5 ms·

That's still trackable via JS for instance. Selecting & copying plain text are (AFAIK) not trackable, hence the suggestion from parent.

• darawk 10y ago
  Selecting and copying are both definitely trackable.
  • mnsc 10y ago
    Is "right click and copy url" trackable as well? Genuine question.
    • coldtea 10y ago
      Maybe not in itself, but "user mouse pointer is above the url" and "user right clicked" are.
      • masklinn 10y ago
        It is trackable in itself through the `copy` clipboard event (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/copy https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/copy). Both keychord and contextual menu will trigger the event.
        • coldtea 10y ago
          The parent was asking whether the "Copy Link Address" (Chrome) or similar is other browsers is trackable though, not the more general copy to clipboard. I don't think that one is.
    • newscracker 10y ago
      Yes, it is. I've tried it on Facebook several times (since I try to avoid clicking on external links on the platform) and it shows related links the moment I finish the right click and copy link location action. There is some variation depending on where one clicks (on the image that has a link or the actual hyperlink), but Facebook definitely knows in most cases what URLs someone is copying to the clipboard. The first time I saw it I was very annoyed.
      • nannal 10y ago
        Because the website notorious with spying on every single user action was spying on a user action?
        • atbentley 10y ago
          I get annoyed by it too, because sometimes I want to read an article but don't necessarily want fb to continue serving those articles to me. I don't really know what happens inside the Facebook machine, but I imagine clicking a link indicates you are interested in a topic. Sometimes I just want to read trash.
          • nannal 10y ago
            So google the title in an incognito window, or alternative and preferably, stop using that site all together.
            • atbentley 10y ago
              Yes, I tend to do something along those lines when I don't want to be tracked. To the original point, it's an annoying extra step to have to do but not unreasonable enough to stop using the site, I'm simply answering your question on why someone might find it annoying.
    • arghwhat 10y ago
      Yes and yes - Right click raises an event, and copy specifically raises an event. If in doubt: If it happens over or in a browser window, it is probably trackable from JavaScript. See: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/copy https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/copy
      • tornadoboy55 10y ago
        Over a browser Window? So If my 1Password window overlaps with my browser window, the page I'm on could sniff the entire 1Password window? Seems like a bunch of FUD..
        • __david__ 10y ago
          It's not really polite to call it FUD right off the bat, especially when you're probably just misunderstanding. A browser obviously can't get events from a different app.
        • nommm-nommm 10y ago
          Subject to the same origin policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-origin_policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-origin_policy
          • arghwhat 10y ago
            That protects you (to some extend) from page A accessing resources from page B. Same origin policy doesn't do anything to stop you from being tracked, though.
            • nommm-nommm 10y ago
              Yeah, of course, I was replying to a post about the concern about a website getting your entire 1password database.
        • chriswarbo 10y ago
          You built a strawman, but it can actually be dangerous to interact with an application on the same screen as a browser! https://jameshfisher.github.io/cursory-hack/ https://jameshfisher.github.io/cursory-hack/
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  • pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    Presumably if you select and copy from a page's source view (eg via Inspect in FF) then you'd overcome tracking of specific interactions? Or if you just block scripts.
• leni536 10y ago
  The site serves no JS. Of course you shouldn't trust the site, so you should disable JS explicitly (via NoScript or other means) too.
  • bitJericho 10y ago
    In that case a clickable maybe link isn't trackable. Afaik that requires js
    • manquer 10y ago
      not if the link itself is unique for each user trivial to implement, this is how email campaigns track what you clicked in a email ( email after all do not server js)
      • jasonkostempski 10y ago
        doesn't that only work for sites the link creator has control of? i don't see how the technique can be used with links a search engine finds and then gives out to anon users.
        • leni536 10y ago
          This is how it would work. 1. The search engine adds itself to the tracker list in the magnet URI (&tr= query parameters), but with a unique subdomain and using HTTP (i.e. it adds http://asdfkja.skytorrent.in/announce http://asdfkja.skytorrent.in/announce to the tracker list) 2. The client announces itself to the tracker, sending the unique "Host" in the GET request (asdfkja.skytorrent.in in the example).
      • ajsalminen 10y ago
        In that case the plain text link would be just as trackable.
        • bitJericho 10y ago
• VertexRed 10y ago
  Nearly everything that you do on a page is trackable if you have JS enabled including how you moved your mouse on the page (https://api.jquery.com/mousemove/ https://api.jquery.com/mousemove/). To keep the technical details short: the events are logged with JS and sent over either ajax or a websocket in the background as you navigate the site.
• arghwhat 10y ago
  Text select and copy raises the respective events in supported browsers. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/copy https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/copy for the copy event.