Websites are monitoring our activities!!!

[JohnElway]

Sorry for the dramatic title but I thought this was something people should see. I just read this article about websites monitoring user activity:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...512989404.html

The article mentions three methods for tracking activity: cookies, beacons (or web bugs), and Flash cookies. Here's how I have tried to disable each of these (I'm not entirely sure how effective these methods are):

NOTE: This only works for Firefox.

Cookies: In Firefox, go to Edit>Preferences and in the Privacy section uncheck 'Accept cookies from sites'. There are many other options available, i.e. blocking only third party cookies or deleting cookies when you close your browser.

Beacons: For this, you need the NoScript add-on. I've been using this add-on since my computer got raped by Java viruses back when I was using Windows and I can tell you that it's the best add-on I've ever used for Firefox. It not only makes web browsing more secure, it also makes it faster due to its blockage of client side scripting.
To block beacons, click the NoScript logo (bottom right) and select Options. Select the advanced tab, then the Untrusted tab and check Forbid "Web Bugs". Unfortunately, this will not block beacons from trusted sites. If anyone knows how to block ALL beacons please let me know.

Flash cookies: You need to adjust you Flash Player Settings here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/do...manager03.html. In the Global Storage Settings tab, reduce the disk space amount to 0 so that the Flash Player won't be able to save any information on your machine.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Disabling these things may block functionality that you still want. My plan is to block everything initially and make adjustments when necessary.

Also, I occasionally use Chromium so does anyone know how to do the above in that browser? And does anyone know any better ways of doing the above in Firefox?

[Artemis Fowl]

I've known about this for a long time due to the fact I was intrigued by viruses as a windows user and spent a large portion of my computer time reading about them and anything related to them, including this fact.
Thanks for telling me how to not accept cookies, I was unaware of how to do that in firefox.

[Spice Weasel]

This is no new news, see Google.

[mendhak]

You can use ScriptBlock to block Flash and JS.
There's also Ghostery you can look at.

[lovinglinux]

You can use ScriptBlock to block Flash and JS.

What is that?

There's also Ghostery you can look at.

There is also Better Privacy, but I'm not using it anymore since Ghostery seems to have this functionality now.

Also check the Privacy & Security section of AMO:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...vacy-security/

BTW, there is also network.http.sendRefererHeader that sends information about which site you are when you click a link. I disable this, but some sites like launchpad doesn't work properly with this disabled.

[Austin25]

Even this forum is using Google Analytics.

[lisati]

Sorry for the dramatic title but I thought this was something people should see. I just read this article about websites monitoring user activity:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...512989404.html

The article mentions three methods for tracking activity: cookies, beacons (or web bugs), and Flash cookies. Here's how I have tried to disable each of these (I'm not entirely sure how effective these methods are):

Websites have had access to information about visitors for years. Part of this is for technical reasons: how can a server dish out web pages if it doesn't know where to send them?

Have a look here on my web site for an example of some of the information that can be inferred: http://lisati.homelinux.com/whoami

If you're visiting websites run by reputable operators, you shouldn't have to worry. As others have mentioned, there are options available to help protect your privacy.

[endotherm]

You can use ScriptBlock to block Flash and JS.
There's also Ghostery you can look at.

beware. ghostery tracks your actions as part of it;s functions, so make sure you trust them.

[DrMelon]

I thought everyone and their grandmothers knew this. It's how "keep me logged in" things work on websites, with cookies.

[-grubby]

Have a look here on my web site for an example of some of the information that can be inferred: http://lisati.homelinux.com/whoami

Your IP address (207.118.114.83) appears to be listed by the following service(s):
zen.spamhaus.org
dnsbl.sorbs.net