Privacy at stake.

[Heleventia]

Today I read an article in a newspaper about how many sites known as trackers who track what sites you are visiting and also collect information about you like your IP address, you physical location etc. and then they start using it! That's just terrific! They know everything about you. Aren't there any rules about that?

Also, the article told me about an add on called "Collusion" in Mozilla Firefox which forms a net diagram indicating the websites that track you. When I visited NS and after like half an hour used Collusion, it stated that NS was giving information to the following websites:

doubleclick.net
photobucket.com
imageshack.us
drowtales.com
rtbidder.net
groovinads.com
invitemedia.com

And after sometime I visited Photobucket and it was giving my information to:
scorecardresearch.com
rubiconproject.com
crwdcntrl.net
imrworldwide.com
rlcdn.com
adnxs.com
tribalfusion.com
atdmt.com
yieldmanager.com
audienceiq.com
turn.com

The site photobucket.com is potentially aware of your visits to the following websites.

nationstates.net
pubmatic.com
pbsrc.com

Don't I have the right to control who can view what sites I am visiting. Is there any way to control that? I am so worried and angry

[Tubbsalot]

Use a proxy.

If you really give a shit that a server somewhere has numbers relating to your computer, that is.

[Mike the Progressive]

Look, I didn't realize it was gay porn and I only watched a few minutes of it by accident.

[Gilthador]

At stake? No, privacy is long dead. Welcome to Capitalism. Advertising corporations can do whatever they want, unfortunately. There is no way to turn tracking off (it would reduce profits if you could, you see), but you could always use Tor or some proxies, frequently change your IP address, and such things as those.

[Tubbsalot]

Welcome to Capitalism.

Considering that targeted advertising is the primary source of income for most large sites on the internet, and without it places like Youtube wouldn't exist, I'm pretty happy with how it is. You're not forced to use these services, and there are programs and browsers which can prevent a lot of the things mentioned here.

[Heleventia]

At stake? No, privacy is long dead. Welcome to Capitalism. Advertising corporations can do whatever they want, unfortunately. There is no way to turn tracking off (it would reduce profits if you could, you see), but you could always use Tor or some proxies, frequently change your IP address, and such things as those.

What's a proxy and how to use that? Also, frequently changing IP address means that you need to get a new internet connection, which is very impractical.

[Empire of Narnia]

Who cares? If you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to worry about.

[Meowfoundland]

Look, I didn't realize it was gay porn and I only watched a few minutes of it by accident.

I just had to make sure: really, really sure.

[Tubbsalot]

What's a proxy and how to use that? Also, frequently changing IP address means that you need to get a new internet connection, which is very impractical.

A proxy is a separate machine which you can route your connection through, so you appear to be browsing from this separate machine. It slows down your connection because data needs to be moved further and through more machines. You can search for proxy sites which provide quick and easy service (although they are also incredibly skeezy-looking) or you could use Tor.

I'm fairly sure it's also possible to change IP frequently, although I'm not nearly savvy enough to know how. That's absolutely unnecessary though, since proxies perform much the same function.

Of course, as mentioned, this is all pointless because you're not in any way threatened by a server with some browsing data on it. No-one will ever see the info.

[Souseiseki]

just went into my firefox options. there's a little tickbox for "tell websites i do not want to be tracked". i think there's something for cookie prompts in there too but i can't find. also get noscript.

Who cares? If you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to worry about.

this is kinda silly

Look, I didn't realize it was gay porn and I only watched a few minutes of it by accident.

i hate you

[L Ron Cupboard]

Get CCleaner and remove the tracking cookies after every visit.

[The Republic of Lanos]

Firefox has a nifty feature in the Privacy tab to where you can check it and the browser will tell websites that you do not have to be tracked.

Problem solved.

[Souseiseki]

Firefox has a nifty feature in the Privacy tab to where you can check it and the browser will tell websites that you do not have to be tracked.

Problem solved.

if there's anything i've learned from robots.txt it's that "tell not to" and "prevent" are two very different things

but actually OP you know what

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ena ... references

do this, except untick allow cookies and add in shit likes nationstates and sites you need to log in to use as allow and now i guess you can have total control over who can get what information! victory! or you can do ask me everytime, which i guess is what i meant before, then you can filter through them like some sort of cookie nazi.

[Saiwania]

Websites and third party entities from online don't generally track you because they have malicious intent (some do, but that is besides the point). It is just about marketing and ways to generate more targeted advertising for users, which pays the bills for websites. Cookies and such are just there to store your web preferences or to load the page faster the next time you visit.

Now, if you want to block and disable a good deal of that, there are add-ons and tools out there that can do so. It is just that you'd need to take the time to research and customize your browser to your liking.

[Norstal]

Get CCleaner and remove the tracking cookies after every visit.

Which just pops out again.

I use Ghostery for Chrome. So, this problem isn't a great concern to me. What are they gonna do? Will CERN send their agents to steal my time machine? Hahaha!

[Norstal]

I'm fairly sure it's also possible to change IP frequently, although I'm not nearly savvy enough to know how. That's absolutely unnecessary though, since proxies perform much the same function.

