How to visualize behavior tracking cookies with a Firefox add-on While the last 18 months have marked a monumental boost in browser performance and the beginnings in earnest of the HTML5 web app era, another important story has also been weaving its way through the fabric of internet society — the increasing importance of privacy on the web. Last year, both the US and EU decided that privacy on the web in general, and tracking cookies in specific, should be taken seriously. As a result, both Chrome and Internet Explorer now have tracking protection extensions, and Mozilla has proposed and implemented a Do Not Track HTTP header. The thing is, though, until tracking cookies become opt-in, these privacy protection measures are nigh on meaningless. Collusion is a very simple website that visualizes the interwoven mesh and mess of third-party tracking cookies. The gray dots mostly represent sites that you’ve explicitly visited, but in some cases they’re third-party sites that haven’t been confirmed as behavior trackers. Read more at Hacker News
NoScript Blender Ghostery HTTPS Everywhere HTTPS Everywhere is produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site. HTTPS Everywhere now uses the DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption dataset, to enable even greater coverage and protection for our users. Original announcement can be found here: Further technical details on how we utilize Smarter Encryption: Webmasters and prospective contributors: Check the HTTPS Everywhere Atlas to quickly see how existing HTTPS Everywhere rules affect sites you care about! Questions and Caveats Development And Writing your own Rulesets
Ad Hacker Firefox Advances Do Not Track Technology - Security - Privacy - Mozilla says Firefox, over objections from the advertising industry, soon will begin blocking many types of cookies used to track users. (click image for larger view) The Syrian Electronic Army: 9 Things We Know Despite strong advertising industry opposition, Mozilla is advancing plans to have the Firefox browser block, by default, many types of tracking used by numerous websites, and especially advertisers. "We're trying to change the dynamic so that trackers behave better," Brendan Eich, CTO of Firefox developer Mozilla, told The Washington Post. According to NetMarketShare, 21% of the world's computers run Firefox. Eich said the blocking technology, which is still being refined, will go live in the next few months. [ Will California website owners take a DNT pledge? Advertisers have criticized Mozilla's move. The precise types of cookies to be blocked by Firefox will be determined by the Cookie Clearinghouse, which is chaired by Aleecia M. More Insights
Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO) :: Firefox Add-ons So, You Want to Hide from the NSA? Your Guide to the Nearly Impossible Complaining about the government is a key part of being American, the first amendment to the Constitution. But it seems like a bit of a trickier proposition these days, with the government listening to everything you say online. In the interest of preserving your freedoms and bolstering our fair nation, here is the full articulation of the deeply paranoid and complex life you must live in order to assure that the government leaves you alone. RELATED: PRISM Companies Start Denying Knowledge of the NSA Data Collection Before we begin, we'll note that technically the NSA isn't allowed to look at the stuff you do online. Thanks to the Patriot Act, it can (and does) store the metadata on phone calls Americans make every day—who was called, how long the call lasted, maybe some location data. RELATED: The NSA Is Still Looking for a Way to Capture iMessages and FaceTime That is the worst case scenario. First, the really bad news. Again: We are not saying that you should not use Facebook.
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