5 ms·

Every step you take on the web, every site you visit, every page you view, is used to create and enhance a profile about you. Everything you do is carefully tra

by mahkoh 8y ago

Every step you take on the web, every site you visit, every page you view, is used to create and enhance a profile about you. Everything you do is carefully tracked and monitored. Bold of the author to openly admit this.

peterkelly 8y ago
How is that bold? It's common knowledge.
- krapp 8y ago
  It's bold of the author to admit that they are carefully tracking and monitoring everyone using this site to create and enhance profiles on them, particularly given the context of the article.
  - rum3 8y ago
    This particular site has no external trackers or analytics scripts.
    - krapp 8y ago
      But the claim made in the article is that "every step you take on the web, every site you visit, every page you view, is used to create and enhance a profile about you. Everything you do is carefully tracked and monitored." Obviously, if this is true, then it must be true for that site as well. Otherwise that assertion is just FUD and hyperbole, and it undermines the credibility of the argument being made about the scale of the evil of the modern web, and the necessity of a simpler, non-HTML based protocol to avoid those evils.
      - rum3 8y ago
        All traffic is monitored by the countless agencies around the world, the datacenters, the isps, spyware, malicious browser extensions, companies "helping" you by making a backup of your bookmarks and history, and so on, so it is definitely true for this site aswell.
        krapp 8y ago
        In that sense, it would be true for gopher as well. But the article is clearly describing javascript, analytics and tracking within HTML, with the solution being Gopher's "featurelessness." But it's possible to build an HTML page without analytics and tracking, or even with non-malicious javascript, so the premise that the only way to escape that is to leave the web entirely for simpler and more restrictive pastures is untrue. Not that the point needs to be belabored but it's worth pointing out that the article opens with a patent falsehood.
clubm8 8y ago
>Every step you take on the web, every site you visit, every page you view, is used to create and enhance a profile about you. Everything you do is carefully tracked and monitored. * if you use traditional web browsers. I've been moving more and more of my browsing over to Tor. Both Reddit and HN can be browsed, though the former requires JS to fully function. (A persistent problem across the web) I can't do all my browsing on Tor, but I can do a substantial chunk. Conversely, I can maintain "clean" profiles tied to my real name that seem to simply check email, read the news a bit, and check the weather.
- crankylinuxuser 8y ago
  Indeed! I tried using QubesOS for my primary (desktop-ish) laptop. I7, .5TB ssd, 32GB ram for $500 on ebay. And I would have maintained using it if it hasn't been for research into SDRs. I needed the performance from USB for SDRs, and the way Qubes does it sends all USB data to a USBvm to prevent against all sorts of bad USB attacks (badUSB, rubber duckys, usb-gsm gateways, etc). But if I wasn't doing SDR work, you can bet on it that I'd be using Qubes.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
    A big problem I have with QubesOS, which is a good idea, isn't that it sacrifices performance in the name of security by default, but that it has no escape hatch for when you actually really need stuff to work... and its absurdly high resource requirements. It is fundamentally not a usable OS for any but a few niche use cases, in my opinion.
  - rum3 8y ago
    Will this protect you from JS fingerprinting? Will it protect your from software fingerprinting? (device id's and serial numbers, etc)
    - clubm8 8y ago
      What do you mean by "JS fingerprinting"? If you use a Whonix VM on Tor, there's really two parts - a Gateway VM and a workstation. So even if JS "punches through" the workstation it literally cannot transmit or access your external IP. If you do things like resize your window or install nonstandard applications, that could make you a unique Whonix user, but not reveal your true IP.

by mahkoh 8y ago

peterkelly 8y ago

How is that bold? It's common knowledge.

krapp 8y ago
It's bold of the author to admit that they are carefully tracking and monitoring everyone using this site to create and enhance profiles on them, particularly given the context of the article.
- rum3 8y ago
  This particular site has no external trackers or analytics scripts.
  - krapp 8y ago
    But the claim made in the article is that "every step you take on the web, every site you visit, every page you view, is used to create and enhance a profile about you. Everything you do is carefully tracked and monitored." Obviously, if this is true, then it must be true for that site as well. Otherwise that assertion is just FUD and hyperbole, and it undermines the credibility of the argument being made about the scale of the evil of the modern web, and the necessity of a simpler, non-HTML based protocol to avoid those evils.
    - rum3 8y ago
      All traffic is monitored by the countless agencies around the world, the datacenters, the isps, spyware, malicious browser extensions, companies "helping" you by making a backup of your bookmarks and history, and so on, so it is definitely true for this site aswell.
      - krapp 8y ago
        In that sense, it would be true for gopher as well. But the article is clearly describing javascript, analytics and tracking within HTML, with the solution being Gopher's "featurelessness." But it's possible to build an HTML page without analytics and tracking, or even with non-malicious javascript, so the premise that the only way to escape that is to leave the web entirely for simpler and more restrictive pastures is untrue. Not that the point needs to be belabored but it's worth pointing out that the article opens with a patent falsehood.

clubm8 8y ago

>Every step you take on the web, every site you visit, every page you view, is used to create and enhance a profile about you. Everything you do is carefully tracked and monitored. * if you use traditional web browsers. I've been moving more and more of my browsing over to Tor. Both Reddit and HN can be browsed, though the former requires JS to fully function. (A persistent problem across the web) I can't do all my browsing on Tor, but I can do a substantial chunk. Conversely, I can maintain "clean" profiles tied to my real name that seem to simply check email, read the news a bit, and check the weather.

crankylinuxuser 8y ago
Indeed! I tried using QubesOS for my primary (desktop-ish) laptop. I7, .5TB ssd, 32GB ram for $500 on ebay. And I would have maintained using it if it hasn't been for research into SDRs. I needed the performance from USB for SDRs, and the way Qubes does it sends all USB data to a USBvm to prevent against all sorts of bad USB attacks (badUSB, rubber duckys, usb-gsm gateways, etc). But if I wasn't doing SDR work, you can bet on it that I'd be using Qubes.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  A big problem I have with QubesOS, which is a good idea, isn't that it sacrifices performance in the name of security by default, but that it has no escape hatch for when you actually really need stuff to work... and its absurdly high resource requirements. It is fundamentally not a usable OS for any but a few niche use cases, in my opinion.
- rum3 8y ago
  Will this protect you from JS fingerprinting? Will it protect your from software fingerprinting? (device id's and serial numbers, etc)
  - clubm8 8y ago
    What do you mean by "JS fingerprinting"? If you use a Whonix VM on Tor, there's really two parts - a Gateway VM and a workstation. So even if JS "punches through" the workstation it literally cannot transmit or access your external IP. If you do things like resize your window or install nonstandard applications, that could make you a unique Whonix user, but not reveal your true IP.