How your browsing history is being tracked

If you have the FireFox internet browser you can download the addon lightbeam to see how your web history can be tracked ...



[ Note to ATS admin: Lightbeam does not block anything ,
it just shows tracking-cookies and other tracking devices ].

originally posted by: engvbany
If you have FireFox browser you can download the addon lightbeam to see how your web history can be tracked ...

[ Note to ATS admin: Lightbeam does not block anything , it just shows tracking-cookies and other tracking devices ].

Whew! I was worried I wouldn't get another way to increase my overall sense of "OMG! They're coming to get me!"
Thanks, I needed this tool so I can wear down the battery on my phone faster.

a reply to: engvbany
Worry about being tracked???
Why not visit EVERY site.
Seriously, give em a lot of false trail to follow and waste time on.

originally posted by: Zedski
Thanks, I needed this tool so I can wear down the battery on my phone faster.

I don't think lightbeam uses any bandwidth, and it uses the same amount of CPU as any open FireFox window,
It just makes trackers you've already got in your (FireFox) browser visible, in a sort-of spider-diagram form.

originally posted by: g146541
Seriously, give em a lot of false trail to follow and waste time on.

The false trail will be incorporated into the profile the tracker (e.g. Google) is creating in your name.
What false sites do you suggest ?, for every pro-whatever site you visit you'd have to visit an anti-whatever site to cancel out the effect , ( even that would give away you're interested in "whatever" ).

interesting review from the add ons page

This is an addon that is supposed to allow you to track the trackers. It actually seems to introduce two trackers - Gravatar and OpenX both of which are detected by another addon. Gravatar is a straightforward tracker whilst OpenX is an advertising agent. There is nothing to to tell you that this is going to happen during installation. This is the only time I have come across a firefox addon that does this. Next I experienced a problem with the reset data button. It didn't work. I found on the support site that uninstalling the plugin doesn't remove the data. So I cannot now remove the data the addon has collected. (I cannot find any evidence that the reset data button actually does anything. It looks as though it is just an image, but it doesn't seem to actually link to anything. I can't imagine what on my system might result in the addon behaving this way.) In any case I find it extremely odd that an addon that is supposed to help you understand privacy has two web beacons that are there to track you which only become evident when another addon identifies this situation. I am uninstalling it and hopefully at some stage I will become aware of how to erase the data it has collected too. Finally There is a contribute data button and I cannot really tell if it is on or off by default. Like everything else in the installation it doesnt seem to work. I have no problem with this sort of operation in addons but I dont find this addon at all frank or open about how it actually functions.

addons.mozilla.org...

originally posted by: pryingopen3rdeye
interesting review from the add ons page

*... It actually seems to introduce two trackers - Gravatar and OpenX both of which are detected by another addon".
addons.mozilla.org...

It "seems" that's just one person's unsubstantiated opinion.
There can be a delay of tens of seconds for all the trackers you are currently hosting to be loaded into your browser.
That delay could account for the discrepancy in the two lists of trackers which the reviewer has described.

If anyone knows of a better method of showing trackers than lightbeam please post it in this thread ,
bear in mind you cannot mention blocking addons in this forum : your post will be censored by ATS admin.

It's pretty much safe to say, anything you do online, your cell phone or even walking downtown where there are cameras is being tracked. I don't think it is conspiracy any longer, thanks to Edward Snowden, it's pretty much fact.

The question is, what are we going to do about it? The majority of the massive intrusion is labeled as harmless data to market people products and predict trends but the real danger is much, much more sinister.

Our technology has surpassed our wisdom and it is and will continue to be used for control. This is not a paranoid statement from somebody who is disillusioned, it is cold hard fact and is happening right this very second.

There should be new laws, those laws should protect Americans from this type of intrusion but the chances of that happening are slim to none as it stands. What are we going to do about it is the question.......

originally posted by: Helious
There should be new laws, those laws should protect Americans from this type of intrusion ....

There is a "cookie law" in Europe ...

The Cookie Law Explained

The Cookie Law is a piece of privacy legislation that requires websites to get consent from visitors to store or retrieve any information on a computer, smartphone or tablet. It was designed to protect online privacy, by making consumers aware of how information about them is collected and used online, and give them a choice to allow it or not ....

www.cookielaw.org...

originally posted by: engvbany

originally posted by: g146541
Seriously, give em a lot of false trail to follow and waste time on.

