[ubuntu-studio-devel] How wide spread is Linux spyware?

[lukefromdc at hushmail.com]

I've played with other browsers (rekonq in particular) but never found a way to keep 
them from coming up unique in Panopticlick. Thus they are too easily tracked and can
only be used with websites known not to contain any ads, trackers, or 3ed party analytic
tools.

One of the problems is that the security plugin infrastructure that has grown up
around Firefox is difficult to duplicate on another browser. I use NoScript, Ghostery,
and Canvasblocker plus a long list of blocked servers in /etc/hosts. These plugins are
almost mandatory to stop cookieless tracking, browser fingerprinting, supercookies,
etc.  We are engaged in an arms race with the black hats that devise new ways to tracking
people for the likes of Google, Facebook, and all those sleazy ad networks. 

The sypware you have to find and disable in Firefox is bad enough that ideally it would
be forked and stripped down. On the other hand, the Internet as a whole has become 
extremely malicious. ANY website that is monetized in any way should be regarded as
an attack vector.  Some (Google and Facebook especially) are among the most malicious
sites on the entire web when it comes to privacy.  On the other hand, any website that might 
be unpopular with a government agency is  subject to spoofing attacks, man in the middle
attacks, and even  the potential for redirection to malicious copies of the server in a governmental
version of phishing. Think Google's "safebrowsing" database will call out a DHS  phish site?

Imagine living in a city where the grocer will attempt to pick your pocket, the banker
will try to find your home so he can clean out your safe, half of all ATM's are fakes 
set up by criminals to harvest deposits, and the police are terrorists protecting a 
dictatorship.  The entire Internet is just such a city. 

When it really counts, I bring out the big guns by firing up Torbrowser.  

On 7/17/2015 at 1:46 AM, "Ralf Mardorf" <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
>
>On Thu, 16 Jul 2015 23:33:19 -0400, lukefromdc at hushmail.com wrote:
>>Given the way Firefox is going, I recommend and practice periodic
>>"cleaning" of URL's from about:config.
>
>That's my recommendation too, but I dislike to do it again and 
>again. I
>try to find a less bloated browser, that fit too my needs, IOW
>that's less bloated but provides more comfort than e.g. xombrero.
>
>I don't remember if I mentioned it already in this thread, on my 
>machine
>I need around 1½ hours to compile a kernel with a default
>Arch/Debian/Ubuntu configuration and around 3½ hours to compile 
>Firefox.
>
>There are a few interesting notes about e.g. Firefox's policy in 
>the
>current flash discussion on Arch general mailing list. And on the
>Kubuntu user mailing list there's also is a Flash discussion that 
>became
>a browser security discussion, but it's not interesting for more
>experienced users.
>
>-- 
>ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list
>ubuntu-studio-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
>Modify settings or unsubscribe at: 
>https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel