Web spies are getting stealthier and stealthier. Recently they've
been caught peering into our browser histories to determine the sites
we've visited, even in so-called privacy mode with cookies disabled, as
Dan Goodin described earlier this month on The Register.
Many of the companies whose sites were discovered using the technique claimed to have had no idea and immediately decried the spying. Julia Angwin reported on many of these surprise responses on the Wall Street Journal's Technology site.
If the owners of the spying sites aren't even aware of the activity, what are unsuspecting visitors to do? Well, you could wait for the government to take action, as CNET's Declan McCullogh reports in the Privacy Inc. blog.
Or you could rely on the online advertising industry to police itself, despite the marketers' inability to determine which spying practices violate their own guidelines, which Julia Angwin describes on the WSJ's Digits blog.
Personally, I'd rather take matters into my own hands. Here are five ways to reduce the chances that your browsing habits are being recorded.
Add-ons for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome go a step further by allowing you to prevent LSOs and other tracking files from being downloaded along with a Web page's content. I first wrote about Giorgio Maone's free NoScript add-on for Firefox in a post from January 2008. The extension lets you block Flash and Javascript on a site-by-site and source-by-source basis. I can't think of a reason why Firefox users would not use this add-on.
NettiCat's free BetterPrivacy extension for Firefox lets you decide which Flash cookies to allow and delete. The program can be set to notify you whenever a new LSO is stored, delete the default Flash Player cookie, and even set a keyboard shortcut for erasing LSOs. By default, BetterPrivacy removes all Flash cookies when you close Firefox.
Another great Web-privacy tool that's available for both
Firefox and Google Chrome is AdBlock Plus, which not only removes ads
from sites but also lets you customize its 40-plus filter subscriptions
for ads and known malware domains. Developer Wladimir Palant suggests a
$5 contribution. The version for Firefox is available on the Mozilla add-ons site, and the one for Chrome can be downloaded from Chrome Web store.
OpenDNS works by using a network of Web-cache servers that put site content closer to your browser to minimize the number of hops required to deliver the data. The servers also filter dangerous or inappropriate content based on the criteria you select. For more on the service, see this post from May 2010 (scroll to "Filter potentially dangerous sites").
Personally, I'd rather bookmark pages I expect to return to; I don't mind pages I revisit loading more slowly; and I don't care for sites' personalized recommendations. Where I've been and what I do on the Web is nobody's business but mine...and Google's, of course. And my ISP's, and the National Security Agency's... . But you gotta draw the line somewhere.
To set Firefox not to save your browsing history, click Tools > Options > Privacy. (If the standard menu isn't visible, press Alt.) You can either select "Never remember history" in the "Firefox will" drop-down menu, or "Use custom settings for history" to view more options. Check "Clear history when Firefox closes" to activate the Settings button.
Click Settings to open a dialog that lets you clear specific
types of data when Firefox closes. These include browsing, download, and
form and search history, as well as cookies, log-in IDs, the browser
cache, passwords, and site preferences.
You can also set Firefox to remain in Private Browsing mode,
to tell sites you don't want to be tracked, and to never remember
history. On the Security tab of the Firefox Options dialog you can
uncheck "Remember passwords for sites."
To set Google Chrome to clear data on exit, click the wrench icon in the top-right corner, choose Options > Under the Hood > Content Settings, and check "Clear cookies and other site and plug-in data when I close my browser." To view the personal data the browser is storing, click "All cookies and site data."
In Internet Explorer, click the gear icon in the top-right
corner (or Tools on the standard menu) and choose Internet options >
General. Check "Delete browsing history on exit" to remove cookies,
cache, saved passwords, and Web-form data automatically when the browser
closes.
To view more options, click the Delete button. By default,
the option to keep cookies and temporary files for your favorite sites
is checked, as are the options to delete temporary Internet files,
cookies, and history. Unchecked by default are the options to delete
your download history, form data, passwords, and "ActiveX Filtering and
Tracking Protection data."
Of course, some people find Google's recording of their Web activities helpful. (In a post from July 2009, I described how to manage what Google knows about you.) But if you'd rather not share your browsing habits, the simple solution is to sign out when you're not actively using the service.
(I've also described in previous posts how to merge your Outlook and Gmail contacts, how to combine and organize your e-mail accounts, and how to sync contacts and calendars between Outlook, Gmail, and iPhone.)
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) claims that Gmail violates the privacy of non-subscribers by extracting information from the mail they send to Gmail addresses. EPIC also finds Gmail's data-retention policy and profiling practices a threat to privacy. (See EPIC's Gmail FAQ for more details.)
When you forward mail from a Webmail service to a desktop mail client, the contents of the messages you receive are still scanned by Google's bots before the mail is forwarded, but at least you can reply to the messages from your ISP mail account.
Many people claim the fuss about Gmail privacy is overblown. You can enable HTTPS for all your Gmail transmissions, as I described in a post from August 2008. But for individuals and organizations sending and receiving confidential or otherwise-sensitive data, IMAP and POP3 mail systems are generally more secure than Webmail services.
Many of the companies whose sites were discovered using the technique claimed to have had no idea and immediately decried the spying. Julia Angwin reported on many of these surprise responses on the Wall Street Journal's Technology site.
If the owners of the spying sites aren't even aware of the activity, what are unsuspecting visitors to do? Well, you could wait for the government to take action, as CNET's Declan McCullogh reports in the Privacy Inc. blog.
