Facebook admits to constant "tracking" users web-surfing

[Retired]

G. Morgan <G_Morgan@easy.com> wrote in
news:dk6887lee1j41l3t0tv08bu993jh57em3d@Osama-is-dead.net:

> Retired wrote:
>
>>So far I haven't been able to locate any help file that
>>explains exactly how you're supposed to use it.
>
> Wow.
>
> I hope the store will accept you computer return, this ain't your thing.

I don't buy my computers at stores.

> Try a little harder:
> http://www.ghostery.com/about

Been there. Nothing there about what to do with that purple box.

--
-- I'm retired. I was tired yesterday. I'm tired again today --

[Eddie]

Retired wrote...


>
> Been there. Nothing there about what to do with that purple box.


The purple box does nothing - there's a proper icon for the program on Firefox
- try looking for it. There are also options on the Add On/Tools dropdown.

[G. Morgan]

Retired wrote:

>Been there. Nothing there about what to do with that purple box.

Here is a screen-shot I made to illustrate:

http://i56.tinypic.com/34jrt.jpg

Hope that helps. Post back if those options are confusing.

-G

[Virus Guy]

"G. Morgan" wrote:

> http://www.ghostery.com/faq

Seeing the hidden connections that a web page is making to third-party
web-metrics, trackers and ad-servers might be interesting - for a while,
but I would think that would get old pretty quickly.

It's far more ergonomic and effective to add stuff like this to your
hosts file:

127.0.0.1 clients1.google.ca
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 id.google.ca
127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 googleadsense.ya.com
127.0.0.1 feeds.feedburner.com
127.0.0.1 domains.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
127.0.0.1 video-stats.video.google.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 4.afs.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 feedads.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 partner.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 apps5.oingo.com
127.0.0.1 www.appliedsemantics.com
127.0.0.1 service.urchin.com

(and thousands more)

To take this on a bit of a tangent - does your typical iSlave device or
smart-phone have a user-accessible HOSTS file or equivalent?

[G. Morgan]

Virus Guy wrote:

>> http://www.ghostery.com/faq
>
>Seeing the hidden connections that a web page is making to third-party
>web-metrics, trackers and ad-servers might be interesting - for a while,
>but I would think that would get old pretty quickly.
>
>It's far more ergonomic and effective to add stuff like this to your
>hosts file:
I do that too.

>To take this on a bit of a tangent - does your typical iSlave device or
>smart-phone have a user-accessible HOSTS file or equivalent?

I've never owned an Apple product, but you can 'root' an Android device
and add a HOSTS file I suppose. Good question.

[G. Morgan]

Virus Guy wrote:

>Seeing the hidden connections that a web page is making to third-party
>web-metrics, trackers and ad-servers might be interesting - for a while,
>but I would think that would get old pretty quickly.

Oh, and that warning pop-up is adjustable in seconds, or invisible.

[FromTheRafters]

"Virus Guy" <Virus@Guy.com> wrote in message news:4E8461B7.22342BA@Guy.com...
> "G. Morgan" wrote:
>
>> http://www.ghostery.com/faq
>
> Seeing the hidden connections that a web page is making to third-party
> web-metrics, trackers and ad-servers might be interesting - for a while,
> but I would think that would get old pretty quickly.
>
> It's far more ergonomic and effective to add stuff like this to your
> hosts file:
>
> 127.0.0.1 clients1.google.ca
> 127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
> 127.0.0.1 id.google.ca
> 127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com
> 127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
> 127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
> 127.0.0.1 googleadsense.ya.com
> 127.0.0.1 feeds.feedburner.com
> 127.0.0.1 domains.googlesyndication.com
> 127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
> 127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
> 127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
> 127.0.0.1 video-stats.video.google.com
> 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
> 127.0.0.1 4.afs.googleadservices.com
> 127.0.0.1 feedads.googleadservices.com
> 127.0.0.1 imageads.googleadservices.com
> 127.0.0.1 partner.googleadservices.com
> 127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
> 127.0.0.1 apps5.oingo.com
> 127.0.0.1 www.appliedsemantics.com
> 127.0.0.1 service.urchin.com
>
> (and thousands more)
>
> To take this on a bit of a tangent - does your typical iSlave device or
> smart-phone have a user-accessible HOSTS file or equivalent?

Yes, at least according to googling for it.

I tried "jailbreak android hosts" and got some hits. It is evidenntly in the old
/etc/hosts

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=514698

[Virus Guy]

"G. Morgan" wrote:

> http://www.ghostery.com/faq

See also:

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

================================
About this Add-on

This add-on intercepts connections going to Facebook servers (currently
facebook.com and fbcdn.net and all subdomains) and blocks them (by
returning Host Not Found, so it's as if those servers disappeared from
DNS). The purpose of this is to prevent Facebook's servers from being
pinged at all as you surf the Web, thereby allowing them to track your
browsing (via Referrer headers).

It is intended to complement tracker-blockers like Ghostery, which are
great but --> don't block all of Facebook's tools. <--

If you have this add-on installed, Facebook will completely disappear
from your browsing experience, except for seeing some 'The server could
not be found' messages in iframes.

For more complete blocking, see RequestPolicy to block all cross-site
requests. This add-on is for when you don't want to take that drastic of
an action.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...requestpolicy/
==================================

[G. Morgan]

Virus Guy wrote:

>It is intended to complement tracker-blockers like Ghostery, which are
>great but --> don't block all of Facebook's tools. <--

It does, but in options you must enable: "Enable cookie protection
[experimental]"