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Not to mention Facebook tracking you across the web with their Like buttons. I try to do most of my browsing in a different browser from the one I log into FB/

Not to mention Facebook tracking you across the web with their Like buttons. I try to do most of my browsing in a different browser from the one I log into FB/Google with.

Lucadg 14y ago
me too. Do you reckon this is enough?
- nwh 14y ago
  http://www.ghostery.com/ http://www.ghostery.com/
  - cookiecaper 14y ago
    Honestly I found Ghostery useless and ultimately uninstalled it. I am not paranoid enough to want to completely deprive every site of statistics, so I had opt-in by default, and it's difficult to block the especially nefarious packages because they're all lumped together with typical counters/stats scripts. I think NoScript does an adequate job preventing most undesired analyzers, as they will often be on a separate domain that needs temporary activation. Ghostery was just annoying because it'd always be blaring that there were trackers tracking me, but include mostly things that I don't really mind, basically all counters. In fact, I usually want counters to register my UA/OS, so that their recorded Linux marketshare increases. Would be nice if we could install Ghostery as a private-browsing-only extension and turn its default to block everything, but barring that, I don't think it's valuable unless you make it block everything all the time.
    - gtufano 14y ago
      You know, sites have log files for basic stats... Tracking is completely another league. I feel no guilty using Ghostery fully blocking everything by default (and I'm not so paranoid).
      - mylittlepony 14y ago
        The problem is when you use http cache, it screws your basic stats.
  - chm 14y ago
    I use this in conjunction with an ad blocker and a NoScripts-like extension. I always wonder how effective this combination is :/
  - coenhyde 14y ago
    Ghostery is fantastic. It takes a little while to get setup and maintain as you'll want to disable everything by default then reenable services when things don't work. But it's well worth the effort.
  - cpeterso 14y ago
    I use the Ghostery add-on for Firefox, but if you enable "GhostRank" then the add-on will send every URL you visit to Evidon. This is purportedly for "tracking the trackers", but it does give one pause.
- josephlord 14y ago
  "Enough for what? is the question. I hope it is enough to disrupt the FB and Google from from getting a total view of my activity but I don't think its enough to stop all monitoring and tracking. My main browser is Firefox with NoScript installed and I've been known to back away from sites that won't work without a number of different domains being authorised. Flash isn't installed at all. I use Chrome with Ghostery for Linked In/Facebook and any Google logins plus anything that needs Flash (as I trust Google to keep that up to date even though I don't trust them not to track me). I never log in to Linked In/Facebook/Google on my phone or tablet although I don't have much other protection from tracking there.
jrajav 14y ago
If you use Chrome, there are extensions like this one: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-disconnect/ejpepffjfmamnambagiibghpglaidiec https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-disconnec...
g-garron 14y ago
Just because of that I have disabled fb like, twitter and g+ from my blog. I had also disabled google analytics but traffic started to go down. Today I have re-enabled analytics to see if that is the reason. I did not have too much traffic from fb or twitter to think that is because I took their buttons out. Anyway, I prefer to avoid those sites tracking my readers, savvy people can anyway share my content if they want. So, if you want is http://www.garron.me http://www.garron.me :). Just kidding.
cookiecaper 14y ago
You may be interested in https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-blocker https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-bloc... , which stops your browser from reporting back to FB until you actually click a "Like" button.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Does pressing a "like" button actually redirect the browser to facebook? Or is it trying to do something based on evaluating what the FB javascript does? The best way to implement something like this would be "if facebook.com" is not in the address bar don't allow any requests to anything with a facebook IP address. Trying to do something cleverer might be simple for FB to break by changing the like button code.
  - cdrxndr 14y ago
    Tracking doesn't start at "pressing Like", but the Like button is actually loaded from an HTTP call to Facebook's server with the referer of the site you're on ... so they know could (claim: don't) track every site you visit with any original cookie you set on Facebook's site.

Not to mention Facebook tracking you across the web with their Like buttons. I try to do most of my browsing in a different browser from the one I log into FB/Google with.

Lucadg 14y ago

me too. Do you reckon this is enough?

nwh 14y ago
http://www.ghostery.com/ http://www.ghostery.com/
- cookiecaper 14y ago
  Honestly I found Ghostery useless and ultimately uninstalled it. I am not paranoid enough to want to completely deprive every site of statistics, so I had opt-in by default, and it's difficult to block the especially nefarious packages because they're all lumped together with typical counters/stats scripts. I think NoScript does an adequate job preventing most undesired analyzers, as they will often be on a separate domain that needs temporary activation. Ghostery was just annoying because it'd always be blaring that there were trackers tracking me, but include mostly things that I don't really mind, basically all counters. In fact, I usually want counters to register my UA/OS, so that their recorded Linux marketshare increases. Would be nice if we could install Ghostery as a private-browsing-only extension and turn its default to block everything, but barring that, I don't think it's valuable unless you make it block everything all the time.
  - gtufano 14y ago
    You know, sites have log files for basic stats... Tracking is completely another league. I feel no guilty using Ghostery fully blocking everything by default (and I'm not so paranoid).
    - mylittlepony 14y ago
      The problem is when you use http cache, it screws your basic stats.
- chm 14y ago
  I use this in conjunction with an ad blocker and a NoScripts-like extension. I always wonder how effective this combination is :/
- coenhyde 14y ago
  Ghostery is fantastic. It takes a little while to get setup and maintain as you'll want to disable everything by default then reenable services when things don't work. But it's well worth the effort.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  I use the Ghostery add-on for Firefox, but if you enable "GhostRank" then the add-on will send every URL you visit to Evidon. This is purportedly for "tracking the trackers", but it does give one pause.
josephlord 14y ago
"Enough for what? is the question. I hope it is enough to disrupt the FB and Google from from getting a total view of my activity but I don't think its enough to stop all monitoring and tracking. My main browser is Firefox with NoScript installed and I've been known to back away from sites that won't work without a number of different domains being authorised. Flash isn't installed at all. I use Chrome with Ghostery for Linked In/Facebook and any Google logins plus anything that needs Flash (as I trust Google to keep that up to date even though I don't trust them not to track me). I never log in to Linked In/Facebook/Google on my phone or tablet although I don't have much other protection from tracking there.

jrajav 14y ago

If you use Chrome, there are extensions like this one: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-disconnect/ejpepffjfmamnambagiibghpglaidiec https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-disconnec...

g-garron 14y ago

Just because of that I have disabled fb like, twitter and g+ from my blog. I had also disabled google analytics but traffic started to go down. Today I have re-enabled analytics to see if that is the reason. I did not have too much traffic from fb or twitter to think that is because I took their buttons out. Anyway, I prefer to avoid those sites tracking my readers, savvy people can anyway share my content if they want. So, if you want is http://www.garron.me http://www.garron.me :). Just kidding.

cookiecaper 14y ago

You may be interested in https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-blocker https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-bloc... , which stops your browser from reporting back to FB until you actually click a "Like" button.

jiggy2011 14y ago
Does pressing a "like" button actually redirect the browser to facebook? Or is it trying to do something based on evaluating what the FB javascript does? The best way to implement something like this would be "if facebook.com" is not in the address bar don't allow any requests to anything with a facebook IP address. Trying to do something cleverer might be simple for FB to break by changing the like button code.
- cdrxndr 14y ago
  Tracking doesn't start at "pressing Like", but the Like button is actually loaded from an HTTP call to Facebook's server with the referer of the site you're on ... so they know could (claim: don't) track every site you visit with any original cookie you set on Facebook's site.