Tracking on the web

[bitsmichel]

It's getting so huge these days, there are more than 100.000 websites that try to make a unique fingerprint of who you are.
What do you think, is this really neccesary?  should the web be reformed, or should the tracking increase?
should there be laws on tracking, or basically, anything is allowed?

For a random list see http://bitbin.it/kVdKkkVL (it's a little messy, but you can see the sites) but of course, the scale is far beyond this list

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[TRYpolar]

It is "big data" doing what it does best.

Any advantage that a company can get, they will try to take advantage of. If a company knows your habits then they can try to market themselves to you directly.

[pedrog]

disconnect.me helps with that.

[tooil]

And scammers use that information trying to scam people.

[mcculum0010]

Use TOR and don't register on social media with your real info. Tor automatically deletes all your browsing history, cookies etc and changes to a new ipafter you click new identity.

[validium]

Its also now going to get a bit harder to avoid being tracked as there is a new technique where a website instructs your browser to draw an image which is unique to every computer.
 
Problem with this is that, there is no known way,(yet) to block it.

[petestheman]

There is a fine point between protection and being over bearing. Which one we are leaning toward it is hard to tell especially since we do not know exactly what they are tracking. It could just be for data purposes or it could be for more malicious and in-depth research.

[shogdite]

Governments and corporations have waaaay too much of our personal information, it's about time we were given some sort of digital rights over our data.

[u9y42]

Its also now going to get a bit harder to avoid being tracked as there is a new technique where a website instructs your browser to draw an image which is unique to every computer.
 
Problem with this is that, there is no known way,(yet) to block it.

I haven't heard of that one yet; do you have any source where I can read more about it? Still, I have to say, it seems unlikely that current security addons wouldn't be able to stop that.

[validium]

Its also now going to get a bit harder to avoid being tracked as there is a new technique where a website instructs your browser to draw an image which is unique to every computer.
 
Problem with this is that, there is no known way,(yet) to block it.

I haven't heard of that one yet; do you have any source where I can read more about it? Still, I have to say, it seems unlikely that current security addons wouldn't be able to stop that.

http://www.propublica.org/article/meet-the-online-tracking-device-that-is-virtually-impossible-to-block

An edit to my earlier post: Its seems it was actually introduced in 2012 and lucky for us there are a couple of addons that block it,
privacy badger and noscript.

And its known as canvas fingerprinting

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/fingerprinting_.html

[superresistant]

NoScript + Ghostery + Adblockplus

Problem solved.

[bitsmichel]

NoScript + Ghostery + Adblockplus

Problem solved.

There is still tracking trough your searches, dns requests, unencrypted connections (http) and pages you visit.  Everything you click on is being recorded in one way or another.  I think the only way to overcome all of these problems is a new kind of protocol for exchange of data and files, let's call it Web 3.0 

[superresistant]

NoScript + Ghostery + Adblockplus
Problem solved.

There is still tracking trough your searches, dns requests, unencrypted connections (http) and pages you visit.  Everything you click on is being recorded in one way or another.  I think the only way to overcome all of these problems is a new kind of protocol for exchange of data and files, let's call it Web 3.0 

Well, concerning the search, just stop using google and use duckduckgo.
Concerning the click, it depends.

Concerning web 3.0, we've got freenet, TOR, I2P already.
You can also use a VPN, it's easy to setup.

[BitcoinFX]

Here is the "Web 3.0" we seek: https://thefnf.org/

~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx93WJPCCGs


In the meantime - I'd also recommend using an encrypted DNS i.e. the last 'secure' mile of "Web 2.0".

'Invented' by OpenDNS, although now with a growing list of free, open source, no logging alternatives.

See: http://www.opendns.com/about/innovations/dnscrypt/ and http://dnscrypt.org/

See: https://github.com/Noxwizard/dnscrypt-winclient and https://github.com/jedisct1/dnscrypt-proxy

Just drop the dnscrypt-resolvers.csv into your dnscrypt-proxy folder.

See: http://wiki.opennicproject.org/Tier2 and http://www.opennicproject.org/

Of course you still need Tor and a bunch of other anti-tracking solutions where possible.

