Saturday, October 20, 2012
Ever wonder how much info is gleaned from your every click on the NET? You post on Yahoo, or you post here, or you hit the Home shopping Network Online... Did you know that every place you go, every post you read, there is an app, or cookie, or something? These little invisible trolls are watching you. They see the advertising you look at, They analyze, they track, they grab. Your privacy isn't yours, and because they work in the background you never notice as they go about their work. Sure there are blockers like Adaware and some antivirus packages stop some to most, but not all. I found a new free little program that takes care of these things called Ghostery. Get it, instal;l it, and open your eyes to the little spies you don't really want snooping on you.
The only problem is, you have to turn it off to post here as it will block all cookies and trackers unless you give specific permission for a cookie to work.
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8 comments:
I've noticed it Huck. If I go out on different websites looking for shoes, towels, etc., I am finding ads for the same things popping up all over. I check e-mail, there they are. It's creepy.
http://www.ghostery.com/
Both my browsers are set to dump all cookies, history, preferences, etc. every time they are turned off. I get cookies, but they don't get far.
There is more to it than we even know... I have mine set to dump everything as well. My employer recently switched over to gmail. Sometimes, when I login, there is kkdither, off in the sideboard, with the blue hair. (Remember the blue hair? Hehehe) Blogger is google owned, I think, and somehow has linked my online personna to me in real life.
"Every step you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you."
I heard that based on your "profile" you will receive different search results. If they know when you travel that you generally stay at a certain price point hotel.... you won't get results on better deals that might be available.
It is getting beyond creepy. It is way too invasive.
The next generation will grow up being used to this. They will have advertising everywhere by then, maybe even implanted into your brain. It will all be geared to your likes and dislikes. 100 years from now the world would probably look foreign to us, just as our world would appear to someone from the early 20th century.
I'm not talking about dumping your cookies. I'm talking about stopping them cold.
Ghostery
Look it up, download it, update it, and look at all the trackers it blocks. These are trackers that work as soon as they download with the website content.
As you point out, however, then you cannot log onto this site. I think just about any site you log onto is going to give you a cookie (and trackers). I have to live with that if I want to go to my favorite sites.
Besides dumping everything when the browser closes, I keep my anti-virus and firewall updated. I run a full system scan once a week. I also use Spybot Search & Destroy, Spyware Blaster, and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I keep those updated and also run weekly scans. Both the Spybot Search & Destroy and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware have each caught threats that my anti-virus didn't detect.
this is the song that came to mind right away ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGPlCLf9AZ8
I went and read about it. It is extremely interesting. Reviews show that people love it.
As orbs says, I have my favorite sites I like to peruse, including Facebook, which I know is rotten to the core on tracking. I think I could become so paranoid with each click, I could get to the point where I wouldn't go to certain sites. How much does this add-on control and report to you? Does it run mostly silent? How much do they warn you or how invasive are the notifications as sites are blocked and you are warned?
I agree that something on a large scale needs to be done to protect our privacy. However, the general population are like greedy pigs at a trough... as long as the juice keeps coming, we are content not to know from where it originates.
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