Stop advertisers tracking you across the internet. (1 Viewer)

[Gromett]

This is a very interesting article and worth a read.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-makes-it-into-firefox-first-party-isolation/

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Interesting stuff.

I wonder how long before someone finds something sinister in elements of Tor being incorporated into mainstream Firefox.

I'm getting into this kind of from the other side at the moment, getting Adwords and Analytics integrated into a new e-commerce website. The amount of data available from that is quite surprising once it's set up properly.

 

[DBK]

On a vaguely related note of organisations tracking you, I made an interesting discovery today.

I was looking at some photos of mine which are backed up in Google Photos. When I looked at the information attached to a photo it showed the usual stuff, f number, speed etc but it also showed the location on a little thumbnail map.

Now here's the interesting bit. The photographs were taken on my camera which doesn't have a built-in GPS. Curious.

How did they know where I was? The answer had to be in my pocket, my phone! Google tracks my phone, I know this 'cos they send me maps from time to time showing where I've been. I can only assume Google looked at the date stamp on the photograph and cross-referenced this with where it knew my phone, and by inference me, was. Spooky.

I'm happy with this, others may not be. I now have all my photos taken on a ten week trip geo-located. Except for a few taken on a mountain pass where there was no phone signal and Big Google Brother lost sight of me.

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[Gromett]

Interesting stuff.

I'm getting into this kind of from the other side at the moment, getting Adwords and Analytics integrated into a new e-commerce website. The amount of data available from that is quite surprising once it's set up properly.

Yup, and then google can follow your visitors around as well I will just point out that Google analytics is not very accurate as anyone (such as me) who blocks google analytics at source doesn't get tracked. A far better method of analyising traffic if you are serious are the access logs from your web server.

I use a combination of ublock origin, noscript and a custom hosts file to block adverts. So I basically don't get tracked that much. However the cross domain cookie drop was one thing I hadn't considered. I went all out on facebook when they were tracking me in too obvious a manner. They were tough to block without removing access for myself to keep in touch with family members.

This particular project I thought was pretty clever and very impressive.

 

[Gromett]

On a vaguely related note of organisations tracking you, I made an interesting discovery today.

I was looking at some photos of mine which are backed up in Google photos. When I looked at the information attached to a photo it showed the usual stuff, f number, speed etc but it also showed the location on a little thumbnail map.

Now here's the interesting bit. The photographs were taken on my camera which doesn't have a built-in GPS. Curious.

How did they know where I was? The answer had to be in my pocket, my phone! Google tracks my phone, I know this 'cos they send me maps from time to time showing where I've been. I can only assume Google looked at the date stamp on the photograph and cross-referenced this with where it knew my phone, and by inference me, was. Spooky.
I'm happy with this, others may not be. I now have all my photos taken on a ten week trip geo-located. Except for a few taken on a mountain passes where there was no phone signal and Big Google Brother lost sight of me.

Yup, that is why I have my phones GPS switched off unless I actually NEED it. which is very rare.

My view is, give them as little information as possible and always remember you are not the customer you are the product.

If you are not paying for the service, then they are selling your data to pay for it.

 

[Riverbankannie]

I can’t hide anything from my hubby. Whatever I have been looking up on google searches, appears as ads on his Facebook feed. Separate devices used so the only connection is our ISP address.
I don’t get the ads on my Facebook feed.

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[Wildbill]

OK so how do you stop them tracking you
bill

 

[Gromett]

I can’t hide anything from my hubby. Whatever I have been looking up on google searches, appears as ads on his Facebook feed. Separate devices used so the only connection is our ISP address.
I don’t get the ads on my Facebook feed.

install. ublock origin, noscript and this
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
and the plugin in the above article...

 

[Lenny HB]

I already run Ublock and after reading the article I've added FPI, interestingly the app download says number of users 13 , not very popular, or is it problematical and people have uninstalled it.

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[Abacist]

Apple supposedly supply this with their latest operating system upgrade.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Yup, and then google can follow your visitors around as well I will just point out that Google analytics is not very accurate as anyone (such as me) who blocks google analytics at source doesn't get tracked. A far better method of analyising traffic if you are serious are the access logs from your web server.

I'm not doing it for tracking. I think that would be of pretty limited use to me.

Adwords is pretty much the only way to get a high page listing now, old school SEO is more or less ignored by Google these days. We're looking a conversion based bid strategy which won't work unless some of the tracking elements are integrated into the website. Whatever Analytics data we get will be a bonus assuming anyone ever has the time to look at it.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

OK so how do you stop them tracking you
bill

The only sure fire way is to never use Google or any of it's subsidiaries.

Also don't use Facebook, Amazon or any other major web service.

Information harvesting and selling is massive business, it's how Google, Facebook and the rest make their money.

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[Deleted member 29692]

@Gromett have you ever bothered playing around with Tor?

I know what the connotations are but most people say "dark web" without the slightest understanding of what it means.

 

[DBK]

Interesting stuff.

I wonder how long before someone finds something sinister in elements of Tor being incorporated into mainstream Firefox.

I'm getting into this kind of from the other side at the moment, getting Adwords and Analytics integrated into a new e-commerce website. The amount of data available from that is quite surprising once it's set up properly.

I used Google analytics about eight years ago on a commercial website and was amazed then how much information it gathered. I suspect it has been developed a bit since then.

 

[Gromett]

interestingly the app download says number of users 13

It is not very well known. ff haven't announced this feature and this is the first I heard about it and I look out for this kind of thing... word will get around though...

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[Gromett]

@Gromett have you ever bothered playing around with Tor?

I know what the connotations are but most people say "dark web" without the slightest understanding of what it means.

Not recently. I found it too slow for regular use..

 

[Deleted member 29692]

I used Google analytics about eight years ago on a commercial website and was amazed then how much information it gathered. I suspect it has been developed a bit since then.

Massively.

 

[Riverbankannie]

Apple supposedly supply this with their latest operating system upgrade.

We have done the upgrade and he is still getting my ads.
Will try Ublock

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[Riverbankannie]

install. ublock origin, noscript and this
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
and the plugin in the above article...

Read the article and the links in it but I think does not apply to iPads which is what we mostly use for Facebook.

 

[roamingman]

I do not have anything from Google on my tablet or phone (I just have a phone for texs from my family) no smartphone, just got another laptop and deleted anything Google.

 

[DaveandJen]

This is a very interesting article and worth a read.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-makes-it-into-firefox-first-party-isolation/

Thanks to Gromett for the heads up. Recently I photographed a friends wedding and during the past week or so I’ve been looking around on the internet for a company that produces Photo Books and even when I clicked on the link above on two occasions there was an advert sitting on the right of the screen from one of the photo book websites that I have visited recently, one was Bonus Print and its happening on other websites that I’m visiting.

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[Gromett]

Read the article and the links in it but I think does not apply to iPads which is what we mostly use for Facebook.

No it's just firefox