Posted on 12/04/2010 6:31:13 PM PST by djf
OK, first, let me say I have a Facebook acct. And I use my real name on FB.
I just Googled something to find out more about some sales at a local hardware store. One of the first sites was some outfit called "Yelp"
I opened the page, and very prominently, at the top, it said something like "Hi djf - let us personalize your experience" and it showed my FB picture.
I've also been seeing more and more sites that have a little blip towards the bottom saying "be the first of your friends to like this", then more BS redirections to Twitter, etc.
Now I DO NOT WANT some random website I visit to know all about me! I DO NOT WANT the FB people to have access to my browsing history or where/what I do on the net.
I'm using Firefox, does this mean I have to turn off all cookies for all sites?
Thoughts? Opinions? Solutions?
Oh, I wouldn’t tell me wife not to go on a website; if I felt strongly enough, I’d just sabotage the DNS records.
Add them to your HOSTS file.
Send her to mickeymouse.com or whatever...
>> “OK, first, let me say I have a Facebook acct.” <<
There’s the first problem.
>> “And I use my real name on FB.” <<
And there’s the second one.
>> “I just Googled something” <<
And there’s the third one.
>> Now I DO NOT WANT some random website I visit to know all about me! I DO NOT WANT the FB people to have access to my browsing history or where/what I do on the net.” <<
Ever heard the saying about barns... doors... horses? It applies here.
Not a lot you can do about the first and second ones, since they’re already fait accompli. But you should never use Google. Use Scroogle or Ixquick or Dogpile- most anything would be preferable to Google or Bing.
You might want to look into installing the Tor button plug in for Firefox and use the TOR onion routers for anonymity. But even they won’t help if your browser “leaks” info, as they all do unless you take proactive efforts.
Also install the Cookie Culler plug in or similar to easily handle your cookies.
Then install Better Privacy plugin to handle the flash cookies that are used more and more.
If you don’t want any of those organizations to track you and know what you do on the web, then the only solution is not to get on the web. Other than that, learn how to be paranoid and what you have to do to assure privacy and security online. But DON’T Google for it.
Go to addons.mozilla.org and browse through the plugins there in the privacy/security areas.
So glad I’ve never used Facebook. Too bad that my wife does....
Why do you allow her to do that?
You really have to ask ?
In the case of our kids, although they haven’t yet expressed any interest in going to FB or any other controversial sites, I do have them blocked already with OpenDNS. It works very well, even if the laptops are taken out of the house.
Pinging yourself on a thread here is not going to get your facebook picture displayed on twitter or whatever.
My life has improved since I got off Facebutt.
Hehe good thinking. I’d probably do the same.
Just create an entry in the host file that points their site to 127.0.0.1. ;^)
I’ve got a few of those for when I need to surf to particular lamestream media sites with Firefox instead of lynx. Nice easy way to nuke a lot of the ads.
Another vote for Ghostery, Addblock+ & Better Privacy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/technology/personaltech/11basics.html?scp=1&sq=cookies%5C&st=cse
Resisting the Online Tracking Programs
Excellent article on the subjest
Use gmail? When you’re writing a message, it gets automatically saved every so many seconds. Saved and analyzed in any human language Google unnestands. Analyzed, so that alongside the message you are still writing ads for products Google thinks you might be interested in can appear. And we here complain about gumbint snooping! Duuuuuuuude!
What is your address and when are you leaving for your next vacation?
I recommend them all too. I also use Ad-Bye for Facebook and don’t have to see all the ads that are put on there ( which can also hide all kinds of catchy bad stuff). As much as Facebook freezes up at times, Lazurus: Form Recovery is a nice one to have too that enable you to recover anything you were in the process of typing to post (on any website, really).
‘So glad I’ve never used Facebook. Too bad that my wife does’
jeez, do you allow her to address you by your first name too?
I think anyone that posts personal information on Facebook is crazy. Once you post it, they own it.
yeah...but it’s not new.
You should try having a Hispanic name and getting phonecalls from the Democratic party in Spanish.
and if you give to a charity, you get all sorts of junk mail from similar charities.
As for Facebook, I use my son’s email and name...(I helped him sign up for these years ago, but he decided he wanted his own and doesn’t use them anymore). I tend to get a lot of ads for Viagra in my junkmail box, but aside from that I don’t mind.
And of course, the irony of posting this in a forum that you must register to join is lost on everyone, apparently.
If you use the net, you’ve opted in. Every time you hit Google, your search is tracked and analyzed. Their business model is meta-data mining. Every website you visit is tracked by your internet service provider. Your IP (and therefore your location) is known when you fire up your web browser. Use Gmail, Yahoo, MSN - your data is shared. Ever buy anything through iTunes? You’re in the system. Send a text message with your mobile device? Yep, you too.
Those long contracts everyone skips through when they sign up for any service, EULAs (or End User License Agreements) basically mean that for the convenience of using the service, you’ve signed over certain rights. In the case of photo-sharing site like Flickr, if they didn’t have the ability to host your image, they wouldn’t be able to have a functional service. So when you sign up, you allow them to do so. And of course, you must realize that every digital photograph contains meta-data (camera, date, gps, photoshop revisions, etc) and that data is something that the website is able to sell: if you share photos, you’re in too.
So bragging about how not using Facebook is protecting your privacy is naive in the extreme. Facebook is a service that is fast becoming the de-facto portal to much of the web. Used properly, and with a little knowledge of its settings, it is an enabling technology.
If someone wants to steal your data, your identity, or track your activities, staying off of Facebook will do little to stop them.
smart you are
this is why i do not have a facebook or any other of these sort of accounts. it is already no privacy as is.
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