Of course, as mentioned, this is all pointless because you're not in any way threatened by a server with some browsing data on it. No-one will ever see the info.

Dynamic IP can be obtained depending on the service you use. Imo, 56k (dial-up) internet has dynamic IP. You can also turn off your modem/router for 10 minutes or whatever to have the IP change for you.

So...yeah...ask your ISP.

[Istahan]

At stake? No, privacy is long dead. Welcome to Capitalism. Advertising corporations can do whatever they want, unfortunately. There is no way to turn tracking off (it would reduce profits if you could, you see), but you could always use Tor or some proxies, frequently change your IP address, and such things as those.

What's a proxy and how to use that? Also, frequently changing IP address means that you need to get a new internet connection, which is very impractical.

Well, you could return to dial-up. That's one way of doing it.

[L Ron Cupboard]

Get CCleaner and remove the tracking cookies after every visit.

Which just pops out again.

I use Ghostery for Chrome. So, this problem isn't a great concern to me. What are they gonna do? Will CERN send their agents to steal my time machine? Hahaha!

There are some sites I want cookies from so I don't have to log on every time I visit, so I use tracking protection and CCleaner as a more convenient alternative to turning cookies off entirely. Then I am not quite as paranoid as the OP.

[Ethel mermania]

Remember kids, much like pigs on a farm getting food, when something on the internet is free, you are not the customer, You are the product.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I'm not surprised. Not that I'm totally happy about it, but this is not something new. Google, for example, pings where you've been.

[SaintB]

At stake? No, privacy is long dead. Welcome to Capitalism. Advertising corporations can do whatever they want, unfortunately. There is no way to turn tracking off (it would reduce profits if you could, you see), but you could always use Tor or some proxies, frequently change your IP address, and such things as those.

What's a proxy and how to use that? Also, frequently changing IP address means that you need to get a new internet connection, which is very impractical.

No you don't need to change your ISP to get a different IP number. You can set your network settings on your computer to change your IP address every time you log on or off the internet . (Note that of you have a consistent connection like those provided by cable than that may require a full system shut down to change your IP)

[Khadgar]

I invite you to use the following addons:

Adblock+
Noscript

Adblock does exactly what it says on the tin. No advertisements, at all. I don't even see Google's text ads. Noscript lets you selectively block cross-site scripting. So, if I don't want say facebook to be able to run any scripts, they can't. Then of course you slap on a hosts file and you've added another layer of security.

[Forsher]

I'm not surprised. Not that I'm totally happy about it, but this is not something new. Google, for example, pings where you've been.

I hate Google. I find myself hating a lot of things in this general sphere of stuff.

[Ashmoria]

Today I read an article in a newspaper about how many sites known as trackers who track what sites you are visiting and also collect information about you like your IP address, you physical location etc. and then they start using it! That's just terrific! They know everything about you. Aren't there any rules about that?

Also, the article told me about an add on called "Collusion" in Mozilla Firefox which forms a net diagram indicating the websites that track you. When I visited NS and after like half an hour used Collusion, it stated that NS was giving information to the following websites:

doubleclick.net
photobucket.com
imageshack.us
drowtales.com
rtbidder.net
groovinads.com
invitemedia.com

And after sometime I visited Photobucket and it was giving my information to:
scorecardresearch.com
rubiconproject.com
crwdcntrl.net
imrworldwide.com
rlcdn.com
adnxs.com
tribalfusion.com
atdmt.com
yieldmanager.com
audienceiq.com
turn.com

The site photobucket.com is potentially aware of your visits to the following websites.

nationstates.net
pubmatic.com
pbsrc.com

Don't I have the right to control who can view what sites I am visiting. Is there any way to control that? I am so worried and angry

so what is the matter with photobucket knowing that i go to nationstates.net? or more importantly that someone in my area goes from photobucket to nationstates?

[Ifreann]

Today I read an article in a newspaper about how many sites known as trackers who track what sites you are visiting and also collect information about you like your IP address, you physical location etc. and then they start using it! That's just terrific! They know everything about you. Aren't there any rules about that?

Also, the article told me about an add on called "Collusion" in Mozilla Firefox which forms a net diagram indicating the websites that track you. When I visited NS and after like half an hour used Collusion, it stated that NS was giving information to the following websites:

doubleclick.net
photobucket.com
imageshack.us
drowtales.com
rtbidder.net
groovinads.com
invitemedia.com

And after sometime I visited Photobucket and it was giving my information to:
scorecardresearch.com
rubiconproject.com
crwdcntrl.net
imrworldwide.com
rlcdn.com
adnxs.com
tribalfusion.com
atdmt.com
yieldmanager.com
audienceiq.com
turn.com

The site photobucket.com is potentially aware of your visits to the following websites.

nationstates.net
pubmatic.com
pbsrc.com

Don't I have the right to control who can view what sites I am visiting. Is there any way to control that? I am so worried and angry

I'm not sure why you think any of the information these websites are passing around is private.