3 ms·

This is the worst thing to hit the web since url shorteners. Just stop it. Wipe it from your mind. It's unethical. You are gathering information from your vi

by fnid2 17y ago

This is the worst thing to hit the web since url shorteners. Just stop it. Wipe it from your mind. It's unethical. You are gathering information from your visitors that you have neither asked for, nor been given permission to retrieve. It should be illegal. It's an invasion of privacy. Don't do it. Don't even learn that it is possible.

iamelgringo 17y ago
I hate to say this, but it hasn't hit the web. It is the web. You're correct, It is an invasion of privacy. It is awful. But, I think it's better that this information be openly discussed by the tech community rather than hiding our heads in the sand.
- fnid2 17y ago
  That's an interesting take. But I fear the day the business types get hold of the idea. And the shady types. Oh boy.
whyenot 17y ago
I think it's too late to put history scraping back into Pandora's box. There are several articles on it already out there. Those who are less scrupulous already have all the information they need. At this point, I think the best that can be done is to make people aware of the practice. No browser should leak history by default. It's a huge security vulnerability, and should be regarded as such. Start putting pressure on Mozilla, Google, MS et al to fix it.
- fnid2 17y ago
  To be clear, I am only advocating the self-censorship of this information until the browsers you mention have had a chance to fix it and people up grade. I guess really you just gotta delete your history all the time. Or make history links only work for the domain. If you see a link in a page that is not on the domain where the page originates, then make it the same color as the unvisited links.
- Groxx 17y ago
  I just hunted around for a bit, and found a few possibilities. Now all we need is User Javascript that can run before the site loads, in all browsers, and we're golden :) User Javascript strikes me as more likely to be implemented than anything specific to this problem. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1139172 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1139172

by fnid2 17y ago

iamelgringo 17y ago

I hate to say this, but it hasn't hit the web. It is the web. You're correct, It is an invasion of privacy. It is awful. But, I think it's better that this information be openly discussed by the tech community rather than hiding our heads in the sand.

fnid2 17y ago
That's an interesting take. But I fear the day the business types get hold of the idea. And the shady types. Oh boy.

whyenot 17y ago

I think it's too late to put history scraping back into Pandora's box. There are several articles on it already out there. Those who are less scrupulous already have all the information they need. At this point, I think the best that can be done is to make people aware of the practice. No browser should leak history by default. It's a huge security vulnerability, and should be regarded as such. Start putting pressure on Mozilla, Google, MS et al to fix it.

fnid2 17y ago
To be clear, I am only advocating the self-censorship of this information until the browsers you mention have had a chance to fix it and people up grade. I guess really you just gotta delete your history all the time. Or make history links only work for the domain. If you see a link in a page that is not on the domain where the page originates, then make it the same color as the unvisited links.
Groxx 17y ago
I just hunted around for a bit, and found a few possibilities. Now all we need is User Javascript that can run before the site loads, in all browsers, and we're golden :) User Javascript strikes me as more likely to be implemented than anything specific to this problem. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1139172 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1139172