[superresistant]

Here is the "Web 3.0" we seek: https://thefnf.org/
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx93WJPCCGs
In the meantime - I'd also recommend using an encrypted DNS i.e. the last 'secure' mile of "Web 2.0".
'Invented' by OpenDNS, although now with a growing list of free, open source, no logging alternatives.
See: http://www.opendns.com/about/innovations/dnscrypt/ and http://dnscrypt.org/
See: https://github.com/Noxwizard/dnscrypt-winclient and https://github.com/jedisct1/dnscrypt-proxy
Just drop the dnscrypt-resolvers.csv into your dnscrypt-proxy folder.
See: http://wiki.opennicproject.org/Tier2 and http://www.opennicproject.org/
Of course you still need Tor and a bunch of other anti-tracking solutions where possible.

Could you please explain in 2 or 3 lines, every project/service you posted. It's quite confusing.
What it is and why did you chose to use it compared to other services.

[RedDiamond]

Of course you still need Tor and a bunch of other anti-tracking solutions where possible.

Good firewall, MAC spoofing and computer name randomization do not harm either.

[BitcoinFX]

Here is the "Web 3.0" we seek: https://thefnf.org/
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx93WJPCCGs
In the meantime - I'd also recommend using an encrypted DNS i.e. the last 'secure' mile of "Web 2.0".
'Invented' by OpenDNS, although now with a growing list of free, open source, no logging alternatives.
See: http://www.opendns.com/about/innovations/dnscrypt/ and http://dnscrypt.org/
See: https://github.com/Noxwizard/dnscrypt-winclient and https://github.com/jedisct1/dnscrypt-proxy
Just drop the dnscrypt-resolvers.csv into your dnscrypt-proxy folder.
See: http://wiki.opennicproject.org/Tier2 and http://www.opennicproject.org/
Of course you still need Tor and a bunch of other anti-tracking solutions where possible.

Could you please explain in 2 or 3 lines, every project/service you posted. It's quite confusing.
What it is and why did you chose to use it compared to other services.

Using Encrypted DNS provides increased privacy and security against an adversary tracking your internet requests, including your ISP.

Usually your DNS resolver is provided by your ISP and requests are sent in plain text to these servers, even if the requested server is using SSL / https etc.

See: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

You can think of an Encrypted DNS as being much like https instead of http i.e. its much more secure.

To get this running on windows you can find and download these files from the links I posted above;

- dnscrypt-proxy.exe
- dnscrypt-resolvers.csv (a list of 'open source' encrypted dns enabled servers to connect with)
- dnscrypt-winclient.exe (which runs dnscrypt-proxy.exe with a simple GUI and dropdown menu to get it working)

Place those files in a folder and send dnscrypt-winclient.exe as a shortcut to your desktop.

Using DNScrypt will automatically route all of your DNS requests through the dns proxy via your PC's localhost ( i.e. 127.0.0.1 ) port 53 (dns) to 443 (server) etc.

~ Whilst applications such as adblock , noscript etc. will help to protect you against end-point tracking they do not provide any protection against way-point tracking (i.e. traffic analysis), such as snooping or logging by your ISP, VPN or an internet backbone intercept point.

Using Tor does help to protect against way-point tracking (i.e. to prevent traffic analysis) and adding an Encrypted DNS into the mix will help further to prevent the above entities from tracking your connectivity to the Tor network, for example, as well as to other internet services. One of the main issues with using Tor is that Tor traffic (and Tor servers) are very easy to detect. Via the meta data its very easy for an adversary to say "you are using Tor", they may not be able to gather information about your requests though of course. In short, using an Encrypted DNS makes it increasingly difficult for an adversary to track or monitor you.

- We should look forward to an internet that is owned and controlled by the people (the many) and not by the few (corporations and governments) who increasingly exploit our data to maintain their position and control. For now, we must all use the tools that exist.

"First they gather YOUR data, then they sell it back to you!" - Its YOUR data, they should be paying you to both collect and to use it !

[BitcoinFX]

Of course you still need Tor and a bunch of other anti-tracking solutions where possible.

Good firewall, MAC spoofing and computer name randomization do not harm either.

Indeed. All vital additions for 'true' internet privacy. Perhaps a contradiction in terms, still Satoshi seems to manage it OK, so it must be possible !?!  

" This Address Space is Unallocated " / Unknown  

[BitcoinFX]

Ronald J Deibert at TEDxToronto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJ6BtZDhUk

Published on Apr 27, 2013

"Ron Deibert is professor of Political Science, and Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary research and development "hothouse" working at the intersection of the Internet, global security, and human rights. He is a co-founder and a principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor projects. Deibert was one of the founders and (former) VP of global policy and outreach for Psiphon."

Well worth 20 mins. of anyone's time interested in this thread / topic. All 'pre-snowdon' as well.