Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts

Monday, September 26, 2011

Facebook Knows Where You Go On the Web & Reports Data To CIA

 (One thing I've done is use a totally different pseudonym from my Google pseudonym, none of my factual data is correct--my birthday, jobs, etc.--and the only pictures in which I'm tagged are old ones from highschool. I delete cookies often and until recently, I haven't ever been political on Facebook. I'm political as hell on Google+ though. But again, none of my info is real on Google+.--jef)


CIA’s Facebook Knows Where You Go On the Web

Kurt Nimmo - PP.com

Remember when Mark Zuckerberg said you need to get over the fact that there is no privacy on the internet?

He meant it.

Many of you have likely viewed the video below. It documents Facebook’s connection to the CIA.

Many people, however, think the fun of posting on and the interaction of Facebook overshadows the downside, or they merely ignore the negative aspects.

Well, it turns out it is worse than we previously thought.

Hacker and writer Nik Cubrilovic has a post on his blog today revealing some really scary and downright police state Stasi-like aspects of the popular “service” that doubles as a data-mining operation for the CIA.

Cubrilovic writes that Facebook keeps track of every website destination you visit, even if YOU ARE LOGGED OUT OF FACEBOOK. It does this through the cookies it routinely plants on your computer.

This is somewhat of an overstatement. In fact, Facebook is only able to do this on pages that have its “Like” button on it, which is to say a lot of webpages, although hardly all.

The only solution to this is to delete Facebook’s cookies after every session, or use a separate browser for Facebook usage.

Cubrilovic explains: “With my browser logged out of Facebook, whenever I visit any page with a Facebook like button, or share button, or any other widget, the information, including my account ID, is still being sent to Facebook. The only solution to Facebook not knowing who you are is to delete all Facebook cookies… It is all hidden in plain sight.”

Cubrilovic tried to email Facebook about his concerns on several occasions, but they ignored him.

For most people, this is probably not much of a concern, but for people who are political “radicals” – and anybody who holds political views outside those deemed acceptable by the establishment are indeed considered radicals – this is a serious issue.

Again, Facebook is connected to the CIA and the DIA. It is common knowledge, so much so it is now the subject of satire.

Facebook’s op compliments the NSA effort to “vaccum” up countless petabytes of personal data of citizens, described as “the largest database ever assembled in the world.” It is an integral part of what is called the “surveillance grid”.

What about Google+, Facebook’s competition? Same thing. Google+ has something called “Web History,” billed as a service to “search across the full text of the pages you’ve visited, including Google searches, web pages, images, videos and news stories,” according to Google.

Google says you can disable this “feature,” but don’t believe them. Google, like Facebook, is in bed with the CIA. In fact, Google’s search technology is preferred by spook and snoop agencies, including the NSA.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking

By Agence France-Presse, Monday, January 24th, 2011
Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking

SAN FRANCISCO — Mozilla and Google on Monday took steps toward giving people more online privacy but each said hurdles remain to creating simple "Do Not Track" buttons for Web browsing software.

Mozilla proposed adding a signal to its popular Firefox browser to let users automatically ask websites not to track their online activities.

Websites would then decide whether to grant the desire or continue to gather data for purposes such as targeting Internet advertising.

Firefox users would be able to broadcast that they want to opt out of third party, advertising-based tracking by setting browsers to transmit a "Do Not Track HTTP header" with every click or page view.

"The challenge with adding this to the header is that it requires both browsers and sites to implement it to be fully effective," Mozilla technology and privacy officer Alex Fowler acknowledged in a blog post.

"Mozilla recognizes the chicken and egg problem and we are taking the step of proposing that this feature be considered for upcoming releases of Firefox."

Google on Monday released extension software for its Chrome browser that lets users opt out of being tracked by a growing set of companies adopting industry privacy standards regarding online advertising.

"Keep My Opt-Outs" lets people opt out of having snippets of code referred to as "cookies" installed on their computers to track online behavior for the purpose of targeting ads.

"Keep in mind that once you install the Keep My Opt-Outs extension, your experience of online ads may change," Google product managers Sean Harvey and Rajas Moonka said in a blog post.

"You may see the same ads repeatedly on particular websites, or see ads that are less relevant to you."

The top 15 largest US ad networks are among the more than 50 companies involved in the opt-out program. Google is among the firms that also provide an option for people to specify what types of ads they are most interested in.

"Importantly, we've designed the extension so that it should not otherwise interfere with your Web browsing experience or website functionality," Harvey and Moonka said.

"This new feature gives you significant control without compromising the revenue that fuels the Web content that we all consume every day."

California-based Google said it is working to make the feature available to Web browsers other than Chrome.

Microsoft plans to increase privacy options in the upcoming version of its popular Web browser Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), including the ability to prevent tracking by third-party websites.

The US software giant said that the new feature, "Tracking Protection," is designed to "help consumers be in control of potential online tracking as they move around the Web."

The tool will be built into a test version of IE9 being released this year.

IE9 users will have to be savvy enough to create lists of third-party websites that they do not want to track their behavior.

Talk of Web browser privacy enhancements comes amid moves in Washington to create "Do Not Track" mechanisms in browsers to stop online services from collecting Web surfing or ad-targeting data.

Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser in the United States followed by Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari.

"Technology that supports something like a 'Do Not Track' button is needed," Mozilla chief executive Gary Kovacs told AFP during a recent visit to Mozilla's headquarters in Mountain View, California. "The user needs to be in control."

Firefox debuted in 2004 as an innovative, communally crafted open-source browser released as an option to Internet Explorer.