Digital Privacy & You

[el_chode]

Warning: long post, but I think its worth it:

I've been doing some more research into the way our personal information is exploited online and came across something kinda scary, but luckily I have what appears to be a solution. I'm just posting this as a bit of a niceness measure to anyone here who cares

If you already take steps to delete your cookies and stuff, that's so last decade. There are now supercookies, all of which exist in the same folder, store 400% more data, and never expire. This means that any company that uses them, typically through Flash, can access anyone else's store of information on your computer. That porn site you just visited can be accessed by Google and that information on WebMD about that growth can theoretically by accessed by Hulu to give you better ads. Ultimately, this shit can make its way to credit agencies and the like, and there's no regulation protecting you from it.

If you want to see how bad your computer is full of this, and you use Firefox, get this plugin:

BetterPrivacy

Install it, start Firefox, quit Firefox, then restart Firefox. I found nearly 1,000 of these cookies. Some are important and allow you to auto-login to gmail and whatnot, but the vast majority are just stored by websites that have no reason to install them (e.g., you never actually login to them). I found a bunch ranging from Conan O'Brien to the Huffington Post.

That plugin lets you see them, set certain ones to be protected, while auto-deleting the rest that you deem "unprotected". So whereas I let my gmail stay protected, the rest aren't.

If you think you're safe because you're "pure" and never watch porn or visit the seedier side of the Internet, keep in mind that even if you visit a website that has less-than-pure advertisements, you can get these things planted and tracked.

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

better privacy is good.  I think adblock plus is a necessity for sure:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865/

half the time there's shit embedded in the ad's and banner's themselves. 

[el_chode]

Yeah I have Adblock Running as well. Most people do run something similar, plus the risks there are well known.

I was just amazed at the depth of the websites in my Flash directory. There's no reason why ABC news needs to track me, and I was spooked by the number of originating websites that were simply something like a800008badad.com

[Ruckus]

Thanks for the input guys.  I did install both. :)