firefox, trackers and ghostery

Tue Jul 16 00:41:46 UTC 2013

As a web developer, I have a slightly different view on things.  While I 
still block third party analytics trackers and scripts, and think most 
people in the know should, the level of outrage demonstrated by people 
after the PRISM revelations is a bit unreasonable and they are taking 
things a little too far in terms of perception.

If I own a website, let's say a news website (I've worked with and on 
many), and I'm posting articles...It's not entirely unreasonable for me 
to want to know my audience a bit better.  I want to know which of my 
articles more people are reading, what pages they are visiting, what 
sort of things they are commenting on, etc, etc.  All of this is not 
unreasonable, it's data I would then use to produce better content for 
the people visiting my site.

Now, how do I collect that data?  I could spend thousands of dollars and 
build my own software to collect and analyze that data for me.  Or, like 
most, I could use a third party service and their existing software to 
collect that data about my visitors.

That's all it is.  Let me broaden this, if you're a business owner.  
Before you spend a couple thousand dollars on a new marketing campaign, 
wouldn't you want to know where your current customers are coming from?  
The idea of that websites collect information is not new, nor unreasonable.

The internet is a public place.  If you want to be private, create your 
own little sandbox and stay in there.

For example, our company doesn't want our emails to be snooped on.  So 
we run our own mail server and encrypt our emails.  I don't understand 
people who complain about privacy, then logon to GMail or Hotmail and 
are willing to let the likes of Google and Microsoft handle all of their 
email...while at the same time wanting to block tracking cookies.

You can't expect to go to a restaurant with a mask on.  If you frequent 
any establishment or a website, that person is going to know a little 
about you.  That's just how it is.

If you want to be completely private, don't use the internet or free 
services on the internet.  There's a reason why businesses like ours run 
our own mail servers, own VPNs, and DNS, etc, etc.

I understand not everyone can do that, but you don't get to walk into 
the building of someone doing it for you with a mask on to prevent them 
from seeing your face.

/rant

Sorry for the rant.  I might take some heat for this, but I will say 
that I use the Abine Firefox plugin to prevent these cookies. However, 
this isn't anything unreasonable to start putting your tinfoil hat on.

If someone wants to be angry about PRISM, the anger should be directed 
toward the US Defense Department, who is the one SECRETLY taking and 
collecting all this information from you.

You visiting CNN.com is not secretly taking anything from you, you're 
walking onto their site...of course they are going to have security 
camera footage of you.

Same as when you walk into a gas station, that record is kept by them 
for a certain amount of time too.  However, you know that so it's okay.  
Same thing here, you know CNN.com is doing this, and if you don't like 
it don't use CNN.com.

It's the US Defense Department that's the only one doing this secretly.

/ I'm not a grumpy person, I promise.  I just think people are getting 
overhyped on the wrong stuff.

Sajan Parikh
/Owner, Noppix LLC/

e: sajan at noppix.com
o: (563) 726-0371
c: (563) 447-0822

Noppix LLC Logo
On 07/15/2013 02:37 AM, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Sun, 2013-07-14 at 11:00 -0700, Gerhard Magnus wrote:
>> pages. Now I've found something that makes a noticeable difference: the
>> addon "ghostery" that blocks "trackers,"
>> [...]
>> For example, the intro
>> page for cnn.com includes 10 such unwanted visitors with names like
>> "Audience Science," "Dynamic Science," and "Scorecard Research."
>> Fascinating stuff!
> I've been on pages with *dozens*, yes, plural; 24 and more of these
> trackers on a single page. There is a direct inverse correlation, as far
> as I can see, between the number of trackers and the quality of the page
> - the more trackers, the worse the site. It is a very rare site that has
> none, and of course Google Analytics gets counted. I block that too.
>
> BTW if you install Ghostery be aware that by default it blocks nothing.
> Go into the preferences and click everything :-)
>
> Regards, K.
>

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