[Openurmind]

Had someone ask this great question on the side:

“I see the DOJ and various other search pages have embedded YOUTUBE videos. Can Google do it’s spyware thing with embedded youtube videos?”

The answer is yes. At request of this prominent member I am sharing a post from our site about it:

“Since the beginning our main goal and principle here has been to provide a safe and private place to practice free speech without worry. And currently this has become even more important than ever. We have done everything we can with the tools we have to make the domain as secure as possible for our members. We have no leaks of our own implemented to the outside world or third parties such as click counting revenue, fingerprinters, or user data collecting. We take pride that we are able to do this even though we take a hit by not being able to take advantage of Search Engine Optimization to spread and advertise the domain content so more find us. Bots are turned off so that they cannot access any of our content.

Now let me get to the current problem at hand. The government is sneaking in the backdoor using 3rd and 4th party spyware content collection, tracking, and finger printing scripts through the media embedding system. We cannot stop it as long as we are allowing it to be utilized. And they are collecting data to sell for themselves and not giving the TA one dime of it. We don’t want it, and we don’t want them coming in the back door like they are. But as long as we allow embeds of certain domain services it will continue.

Now to be clear it was NOT like this when we started the domains here. There were only a couple benign scripts that were fairly harmless and did not collect information or content. But now they have gotten out of hand and are adding too many 3rd and 4th party hitchhikers in with the embeds. Now it is not all of them, most are still safe to embed. It is only Youtube and Twitter who are raping us through the backdoor like this. Rumble and other services are so far still safe. So we will leave them as embedded until they are no longer safe.

Used to be, Youtube only had the one “Youtube.com” script which only told them what domain the video was viewed at. We didn’t mind this. But now they have a whole suite of tracking, finger printing, data collection, and revenue scripts from Goggle included. This is a huge security risk for the members and the domain here. As soon as it is posted they execute real time connections and a data gathering process in that thread and even follows you around to other threads and other websites. Twitter used to be safe also, but now they are also letting too many scripts to ride in that are doing the same thing. Musk has recently made a deal with Goggle to collect data and information.

We now have no choice but to shut them off from embedding if we want to actually protect the privacy of our members and the domain. Now here is the only difference. We can indeed add the link in our post of the video over at Youtube or Twitter post and it is safe for us. It will just open in a new tab to go watch it at Youtube or Twitter without any connection to us here at all because I have “no follow” implemented to prevent tracking back to us.

We stalled this as long as we could for you but they have both recently added a whole bunch more scripts to their embeds. They have made it unacceptable and I really hope more domains do the same thing we are now forced to do. We have only one request that would be very courteous if you don’t mind. Please copy and paste, or create, the short title of the Video or Post over at Youtube or Twitter when you add a link so that members have some idea what the content of that media is in that link. But please continue to post all the video links you like! We still need these to go watch!

Thank you for your patience and understanding. But we should not be helping Youtube, Twitter, Google, or the Government gather data on our members or the domain or make money off of our website. It would be absolutely wrong for us to continue to do this because of our own principles of privacy and security. Please add any questions or comments you might have. And if you would like to know what these scripts are connected to on their end just let me know. It will scare you...”

And it gets worse, These embeds are not only collecting information, they are READING every post folks make in the thread they are posted into. So even though our forum is not public and behind closed doors except to logged in members, They are STILL gathering everything we post in that thread where there are embeds. And like the FR we have absolutely NO 3rd party API services, so allowing embeds was a huge security risk for us and we had to drop embeds for both Youtube and Twitter. Musk tied Twitter directly to Google and the Government tracking machine just recently.

Seriously, get “NoScript” an see for yourself what all these sites are doing to us with real time 3rd party API scripts. You can disable it if you like, but it is scary as hell when you hit a site with 75 3rd party scripts it hits you with even though you are not logged in, just landing on their homepage loads you up with these because it is packaged in their JavaScript.

Both Twitter and Youtube are doing this. And just recently even the “trusted” Rumble and Truth social are doing it too. It is way past time for a reset and boycott of everyone who is using Google 3rd party services. In fact, as soon as I get caught up with extreme life challenges I am going to get a domain and build another site dedicated to exposing every website that uses these spy 3rd party services.

They are HIDDEN and no one knows what kind of crap pile they are stepping into when they land on a site. It is time to put a stop to this mess... I used to use this tool to check websites for safety and connections:

https://themarkup.org/blacklight

This is absolute BS:

https://themarkup.org/about

The last year I have investigated and discovered they are working with the U.S. intelligence services serving the CIA, FBI, NSA, and DoD intelligence agencies. So they hide information about all the government tracker scripts when you try to check a site. It does no good to use it anymore if you are looking for government connections.

Thank you for asking, it is time, folks need to understand the whole truth of it... :)

[ransomnote]

I will repeat information you already know here in case anyone in Rio Linda wants to follow along.

I made lists of programs for which I wanted a clean download and went to the library to use their computers. I like the way the library computers allow me to download to a hard drive and copy to my flash, and when I log off and log back in, the OS has 'forgotten' I was there previously.

I wondered how the library does that - what software they might use. I noted their system uses 'Cybrarian'. The library computer takes long enough to reboot after I log off for me to guess that it is reinstalling an image to at least one partition (user files) and possibly more (browser add ons?)

The library uses 'Cybrarian' to run the library guest computers. I was going to look into it, to see if it automates re-installatin of partitions or if it is only to grant users access, techs remote control for maintenance etc. When I returned home, I searched for the program and noticed that although the search results below look, at first glance, legitimate, the second listing uses a different spelling in their domain name. I have to say I'm skeptical that the second site is legit.

This puts a cherry on top of the 2 hours I spent in the library trying, and failing to find a way to download a clean version of any file.

I tried installing NoScript (thank you for the recommendation(s)) and it was easily done.  I blocked google but while working google search results emerged. I hadn't reasoned that the declared search engine in settings could over ride NoScript settings because Settings in Firefox are not scripts. *face palm*

Since I saw scripts pouncing on every attempt to load websites like rufus.com, I searched to find the download page and wrote down the full URL  (I was optimistic).

I switched the browser Search setting to 'Bing.' I didn't see any ride-alongs when I navigated to Bing.com. 

So I rebooted and installed noscript in the firefox browser again - turning off everything in the NoScript 'settings' list.

I went to Bing.com (all was well) but when I tried to follow search results off the Bing page, I kept experiencing thread hi-jack (the first 3 letter prefix of the very very long link was 'ink'). The library's security software advised me the page I was trying to access had a different URL and was an ad server. That happened regardless of which website I followed (rufus etc.), so I still couldn't download my files. Well, let's say I didn't feel comfortable doing so.

I tested DuckDuckGo primary website and didn't see any scripts running. But I didn't have time to test if I can actually try downloading rufus without thread hijacking.

I was there to download Windows64 from microsoft - which almost worked but my guest permission limits block running the installation software needed to save the Windows65 ISO, so even if DuckDuckGo works, I can't get a clean install for Windows there.

A friend is happy to loan me his flash drive Windows install media, but  he has elected to live with malware in the belief that there's no escape, so I don't see how his flash drive could be 'clean'.

Quesion 1:

I know I created a recovery flash there weeks ago, but no doubt it was permeated by Google before I got there. If Microsoft erases everything on a recovery flash drive before installing recovery software, is there any hope that malware was not also installed on the recovery flash?

Question 2: Is there any hope of finding, if there is a recovery partition on my computer, that the recovery software is not now 'owned and operated' by malware? By that I mean, could a recovery partion still supply a clean, outdated copy of Windows?

Question 3: I downloaded linux and created an installation USB. Since the hash was valid, then I could have transfered other kinds of problems to my computer, but the Linux ISO is still valid, right?

4. If the answer to Question 3 is 'yes', then might the same hold true if I hvae a compromised machine, download Windows64 to create an ISO, and if there's a valid hash of that file, the file MIGHT still be able to create an CLEAN USB install copy of Windows? Malware present but not on the flash (my fingers are crossed here).

5. I used to think purchasing a copy of the disc from Microsoft would mean a clean install, but I am jaded. But still, is it the cleanest way to install Windows10 in this day and age? Still, buying a disc when the program is free would be a poke in the eye, but perhaps it's the only way?

6. Should I give up, install Linux 'along side' my computer's Mad Max version of Windows64, and never launch the internet from the windows partition, or just surf the web but no downloading? *sigh*

My preference is create a clean install of WIndows64 (make an image) and then load my programs on top of it (make a second image here) and then figure out how to 'lock down' my machine the way the library does it? Meanwhile, try to learn to transition to linux.