The false trail will be incorporated into the profile the tracker (e.g. Google) is creating in your name.
What false sites do you suggest ?, for every pro-whatever site you visit you'd have to visit an anti-whatever site to cancel out the effect , ( even that would give away you're interested in "whatever" ).

I'd avoid Google; do that as a rule anyway, and cookies can be set to be more private. I only allow third party for sites I visit, which cuts WAY down on those (works for commenting sites that run on multiple websites). Clearing cookies regularly helps as well, and I set mine up to always block Google, YouTube, and Facebook. Unless using one of those, they don't get to track.

Flash settings through the Adobe site can be set to limit that sort of tracking as well. There are some search engines that don't track, too.

a reply to: engvbany

The thing is that our march toward a long envisioned dystopian authoritarian society that was predicted by a few very smart visionary writers is coming into it's full fruition. Sadly, as it has happened throughout history, the population it is happening too refuses to acknowledge it because of guilt felt because of inaction and complacency. Instead of owning up to laziness and indifference, for most, better to just conform.

At this point, we are not dealing with suicide bombers running into populated areas. We are dealing with people who have spent decades researching social control and manipulation. It's never blatant until it is too late to resist. Those who are crying and pleading for gun control, those who advocate for private prisons and socialism, they all think they represent the greater good, the evolution of mankind, not knowing in their infant like naivety that they are helping to contribute to the extinction of freedom as we all know it.

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
I'd avoid Google...

"Google analytics" tracking cookie is on many webpages , including this one.

originally posted by: pryingopen3rdeye
interesting review from the add ons page

This is an addon that is supposed to allow you to track the trackers. It actually seems to introduce two trackers - Gravatar and OpenX both of which are detected by another addon. Gravatar is a straightforward tracker whilst OpenX is an advertising agent. There is nothing to to tell you that this is going to happen during installation. This is the only time I have come across a firefox addon that does this. Next I experienced a problem with the reset data button. It didn't work. I found on the support site that uninstalling the plugin doesn't remove the data. So I cannot now remove the data the addon has collected. (I cannot find any evidence that the reset data button actually does anything. It looks as though it is just an image, but it doesn't seem to actually link to anything. I can't imagine what on my system might result in the addon behaving this way.) In any case I find it extremely odd that an addon that is supposed to help you understand privacy has two web beacons that are there to track you which only become evident when another addon identifies this situation. I am uninstalling it and hopefully at some stage I will become aware of how to erase the data it has collected too. Finally There is a contribute data button and I cannot really tell if it is on or off by default. Like everything else in the installation it doesnt seem to work. I have no problem with this sort of operation in addons but I dont find this addon at all frank or open about how it actually functions.

addons.mozilla.org...

Not being able to delete the info that the tracker got is like, honesty. Why not transmit your data as you click on it?

I wish that guy had said what his other addon was.

My goodness, everything I do is being watched, it seems.

The other day I was putting up pictures from my recent vacation on Facebook. We were attending a reunion of fighter pilots, which included a tour of a certain military base. I knew that discretion is important concerning that day, but I took a few photos that I carefully selected because they showed nothing of sensitive nature, and no people. I put them up.

Approximately two minutes later, they were gone. From the album I created, ONLY the photos of that base disappeared. I told my husband, and we couldn't figure it out. Then about ten minutes later, they were back.

When I saw that face recognition programs were automatically tagging people in my photos as I posted them, I guessed that there must also be programs for recognition of locations, which will grab them quickly just in case, to be vetted.

This is a weird world we live in these days.

originally posted by: Semicollegiate
... I wish that guy had said what his other addon was ...

Looks like that guy was wrong :
lightbeam and an 'other' tracker detector agree : 15 trackers on photobucket (without logging in)



So lightbeam is not adding or missing trackers.

a reply to: Zedski

me too

Well, they pretty much force you to allow yourself to be tracked. Anything you do to try and make your browsing more private and secure will almost invariably either get very annoying (because you have to keep doing it repeatedly) or it will break something or inconvenience you in some way that doesn't seem like a big deal the first hundred times or so it happens but eventually makes you want to throw your computer.

I've been all through it and I eventually just gave up. Unless you're very tech savvy, you're never going to know if whatever you're doing is 100% effective or not anyway.