Better Privacy

[dedanna1029]

I can't remember for sure if this has been posted here already, but I can't be arsed to search the forum right now. Very drained and tired today. What's funny is I actually came in to post something real, and then when I got in here, totally spaced it.

Anyway, I think this is something, and use it, Better Privacy, both in Firefox and Seamonkey.

Better Privacy serves to protect against not deletable longterm cookies, a new generation of 'Super-Cookie', which silently conquered the internet. This new cookie generation offers unlimited user tracking to industry and market research. Concerning privacy Flash- and DOM Storage objects are most critical.
This addon was made to make users aware of those hidden, never expiring objects and to offer an easy way to get rid of them - since browsers are unable to do that for you.

Flash-cookies (Local Shared Objects, LSO) are pieces of information placed on your computer by a Flash plugin. Those Super-Cookies are placed in central system folders and so protected from deletion. They are frequently used like standard browser cookies. Although their thread potential is much higher as of conventional cookies, only few users began to take notice of them. It is of frequent occurrence that -after a time- hundreds of those Flash-cookies reside in special folders. And they won't be deleted - never.

It works!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/6623/

(Another reason I don't worry too too much when I'm on social networking sites LOL )

[viking60]

Good tips there I have already installed it.
Now I have Google sharing and Better privacy addons installed.
I had a lot of LOS supercookies and I deleted them all.
Thanks

I am looking at foxyproxy too - it seems to be popular.

[dedanna1029]

Yeah, foxyproxy's good for doing things like viewing the tube at BBC and stuff.

There's other uses, too, but that's an example.

[viking60]

Come to think of it LOS deserves some more attention:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/ ... ink-again/
http://tips.webdesign10.com/flash-cookies-privacy
To manually delete all the cookies that you thought you had blocked:
Go to:

Code: Select all

/home/what_ever/.macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects/

Here you will find a folder with a random number name like Y2Q23F5G.
Enter it and delete everything you do not want there.
If in doubt - delete it

[dedanna1029]

I just irradicate it LOL - there's nothing I do want in there anyway.

[viking60]

Egg zactly! I found a brilliant piece of software that has all the advantages of Google chromium but non of the drawbacks:

Iron from srware

It is fast snappy and sexy, and now I can use it without selling my arse to Google.
For the Archer's amongst us you will find it in the aur by typing yaourt iron browser Chromium is history on my box now.
Iron works exactly the same and you do not notice any differences. But all the secret "features" are ironed out of it.

Here are the differences

You've got to love that! I am tickled pink about this one

[rolf]

Thanks, I think! 423 LOS's SOL, here, on the first restart of Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.11) Gecko/20100701 Lightning/1.0b1 SeaMonkey/2.0.6 NOT Firefox/3.5.4

I'll watch if the helpful (to me) effects of cookies are somehow impacted. Sometimes, it seems there is a conflict between cookie user id stuff that makes what I do easier and browser addon/tool stuff that makes what I do easier resulting in some confusion that makes what I do not so much easier. Possibly, this might remove some of that sort of conflict, possibly not.

“If users don’t want to be tracked and there is a problem with tracking, then we should regulate tracking, not regulate cookies,” Soltani said.

Pretty much, I'm wary of pasting on extra tools, albeit I've got a download helper, flash-download helper, forms manager, tinyUrl creator, remember passwords, etc. sorts of addons. In the long run, it seems the battle of addons leads to new and improved countermeasures from corporate interests, defeating the addons, wash, rinse, repeat. So, what Soltani points out is reasonable, if we could only trust our government to protect the rights of individuals, not the interests of corporations.....

[dedanna1029]

if we could only trust our government to protect the rights of individuals, not the interests of corporations.....

Amen.

[viking60]

Thanks, I think! 423 LOS's SOL, here, on the first restart of Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.11) Gecko/20100701 Lightning/1.0b1 SeaMonkey/2.0.6 NOT Firefox/3.5.4

I'll watch if the helpful (to me) effects of cookies are somehow impacted. Sometimes, it seems there is a conflict between cookie user id stuff that makes what I do easier and browser addon/tool stuff that makes what I do easier resulting in some confusion that makes what I do not so much easier. Possibly, this might remove some of that sort of conflict, possibly not.

I have not had any negative experiences so far. Getting the cookie back seems to be the easiest thing in the world too So I pretty much agree with dedanna here - if you don't know it - you can delete it.

And regarding trusting the government: Have you been smoking your socks? They can't be trusted - nowhere. It is your task to watch them and fire them when they eventually fubar things (as they most certainly will).
Keeping them on their toes and not making them comfortable, is essential to democracy.

[rolf]

Have you been smoking your socks?

No, just pannekaker.

They can't be trusted - nowhere. It is your task to watch them and fire them when they eventually fubar things (as they most certainly will).
Keeping them on their toes and not making them comfortable, is essential to democracy.

Yeah, looks good on paper. In fact, as I look back over 58 years, I find we have been fed a load of propaganda through grade school and beyond. Murderous betrayal of the original hosts of religious refugees, the indigenous people branded as heathens to make it seem 'Christian' to lie, steal, renege on treaties, aka Manifest Destiny from here on South, an hypocrisy egregiously executed in my lifetime in Viet Nam, Iran, Chile, Iraq etc. etc. etc. All is wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, to which we are taught to pledge our allegiance every school day.

'Democracy' is a sham. Most of the electorate are complacent, glutted by the historic largess derived from theft of vast natural resources, leading to a type of world empire that created plenty for the relative few by taking from those not in the club, the leverage of capital. Although I did not expect change from Obama, the disappointment of his promise illustrates there is no alternative than what is forged by a 'Democracy' that has been bought and sold many times over by the materialist/capitalist/corporate hegemony that, in fact, rules this country. It is telling of this condition that the Supreme Court recently relaxed limits for domestic and foreign corporate spending on our 'Democratic' electoral process.

[viking60]

Oh yes money talks. But they need to buy your vote too. That gives you power and makes them controllable. And of course smoking pannekaker will give you the wisdom to use it wisely.

[dedanna1029]

No it doesn't. Not any more. Our votes are rigged by the electoral college, by the very computer companies of the computers we vote on, by lost votes that were done on paper, by incorrect (quite deliberately) validation of votes, by so many things, I could go on and on. Screw dat. "Who gets it" is a matter of who the powers that be want to get it. Why do you think GWB got away with being elected, even though he didn't have the vote after an investigation? Why do you think Al Gore was stomped on all over when he sued to get the vote straightened out, when he was telling the truth? That is reality in the U.S.; don't believe the propaganda and rhetoric!