Being Tracked on the internet

[ls99]

I was playing around with Firefox internals a bit. Cleaned the cache and cookies. Looking at the cache after a first start. it was empty. Then just for fun clicked in a separete tab to go to the ER forum.

Lo and behold Instantly 44 entries showed up in the cache.

Then for the fun of it in a separate tab, clicked to go to wheather.com

The number of cache entries went to 385.

Sure is a lot of stuff stored by websites.

By the way for what little it is worth I have the "do not track" tuned on.

In terms of cookies it seems to make no difference. Appearently wost web sites ignore this preference.

 

[REWahoo]

You might have better results if you install ghostery.

Ghostery is your window into the invisible web – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons that are included on web pages in order to get an idea of your online behavior.

Ghostery tracks over 1,400 trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.

You can block every last one of them with this program - and it's free.

 

[rbmrtn]

Are you looking at cache or cookies. These are two different things.

Also the do not track option is for a specific type of ad tracking not cookies

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/dnt/

 

[ls99]

You might have better results if you install ghostery.

You can block every last one of them with this program - and it's free.

Thanks, will check it out.

 

[ls99]

Are you looking at cache or cookies. These are two different things.

Also the do not track option is for a specific type of ad tracking not cookies

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/dnt/

Yes, was looking at the cache. I know that cache and cookies are different animals.

Did not know that the "do not track" was for only some types of ads. Thanks.

 

[target2019]

Right click on a web page (like this one) and view page source. Scroll through the html and look at the number of images that are required for a page. That is where a good number of files in cache come from. Some can be used to gather information, but most are simply there to enhance the experience.
Just go to tools > clear cache if it concerns you. Also, set the cache to a lower number so less is stored locally.
Lastly, use ad-block plus. The reading experience on so many sites is tremendous once you get rid of the ads.

 

[Koolau]

Heh, heh, which software keeps the gummint from tracking you? YMMV

 

[ls99]

Right click on a web page (like this one) and view page source. Scroll through the html and look at the number of images that are required for a page. That is where a good number of files in cache come from. Some can be used to gather information, but most are simply there to enhance the experience.
Just go to tools > clear cache if it concerns you. Also, set the cache to a lower number so less is stored locally.
Lastly, use ad-block plus. The reading experience on so many sites is tremendous once you get rid of the ads.

I was inside of Firefox "about:cache" which is a comprehensive listing.
It was mostly cuiosity. Have had adblock for years. Like it. With the addition of ghostery as recommended by Rewahoo it is great.

NSA can and will track anything and everything. Including all trips to the bathroom and bowel movements. 4th amendment be damned. Welcome to the Gulag.

If you want a private coversation nothing beats two soup cans and a string at the oceanside. It is wireless and the white noise drives microphone amplifier's AGC nuts. OTOH with great effort at signal processing even white noise can be filtered out.

Cheers

 

[sheehs1]

Reading this thread reminded me of a couple of solicitation phone calls I received this week. In each case they asked for Mr. or Mrs. I replied, "Who is calling" suspecting a solicitation phone call. They have gotten smarter by using phone numbers with local area codes.

They would not answer my question and repeated, are YOU Mrs. "X". I repeated myself and then said, "We are on the National Do Not Call List".

Her reply?: "Why?". (Duh!")

She asked me again, "Are you Mrs. "X".

My reply: "Mam, you have not identified yourself and I am not answering your question.

Her reply to me was: "You need phone etiquette manners".!

My reply: "Mam, you don't want me to tell you what you need" and I hung up.

Nothing is private anymore....not even the National Do Not Call List.

 

[sengsational]

If you turn off third party cookies you will be "less tracked" than otherwise. Firefox 21 will have 3rd party cookies off by default! Finally! Safari has had them off by default "forever". Chrome will probably always have them on by default (advertising business model). IE might come along, and if it does, maybe Chrome will go, just to keep from being odd man out.

 

[mf15]

This eliminates google from tracking what you search for.
Old Mike
https://startpage.com/