Posted on 02/21/2019 5:27:02 AM PST by vannrox
Most browsers have a "Do Not Track" (DNT) setting that sends "a special signal to websites, analytics companies, ad networks, plug in providers, and other web services you encounter while browsing, to stop tracking your activity." Sounds good, right? Sadly, it’s not effective. That's because this Do Not Track setting is only a voluntary signal sent to websites, which websites don’t have to respect 😧.
Nevertheless, a hefty portion of users across many browsers use the Do Not Track setting. While DNT is disabled by default in most major web browsers, in a survey we conducted of 503 U.S. adults in Nov 2018, 23.1% (±3.7) of respondents have consciously enabled the DNT setting on their desktop browsers. (Note: Apple is in the process of removing the DNT setting from Safari.)
We also looked at DNT usage on DuckDuckGo (across desktop and mobile browsers), finding that 24.4% of DuckDuckGo requests during a one day period came from browsers with the Do Not Track setting enabled. This is within the margin of error from the survey, thus lending more credibility to its results.
Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans (and many more worldwide) who enable DNT don’t know that it's only sending a voluntary signal. Of the respondents who heard of and were at least "slightly familiar" with the Do Not Track setting, 44.4% (±7.3) of them were not aware of its true voluntary nature. Even among those who have consciously enabled DNT in their browser, 41.4% (±8.9) didn't know that it only sends a voluntary signal.
It can be alarming to realize that Do Not Track is about as foolproof as putting a sign on your front lawn that says “Please, don’t look into my house” while all of your blinds remain open. In fact, most major tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, do not respect the Do Not Track setting when you visit and use their sites – a fact of which 77.3% (±3.6) of U.S. adults overall weren’t aware.
There is simply a huge discrepancy between the name of the setting and what it actually does. It’s inherently misleading. When educated about the true function and limitation of the DNT setting, 75.5% (±3.8) of U.S. adults say it’s "important" or "very important" that these companies "respect the Do Not Track signal when it is enabled." So, in shocking news, when people say they don’t want to be tracked, they really don’t want to be tracked.
As a matter of fact, 71.9% (±3.9) of U.S. adults "somewhat favor" or "strongly favor" a federal regulation requiring companies to respect the Do Not Track signal.
We agree and hope that governments will focus this year on efforts to enforce adherence to the Do Not Track setting when users enable it. As we've seen here and in our private browsing research, many people seek the most readily available (though often, unfortunately, ineffective) methods to protect their privacy.
Just like Private Browsing (a.k.a. "Incognito") Mode, the "Do Not Track" setting is an easily-discoverable option in most browsers, but it fails to effectively educate users on what exactly it does (or doesn't do), and falls well short of the privacy benefit users expect from it. Until such time that the Do Not Track setting lives up to its name, you can reclaim your privacy and block trackers right now by using the DuckDuckGo browser extension and mobile app.
These results are based on the polling of a random sample of 503 American adults (18+) on November 29th, 2018 via SurveyMonkey's Audience platform, which ensures the demographic make-up of respondents is representative of the U.S. population. Survey respondents were paid and a confidence level of 95% was used for calculating the values above.
For more privacy advice, follow us on Twitter & get our privacy crash course.
According the new Google terms of service, If you choose to disable tracking, you will be caught, physically tagged, and released back into the wild
/sarc (So far)
You can always use crap like this for your advantage.
For instance...
If you wanted to get away with something just leave your cell phone at home, go and do it come back...
“I was at home the whole time...”
Cell records’s match... next suspect then?
Any they wonder why the Russian intelligence services still use typewriters......
DUH! I mean DA!!!
I carry my cell phone during the week during work hours.
Go out to eat or shopping after hours and it sits on my desk.
Weekends it mostly sits on the desk.
And I pay cash at the places I go.
Must be pretty boring tracking me.
Important post... thank you. Yep, DNT is just a “request” to not track that is never honored.
Try Epic Privacy Browser?
• Another solution is to ‘bait’ the tracking. If you feel you have to have a Facebook account go ‘Like’ a bunch of pages on Facebook that you disagree with. Click links to things you think are stupid, especially media companies. Pay special attention to dumbass celebrities and political tropes that are at odds with each other. Make it a point to confuse their analytics.
• If you don’t already do it, periodically DELETE all of your cookies. Once a week at least. It’s a pain in the butt because you’ll have to re-sign into some sites, including the two-factor enter-a-number nonsense if you have that enabled. But the upside is that you’ll disrupt the tracking and skew the analytics.
• Finally, have a separate browser on which you do not allow tracking or cookies. Use that for one-time logins to places you don’t want tracked at all.
Share these ideas and come up with your own.
Until the populace rises up and demands their privacy** (don’t hold your breath) we’ll have to fight this.
**It would be genius to tie personal privacy to the abortion lobby, and make them live out the fullness of ‘privacy’.
Don't be so sure. You would then need to negotiate a gauntlet of surveillance cameras.
Reminds me of a guy who spoke openly about breaking into a local gas station after closing time.
He said he would pry open a bathroom window and break open the floor safe, which was open when the cops arrived the naxt morning.
He was arrested a few hours later. Police said they found a screw driver inside with his initials inscribed on the handle...
I’m shocked, just shocked!
Just don’t drive your car, use a credit card or log in to web browser. They fact that you may have a pre-1999 vehicle does not prevent it’s tag from being photo id’d while gassing up with cash. Also, they will go to your friends to see if they traveled, or commercial transport came to your phone location. Pure cash, wig, duffel with change of clothing, and don’t forget remember telling your family and friends you didn’t hear their call and not that you were out.
[ If you wanted to get away with something just leave your cell phone at home, go and do it come back...
Don’t be so sure. You would then need to negotiate a gauntlet of surveillance cameras. ]
That is what a burqua... I mean a ninja costume is for... LOL
[ Reminds me of a guy who spoke openly about breaking into a local gas station after closing time.
He said he would pry open a bathroom window and break open the floor safe, which was open when the cops arrived the naxt morning.
He was arrested a few hours later. Police said they found a screw driver inside with his initials inscribed on the handle... ]
Either he was dumb enough to leave a screwdriver behind or someone decided to monogram a screwdriver with his name on it and test his blabbed plans...
As long as their typewriters are not electric, then that strategy is effective.
If anyone has more info on either or on anything else that's more effective I'm eager.
He served 30 months of a five year sentence.
Now I suspect Twitter of this also but don’t know for sure, but if you log into facebook, Google, or youtube they will track everything you do no matter where you go until you completely clear your cache. Even if you log out of these they still track until you clear it. Even Microsoft tracks everything you do and uploads a report when you shut down or when you make an internet connection.
” If you don’t already do it, periodically DELETE all of your cookies. Once a week at least. It’s a pain in the butt because you’ll have to re-sign into some sites”
Some browsers like Firefox will remember logins for you but let you clear cookies, but I would set it to clear cookies “every time” you close the browser. You can always “trust” certain sites to make it easier if you don’t have a extra few seconds to log in each time.
There you go, where there is a will, there is a way.
I use both Firefox tools and Ghostery and they do so so, still not blocking everything. I’m still looking too. The problem is if you use too much script blocking it can break the site you are visiting and sometimes render the site unusable.
I do want to give a shout out for Pi-Hole for ad blocking. Had a Raspberry laying around that I was doing nothing with other than fooling around and man, installation and maintenance is a piece of cake for something that actually works.
Plus it mostly fools all those sites that are getting cranky about ad block plug ins.
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