5 ms·

I'm one of the authors of the paper. One of our findings was that third-party cookie blocking is only marginally effective. See the tables under cookie syncing

I'm one of the authors of the paper. One of our findings was that third-party cookie blocking is only marginally effective. See the tables under cookie syncing in our summary [1] or in our full paper [2]. Trackers bypass cookie blocking in a variety of creative ways. We're currently investigating the bypassing mechanisms in more detail. On the other hand, add-ons like Ghostery work much better. [1] https://securehomes.esat.kuleuven.be/~gacar/persistent/index.html https://securehomes.esat.kuleuven.be/~gacar/persistent/index... [2] https://securehomes.esat.kuleuven.be/~gacar/persistent/the_web_never_forgets.pdf https://securehomes.esat.kuleuven.be/~gacar/persistent/the_w...

b_emery 12y ago
Can you summarize for us how to avoid this kind of tracking? Is there much we can do besides Ghostery?
- laumars 12y ago
  I block tracking at the domain level via a custom hosts file: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Actually, I went one step further than this, I dump that hosts file into dnsmasq and set that as my primary domain controller for the home network. So anything connected via WiFi or ethernet (phones, tablets, laptops, etc) will also have tracking blocked.
  - b_emery 12y ago
    A belated thanks. Much appreciated.
e12e 12y ago
Slightly off-topic but something with my Iceweasel/FF install (v31) borks the layout of the blog completely -- content is shifted far to the right of the viewport for some reason. Looked fine on another computer, so not sure what's up. Also works fine in chromium. FYI.
tamale 12y ago
People need to stop promoting Ghostery. It's made by Evidon, yet another tracking company. Just checkout their website and it's clearly obvious that everyone that installs this extension is doing them a huge favor: https://www.ghosteryenterprise.com/ https://www.ghosteryenterprise.com/ It's identical to the adware companies that promise to help remove adware from your computer... but for some reason people keep using it!

b_emery 12y ago

Can you summarize for us how to avoid this kind of tracking? Is there much we can do besides Ghostery?

laumars 12y ago
I block tracking at the domain level via a custom hosts file: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Actually, I went one step further than this, I dump that hosts file into dnsmasq and set that as my primary domain controller for the home network. So anything connected via WiFi or ethernet (phones, tablets, laptops, etc) will also have tracking blocked.
- b_emery 12y ago
  A belated thanks. Much appreciated.

e12e 12y ago

Slightly off-topic but something with my Iceweasel/FF install (v31) borks the layout of the blog completely -- content is shifted far to the right of the viewport for some reason. Looked fine on another computer, so not sure what's up. Also works fine in chromium. FYI.

tamale 12y ago

People need to stop promoting Ghostery. It's made by Evidon, yet another tracking company. Just checkout their website and it's clearly obvious that everyone that installs this extension is doing them a huge favor: https://www.ghosteryenterprise.com/ https://www.ghosteryenterprise.com/ It's identical to the adware companies that promise to help remove adware from your computer... but for some reason people keep using it!