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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: Privacy and Web Browsing |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 19
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
A recent comment by Sekerob aroused my interest. He said that even though he wiped everything and closed his browser, when he reopened it a website knew who he was, just as though he had an unwiped cookie identifying him. Since I am not (currently) wiping cookies, this took me by surprise. A quick check with Google led me to an interesting post at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/
This new addon for Firefox has a post with a number of interesting links about a new type of cookie that browsers don't know about and cannot wipe. I will quote part of the post: Flash-cookies (Local Shared Objects, LSO) are pieces of information placed on your computer by a Flash plugin. Those Super-Cookies are placed in central system folders and so protected from deletion. They are frequently used like standard browser cookies. Although their thread potential is much higher as of conventional cookies, only few users began to take notice of them. It is of frequent occurrence that -after a time- hundreds of those Flash-cookies reside in special folders. And they won't be deleted - never. I think it makes sense to have a permanent thread in Chat about privacy and web browsing. Enough money is involved now to pay very competent programmers to develop new ways to track people on the internet. Lawrence |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
To add to this, the Betterprivacy add-on has been an extension in my browser since esoteric17 posted about this one in the Firefox Add-On thread. He's very diligent in teasing these security protection add-ons and other browser tweaks out and posting about them http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/...,9321_lastpage,yes#314217
----------------------------------------Thanks eso. edit: Just checked the BP addon options and discovered that though the setting is to wipe the flash cookies, the site I mentioned had somehow gotten into the exception list. Just hit the "Remove all LSO's button" and revisited the site and it still knows about me.  edit: BtB, went ahead and also added the iXQuick search engine to FF... various flavors available https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/search/...cat=all&x=11&y=18 [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at May 6, 2011 3:08:51 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Just also started a "Private Navigation" session, a feature of FF 3.6 and maybe IE9 too, and now it does not ''recollect'' me... it's supposed to dispose of most all after exiting. Switching back and the site identifies me again... think I'll do PN browsing allot more.
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nanoprobe
Master Cruncher Classified Joined: Aug 29, 2008 Post Count: 2998 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Just also started a "Private Navigation" session, a feature of FF 3.6 and maybe IE9 too, and now it does not ''recollect'' me... it's supposed to dispose of most all after exiting. Switching back and the site identifies me again... think I'll do PN browsing allot more. --//-- Are you also using the NoScript add on?
In 1969 I took an oath to defend and protect the U S Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and Domestic. There was no expiration date.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Yes, and I've just erased all and everything from the approval list, which sneakily included from the subject sneaker site crosslinks to:
fbcdn.net facebook.net facebook.com --//-- |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
To add to this, the Betterprivacy add-on has been an extension in my browser since esoteric17 posted about this one in the Firefox Add-On thread. He's very diligent in teasing these security protection add-ons and other browser tweaks out and posting about them http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/...,9321_lastpage,yes#314217 Thanks eso. My pleasure! Here's my current list of privacy-oriented Firefox add-ons that I use and recommend (all described in the aforementioned thread or on the Firefox Addon page): Adblock Plus w/subscriptions to EasyList and EasyPrivacy Adblock Plus Pop-Up Addon Beef Taco (Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out) Better Privacy Certificate Patrol Ghostery Googlebar Lite GoogleSharing HTTPS-Everywhere LastPass NoScript OptimizeGoogle ToggleProxy (if using Hamachi VPN) |
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BSD
Senior Cruncher Joined: Apr 27, 2011 Post Count: 224 Status: Offline |
Lynx
Also, can't do much about the web server log which records your IP address and what objects your browser requests every time you visit unless you anonymize somehow. |
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GeraldRube
Master Cruncher United States Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Post Count: 2153 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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How about TOR??
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Little off-topic, but i'm also a little confused about the Firefox 4 sync tool. It seems to exchange virtually everything between the browsers signed in to the sync account. I only opted in for my bookmarks, nevertheless, i often get error messages because FF wasn't able to reload to last web site from the last session. Although this site had been last requested on my other PC.
And just today, i noticed something weird. Like 6 months ago, i've been playing some little online flash games written by hobby programmers. It creates cookie-like data somewhere in the AppData folder, which was rather difficult to preserve, because FF wiped them regularly. Today, i've loaded that game for the very first time on my new laptop - and the save game was there. Which means: - the sync tool exported all that AppData files to my other box (though only opted in to bookmarks sync) - ...and never cleared that data, although i frequently clear all browser data on both my PCs I somehow assume that although i wipe browser data, it survives through the Firefox sync account and is (sometimes / always ?) restored. And not just to the browser which created the data, but to every browser used with the sync account. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
* Tor prevents anyone from learning your location or browsing habits.
* Tor is for web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote logins, and more. * Tor is free and open source for Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix, and Android Anonymity Online Protect your privacy. Defend yourself against network surveillance and traffic analysis. https://www.torproject.org/ |
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