Or you could rely on the online advertising industry to police itself, despite the marketers' inability to determine which spying practices violate their own guidelines, which Julia Angwin describes on the WSJ's Digits blog.
Personally, I'd rather take matters into my own hands. Here are five ways to reduce the chances that your browsing habits are being recorded.
Block ads and super-cookies before they can download
Last May, Microsoft and Adobe announced that deleting cookies in Internet Explorer 8 and 9 would also delete the long-lasting Flash cookies, or local shared objects (LSOs). The long-awaited change requires Flash 10.3 or later, as Microsoft's Andy Ziegler explains on the IEBlog.Add-ons for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome go a step further by allowing you to prevent LSOs and other tracking files from being downloaded along with a Web page's content. I first wrote about Giorgio Maone's free NoScript add-on for Firefox in a post from January 2008. The extension lets you block Flash and Javascript on a site-by-site and source-by-source basis. I can't think of a reason why Firefox users would not use this add-on.
NettiCat's free BetterPrivacy extension for Firefox lets you decide which Flash cookies to allow and delete. The program can be set to notify you whenever a new LSO is stored, delete the default Flash Player cookie, and even set a keyboard shortcut for erasing LSOs. By default, BetterPrivacy removes all Flash cookies when you close Firefox.
The free BetterPrivacy add-on for Firefox automatically deletes Flash cookies when the browser closes.
(Credit:
screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)
Improve security and browsing speed in one fell swoop
If OpenDNS isn't the worst-kept secret on the Web, it should be. The service replaces your existing Domain Name System service with one that's both faster and safer. The ad-supported OpenDNS Basic for home users can be upgraded to the ad-free OpenDNS VIP ($10 per year). There's a version of K-12 schools and one for organizations.OpenDNS works by using a network of Web-cache servers that put site content closer to your browser to minimize the number of hops required to deliver the data. The servers also filter dangerous or inappropriate content based on the criteria you select. For more on the service, see this post from May 2010 (scroll to "Filter potentially dangerous sites").
Set your browser to clear your history, cache, and cookies on exit
There are good reasons to retain your browser history, cache, and first-person cookies. Holding onto your history makes it easier to retrace your online activities. A big browser cache allows pages you revisit to load faster. And cookies allow sites to make suggestions based on what they already know about you.Personally, I'd rather bookmark pages I expect to return to; I don't mind pages I revisit loading more slowly; and I don't care for sites' personalized recommendations. Where I've been and what I do on the Web is nobody's business but mine...and Google's, of course. And my ISP's, and the National Security Agency's... . But you gotta draw the line somewhere.
To set Firefox not to save your browsing history, click Tools > Options > Privacy. (If the standard menu isn't visible, press Alt.) You can either select "Never remember history" in the "Firefox will" drop-down menu, or "Use custom settings for history" to view more options. Check "Clear history when Firefox closes" to activate the Settings button.
To view more options for clearing your browsing
history in Firefox, check "Clear history when Firefox closes" and click
the Settings button.
(Credit:
screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)
Firefox's options for clearing data when the
browser closes include browsing and download history, forms and search
history, cookies, cache, logins, and passwords.
(Credit:
screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)
To set Google Chrome to clear data on exit, click the wrench icon in the top-right corner, choose Options > Under the Hood > Content Settings, and check "Clear cookies and other site and plug-in data when I close my browser." To view the personal data the browser is storing, click "All cookies and site data."
Google Chrome's option for clearing cookies and
cache on exit are located in the Content Settings dialog in the Privacy
section Under the Hood.
(Credit:
screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)
Internet Explorer's option for deleting your browser history on exit is on the General tab of the Internet Options dialog.
(Credit:
screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)
Sign out whenever you're done using a Web service
It's convenient to remain signed into Gmail, Facebook, and other Web services you're likely to return to frequently in the course of a computer session. You may also be tempted to use your Facebook sign-in ID on sites that partner with the company. Unfortunately, the services may be sharing your personal data a bit too freely.Of course, some people find Google's recording of their Web activities helpful. (In a post from July 2009, I described how to manage what Google knows about you.) But if you'd rather not share your browsing habits, the simple solution is to sign out when you're not actively using the service.
Send and receive from Webmail accounts via a desktop e-mail program
A comment to a recent post relating to Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird asked why anyone would use a desktop mail program outside of work. Just a few days earlier a friend complained that Gmail lacked several features he had come to rely on in Outlook. I suggested he forward his Gmail messages to his IMAP or POP3 account, as I described in a post from December 2007.(I've also described in previous posts how to merge your Outlook and Gmail contacts, how to combine and organize your e-mail accounts, and how to sync contacts and calendars between Outlook, Gmail, and iPhone.)
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) claims that Gmail violates the privacy of non-subscribers by extracting information from the mail they send to Gmail addresses. EPIC also finds Gmail's data-retention policy and profiling practices a threat to privacy. (See EPIC's Gmail FAQ for more details.)
When you forward mail from a Webmail service to a desktop mail client, the contents of the messages you receive are still scanned by Google's bots before the mail is forwarded, but at least you can reply to the messages from your ISP mail account.
Many people claim the fuss about Gmail privacy is overblown. You can enable HTTPS for all your Gmail transmissions, as I described in a post from August 2008. But for individuals and organizations sending and receiving confidential or otherwise-sensitive data, IMAP and POP3 mail systems are generally more secure than Webmail services.
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