating content, such as an IRC client."
It's time they start.
I am so tired of typing out "Shazam" and "1234" in their entirety . . . :)
hawk
Oh i love that feature that replaces text i am typing with some other random terms and then when you try and highlight the field to delete the stupid auto complete, it actually submits the search (because you are clicking on the term in some kind of blocking mouse order drop down list). I also love the browser lag that these stupid lookups cause.
What a wonderful feature that no one needs! is it really hard to type entire words and sentences without a computer holding your hand for you?
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
I can only hope someone sets up a botnet to visit these sites and relentlessly hammer their pages with searches for bizarre words and profanity.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
How is this even news - TeaLeaf, since being bought by IBM is near ubiquitous on most new e-com deployments, and in this community I thought enough people would have known this fact..
Theres a plugin for that. :)
https://wordpress.org/plugins/...
I think this one actually records a video of the user interactions.
[($)]
After 15 years of being in the business, I never seen tracking for malicious purposes (or purposes other than attempting to make it easier for YOU to use the website ).
I have never seen a robbery, but that doesn't mean they don't happen.
Yes, the new noscript UI is disconcerting and inscrutible. I don't think any user input was taken into account here.
What a frickin' useless article!
No site names included in order to protect the cash flow of the guilty. No doubt /. is one of them...
PlaynBass
.. at least the version that runs in the context of the web site.
Or isn't it?
I mean: SGP relies on you typing your master password into an entry field which it then uses together with the domain name to generate the actual password. If the sites can spy on all your key strokes, they will know your master password, which is not good.