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Trackers

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Trackers

#21

Post by adsche »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #15

Believe it or not, some stores sympathise with you. They might actually be run by people like you, people who read your story. They still want to know how you proceed round the store, because that helps them optimise shelf layout, identify hard-to-find items, and so on. So yes, they might use the standard in-store CCTV to observe your journeys, and when they figure that you and people like you always have difficulty…

A little obscure? :)

> hurt them if you have to

> they smashed the CCTV cameras

What? Nope. Not at all. You can still track everybody without a blocker, can you not? Or what harm do you incur that translates into harm or property damage in your metaphor?

Re: Trackers

#22

Post by [deleted] »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #15

Believe it or not, some stores sympathise with you. They might actually be run by people like you, people who read your story. They still want to know how you proceed round the store, because that helps them optimise shelf layout, identify hard-to-find items, and so on. So yes, they might use the standard in-store CCTV to observe your journeys, and when they figure that you and people like you always have difficulty…

[deleted]

Re: Trackers

#23

Post by jacquesm »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #19
jacquesm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They don't follow you out the store This is actually factually incorrect. Some hints here: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/10/automatic_fac... And it goes even deeper than that.

Self-hosted, same-domain Piwik doesn't track you on other sites, and doesn't pull in any external data sources.

Yes, I got you, I was just pointing out to you that if in-real-life stores are capable of following you out of the store using their CCTV systems there is absolutely no reason to assume that you can't use a website's analytics suite to couple that with other databases at your disposal.

The major reason why companies will self host analytics services is not because they are trying to protect the privacy of their visitors, it is because they don't want to give out business critical information to third parties.

Re: Trackers

#24

Post by jacquesm »

jalk wrote: post #18

Are there any publicly know examples of hackers that have used tracking data for malicious stuff. As nasty as it is to have a large amount of your web history stored in a profile, I don't see a clear path to crime (perhaps extortion). Or didn't I get the burglar metaphor?

Burglar => malware or phishing through ad networks.

Sorry for being unclear, I'll see if I can tidy that up.

Re: Trackers

#25

Post by buro9 »

phillc73 wrote: post #20
buro9 wrote: post #13

Really well put. I've been operating browser separation (Google in Chrome, social in Chrome incognito, and everything else in a locked-down privacy mode only Firefox - all with uBlock) for a while, and also use anonymising VPNs for anything I really don't trust, and my own VPN with streisand and Dnsmasq (with a hosts very similar to https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/ ). On my mobile every link I click in any app I…

I don't know enough about how uBlock works, but I'm mostly concerned about blocking trackers, and dislike invasive advertising. I use Ghostery with everything blocked. I also bank with smile. I've just confirmed that Ghostery is blocking Adobe, Omniture and Tealium trackers, but I was able to log into my account no problem. I also transferred some funds to a linked account. What aren't you able to do with smile? And…

I noticed with Smile that when I first went to the login page it would fail to login the first time... they have some server-side code to track sessions linearly and force log-out if it detects background operations.

Their use of one of their trackers meant that the first time I ever arrived at their site (every time, because private browsing) it would set things up that touched their server and triggered Smile's security thing.

It was a minor inconvenience... but then I looked into it and noticed how much tracking they were doing.

My view on bank websites is that the only party that I should be speaking to is the bank, securely. No other party, ever.

I now block absolutely everything on my banking website, but I was very surprised this had to be done. A bank, of all sites, should never ever use a third party anything.

Re: Trackers

#26

Post by blfr »

I'm all for blocking ads, tracking or non-tracking, analytics, etc. and wish swift bankruptcy on the propaganda-advertising industrial complex but this is silly. The analogy between physical world and the Internet is not valid or insightful, just like it isn't in case of piracy/stealing. Collecting info on what you read online is nothing like breaking into your house.

Re: Trackers

#27

Post by Kenji »

raverbashing wrote: post #8

I think that better than an ad-blocking solution would be to feed all those trackers with fake information Oh you want location data here it is, this morning I've been all over the planet. Want to know all the websites I'm visiting, sure, here's a million of them. Just based on the fact that they keep trying to sell you the thermometer after you already don't care kind of points out that they're being had, and I'm al…

Wow, that is genius. If there was such a thing, something like uMatrix, but that automatically feeds trackers with complete garbage, I'd install it in a heartbeat. The problem is that you will always reveal your real IP when you establish a TCP connection, unless you are using a proxy.

Re: Trackers

#28

Post by akerro »

Did you start visiting shops and places you didn't like just to mislead them? So you have more and more of them tracking you until they run out energy and money because their targeting is just wrong?

http://adnauseam.io

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/adnauseam

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/trackmenot

Re: Trackers

#29

Post by mschulze »

timr wrote: post #14
S4M wrote: post #3

Thank you Jacques for writing how something that would be completely unacceptable in the physical world is deemed perfectly fine online. It has always bothered me. Take for example how the FBI wants to have automatic access to the data in all iphones through a backdoor. Would that be considered OK if they asked lockers makers to make their locks accept a master key so they would be able to enter in anybody's house, s…

"Would that be considered OK if they asked lockers makers to make their locks accept a master key so they would be able to enter in anybody's house, so they could monitor further people they suspect to be terrorist?" I don't know. But I know that it would be absolutely normal to pick your lock and/or knock down your door if they had a warrant. It would even be OK for them to ask the lock company, door company, and la…

But when the FBI gets the key or picks the lock it does not make any other door more insecure, or enables other parties to get into other doors.

What if the FBI would ask all landlords to install a special door to every apartment, but only the FBI has the key to this special door? What if someone successfully copies that key? Now they have access to all apartments.

Re: Trackers

#30

Post by Kliment »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #15

Believe it or not, some stores sympathise with you. They might actually be run by people like you, people who read your story. They still want to know how you proceed round the store, because that helps them optimise shelf layout, identify hard-to-find items, and so on. So yes, they might use the standard in-store CCTV to observe your journeys, and when they figure that you and people like you always have difficulty…

Unfortunately, the reason the eggs are hidden is that they are a low-margin item and people looking for them will pass more high-margin items on the way and be possibly tempted to buy.
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