I just found a rather cool but ultimately scary add on for Firefox that graphically illustrates the way we are tacked across the Internet. There's also a TED Talk by Gary Kovacs, the CEO of Mozilla about the add on.
I think on line tracking is not universally a bad thing. Google for example provide a mass of completely free content. They offer the best web based Email service bar none, You Tube (imagine a world without You Tube :sad: ) Google Maps, Street View, 5 gig of space on G Drive, RSS Reader and so on and so forth. And they offer all this for free. All they ask is to tailor adverts for a profile they assign to us, so we see advertisements on the web that might actually be of interest. And they also produce a decent web browser. But they allow developers to make add ons for that browser, which they host on their own servers, that specifically remove the ability to build those profiles and or display the adverts. So we effectively get all these services for free should we choose to install them.
But like anything that seems a fair deal at first there are plenty of companies that will take the idea and butcher it for their own ends, with no care for the rights of privacy of their users. Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo etc come to mind. The Collusion add on graphically illustrates how nefarious the problem can be. The last part of the video presentation when Gary Kovacs talks about how his nine year old daughter is tracked across the web even though she is exclusively surfing children's web sites is particularly chilling.
The TED Talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.html)
The Add On (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/collusion/?src=api)
Nice addon & TED Talk! Wonder if there is a similar one for Chrome as that's where i spend most time. I sandbox stuff in Firefox these days and IE doesn't even get a look-in.
It's a Firefox only add on. I'm sure someone will make something similar for chrome though.
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I don't really need the app to know I'm being tracked. If I go on a website my facebook profile comes up and it asks me to like or comment on things. I didn't have to sign in, or give permission. It automatically logs me into make comments on sites I've never visited before.
It doesn't get much more identifying than your facebook page. It has all of my info, all of my friends info. I would much prefer that every new site I went on I had to authorise them to access this stuff. I think that's what the cookie law tried to do...but obviously people will just click just yes, or no giving blanket access or no access.
I'd like to control where my facebook profile can be linked, or where my email follows me etc. These are things where a site can track me. One I set up an account with a website I typically don't care. I've decided to hand over my personal information to them, my facebook doesn't know much more than one I sign up to many sites with, name, email, address and DOB. Until that point I'm a window shopper. If I don't enter the shop I don't want to be pestered.
I'm all for quick easy sign in across the web with a facebook account or something similar that will be accepted anywhere. Paypal and google wallet have a big chance here. Keep a customer essentially private. They store the name address and payment details etc, the site only gets the bare minimum to set up an account - could be a unique ID for each site and untrackable outside paypal/google - only if the user orders something that needs delivering will they hand out the shipping address.
I'm finding that the Do Not Track Plus add on in Firefox (there's a Chrome one as well) does a decent job of preventing sites other than the one I'm visiting from becoming aware of my existence. I tend to allow Google stuff through only because I use their products quite extensively and am willing to trade their tracking for their apps.
I guess in the end it's a personal call, either you freak out at being followed, you don't give a monkeys or you fall somewhere between the two. It's not rocket science to regain your privacy if you want. And I'm sure we're all tech savy enough here that if we really didn't want to be tracked we'd make sure we weren't. The thing that bugs me most is that I have to make the effort to stop them rather than them asking in the first place.
If you're a big enough business with enough political lobbyists then it seems you can get away with almost anything. If I'm a huge corporation called Google I can track people without any problems, if I'm a single person called Acid Haxxor and I do the same thing then I'm a borderline terrorist and on the receiving end of an extradition order.
Quote from: smilodon;353938I guess in the end it's a personal call, either you freak out at being followed, you don't give a monkeys or you fall somewhere between the two. It's not rocket science to regain your privacy if you want. And I'm sure we're all tech savy enough here that if we really didn't want to be tracked we'd make sure we weren't. The thing that bugs me most is that I have to make the effort to stop them rather than them asking in the first place.
I don't mind various companies tracking me if I gain from it. If I get a well targeted ad for a product I want at the right price, that's great. Why wouldn't I want that (the vast majority of the time - obviously there are exceptions). I don't like blanket ads "You just bought a lawn mower blade...here are lawn mower blades for different models" - what am I? A lawn mower blade enthusiast?
Tracking in the future will make your life much easier and be better controlled. But until a typical user can easily control where their data is going and companies act responsibly people will turn it off everywhere and not consider turning it back on. Which will be a shame.
Quote from: smilodon;353938I'm finding that the Do Not Track Plus add on in Firefox (there's a Chrome one as well) does a decent job of preventing sites other than the one I'm visiting from becoming aware of my existence.
Added to Chrome & FF, thanks Smilo :thumbsup:
Thats great work that lads thanks :)
Quote from: TeaLeaf;353919..... I sandbox stuff in Firefox these days
How does one do dat den?