| This has started recently . I had it installed for a while some time ago | with no problems . It just really irritates that "somebody" feels they have | the right to track me , and that they can block my efforts to prevent it . | Big Brother isn't just the gov-goons ... |
Did you know that Ghostery does the same thing:
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I haven't used it and don't know what might be going on with your machine. Have you checked on what processes you have running? If you run Sysinternals Process Explorer you should be able to make sense of all listings. (Right-click to find the executable path.) There's very little that
*needs* to be running.
Maybe a more likely culprit might be compatibility issues. Do you allow automatic updates? That's always an invitation to problems. Example: Mozilla started requiring digital signing of extensions awhile back. Now older extensions won't install. I have no idea about Opera, but that scenario seems possible: Opera updates itself by default. You allow that. Things break without notice.
You might look here if you're interested in really dealing with privacy online:
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A modest HOSTS file that blocks things like Doubleclick, Google analytics and Scorecard Research will eliminate a great deal of tracking. Disable cookies, or only allow session cookies that disappear when the browser is closed. There's no excuse for 3rd-party cookies and there never was. They directly subvert the security model that cookies were intended to follow, which is that no site other than the one you're visiting should be able to access that site cookie. But 3rd-party cookie-setters don't need to hack local cookies. They just set their own at someone else's website! Frames are also a big problem. Frames allow cross-site scritping attacks. Frames allow 1st-party cookies at 3rd-party sites: A Facebook button in a frame looks exactly like a Facebook button not in a frame. But in the former case you're actually visiting facebook.com involuntarily. You're loading a browser window at facebook.com. 3rd-party images are usually ads and/or web bug trackers. (Most tracking script is accompanied by a noscript option to track with a web bug instead.) It's a very complex issue. Ghostery is just giving people the sense that they're getting behind the curtain, while selling them out. Adblock is the same way. I haven't used that one either, but I've seen articles about how they take payments from "respectable" companies to grant them exceptions. The program is free. They make their money by selling you out. Only on the Internet could such bizarre shennanigans work out successfully.
But actually having a modicum of privacy is increasingly challenging. A few examples: Opera is based on Chromium, which is Google spyware.
(See here for details:
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Has Opera cleaned up the Chromium code? I don't know. The tech world has a strange, irrational history of thinking Google is cute. A surprising number of techies prefer Chrome and don't seem to mind the spying. The same has been true with gmail. It started with techies who were thoroughly suckered by Google's pretense of "inviting" them to try a perennial beta. Once all the techies had gmail, others were convinced it was "cool". How could adware/spyware be "cool"? It just doesn't make sense.
So there are the questions about Opera. Do you allow frames and 3rd-party cookies? If so then Facebook might be following your every move, even if you've never visited their site. Likewise with Twitter. Do you block jquery and Google fonts? If you have a status bar in your browser you'll see those loading at most websites. The story there is a whole separate issue: Most webmasters don't really know much about operating a website and designing pages. At the same time, interactive pages are all the rage. Google fills in some of the gaps by offering free script libraries, free tracking info, free fonts.... They're very clever about that kind of thing. They provide freebies to give webmasters what they want without needing to learn for themselves. The webmasters are thrilled to get free visitor stats or drop-in javascript pizzazz and don't even realize that they're letting Google spy on their visitors. (Or if they do, they don't care. Google's cute.) It's amazing how many pages now have built-in Google tracking. It can be blocked, but it's getting increasingly complex. Downloading fonts has never been safe, anyway. That should be blocked. But before you can do all that you have to know about it. What good is it for Ghostery to block Acme Ads if fonts.google.com, google-analytics.com, etc are receiving an ongoing log of your travels? Acme might not know who you are, but Google probably does. For all we know, Acme might just be a subcontractor selling Google ads.
It gets worse. Akamai, a giant network backbone company that sells capacity, started selling tracking data some time ago. You can't always know when you're at Akamai, and HOSTS files don't seem to block it. You might go to Microsoft.com, but then MS is subcontracting with Akamai to handle traffic, so you end up going through their system. It turns out Akamai wanted to get on the sleazebag bandwagon to make a few extra bucks. How do you stop that? It's like trying to stop a cable company from knowing what TV channel you're watching. You can't prevent the data going through them. The gov't is not likely to rein that in. They're in the same business. With things like PRISM in place, and the AT&T scandal over gov't hacking of the Pacific telephone line, spyware tech companies are just what the fanatic national security beancounters ordered. I see no reason to even consider that Akamai, having already demonstrated dishonesty, might not be selling data to the gov't. They've already shown that they consider that a reasonable business model.
If all of the above seems too complicated then you have no chance at even reasonable privacy. If you're in the middle about it -- you want to act but don't want to live in your cellar surrounded by glowing screens -- you could do a few simple things:
- Have one browser with frames and script disabled. Use it when possible. Also block 3rd-party images if you can tolerate some broken webpages.
- Use NoScript in Firefox to block all but necessary script.
- Only allow session cookies.
- Install a firewall if you don't have one. On XP I use Online Armor v. 4.0.0.15 free. (They later sold out to another company.) A firewall allows you to stop outgoing traffic that you didn't initiate.
- There's probably no harm in also leaving Ghostery in place, but they're selling you out. I'd consider its use to be counterproductive.