Posts Tagged ‘Ghostery’

05
Dec
2019

corporate surveillance

categories: Digital literacy, information technology, privacy

Behind the One-Way Mirror: A Deep Dive Into the Technology of Corporate Surveillance
BY BENNETT CYPHERS DECEMBER 2, 2019

https://www.eff.org/wp/behind-the-one-way-mirror

Corporations have built a hall of one-way mirrors: from the inside, you can see only apps, web pages, ads, and yourself reflected by social media. But in the shadows behind the glass, trackers quietly take notes on nearly everything you do. These trackers are not omniscient, but they are widespread and indiscriminate. The data they collect and derive is not perfect, but it is nevertheless extremely sensitive.

A data-snorting company can just make low bids to ensure it never wins while pocketing your data for nothing. This is a flaw in the implied deal where you trade data for benefits.

You can limit what you give away by blocking tracking cookies. Unfortunately, you can still be tracked by other techniques. These include web beacons, browser fingerprinting and behavioural data such as mouse movements, pauses and clicks, or sweeps and taps.

The EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was a baby step in the right direction. BOWM also mentions Vermont’s data privacy law, the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act (BIPA) and next year’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Tor, the original anti-surveillance browser, is based on an old, heavily modified version of Firefox.

Most other browsers are now, like Chrome, based on Google’s open source Chromium. Once enough web developers started coding for Chrome instead of for open standards, it became arduous and expensive to sustain alternative browser engines. Chromium-based browsers now include Opera, Vivaldi, Brave, the Epic Privacy Browser and next year’s new Microsoft Edge.

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more on surveillance in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance

03
Sep
2018

Firefox blocks trackers

categories: announcement

If you haven’t already switched to Firefox, do it now

Firefox has announced plans to block all third-party trackers. Why haven’t you switched yet?

Katharine Schwab

https://amp-fastcompany-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.fastcompany.com/90230864/if-you-havent-already-switched-to-firefox-do-it-now

This week, Mozilla announced that its browser Firefox will start blocking all cross-site third-party trackers–the cookies hiding in the background that follow your clicks across the web, reporting your activity to advertisers as you move between websites.

Trackers don’t just track you–they also slow download times for websites. Mozilla cites a study by the ad-blocker Ghostery, which found that 55% of the time required to load a website is spent loading third-party trackers. Without these trackers, sites will load faster, making the overall user experience better. Mozilla will be testing how much blocking trackers impact load times in September–if its approach to blocking trackers does reduce load times, it will roll out the same technology to the regular Firefox browser later this year. If you’re interested in trying it out now, you can download Firefox Nightly to see how the features work.

It’s important that these changes will be integrated into the Firefox browser by default–something other tech platforms haven’t done. Companies like Apple and YouTube have started rolling out features to address the addictive nature of their interfaces, claiming they are giving users more control over their digital lives. These features are similar to Firefox’s new settings–they’re all in the name of giving users a better experience–but they still require users to dig through their settings to reap the benefits. Mozilla is making the choice that’s best for users automatically. You can opt-out if you want to, but for the many who will never bother to look through their browser settings, they’ll be protected from the get-go.