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Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

noiszy.com

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Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#61

Post by wincy »

gingerbread-man wrote: post #25
codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

Google has actually blocked similar "noise generation" apps from the Chrome Store in the past. As I recall, there were a few extensions out there that would 'click' on every ad displayed. Obviously that would have created serious problems for Google, so they nixed it.

Ad Nauseam does this. It was removed from the chrome web store and I had to install it as a developer plugin, so it nags me to disable it as it could "damage my computer" every time I restart Chrome.

It estimates since I installed it that I've cost advertisers $460 in clicks.

https://adnauseam.io/

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#62

Post by chasingtheflow »

doodpants wrote: post #39

Turns out it's only for Chrome, and the front page doesn't even mention this. Could we at least change the HN title from "A browser plugin..." to "A Chrome plugin..."?

@stevespang they don't force you to. There's a button labeled "get the plugin" that takes you to the chrome plug in store. Then below that there's a for labelled "Connect" which allows you to subscribe to their mailing list.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#64

Post by sandmarq »

bognition wrote: post #55

> Read and change all your data on the websites you visit While I applaud the authors for trying to solve a problem, I will not install this plugin unless its open source. There is no way I'm going to grant the above permission to some random plugin just because they tell a compelling story.

I have to agree with you, an open source solution will be better, but at least it's a start.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#65

Post by disiplus »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #57

So, it's going to be noise among a patterned world. How will they not be able to filter this out? People are creatures of habit. Example: I read HN with my coffee every morning. Interjecting meaningless data doesn't prevent them from finding my patterns.

so we need a plugin that creates a patterns. could we crowd siurce a patterns also. lets say i share my pattern with everybody and you share yours.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#66

Post by jchw »

doodpants wrote: post #39

Turns out it's only for Chrome, and the front page doesn't even mention this. Could we at least change the HN title from "A browser plugin..." to "A Chrome plugin..."?

It's hosted on Chrome Web Store, but otherwise it could very well work just fine in Edge, Opera and even possibly Firefox. They're all converging toward supporting WebExtensions, a mostly-Chrome compatible API.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#67

Post by literallycancer »

gingerbread-man wrote: post #25
codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

Google has actually blocked similar "noise generation" apps from the Chrome Store in the past. As I recall, there were a few extensions out there that would 'click' on every ad displayed. Obviously that would have created serious problems for Google, so they nixed it.

https://adnauseam.io/

I wasn't convinced it was very useful and thought it would only take some easy heuristics to filter out when I first saw it, but if Google removed it from the store, it must have been a pain to deal with.

Maybe I'll even end up using it.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#69

Post by JustSomeNobody »

disiplus wrote: post #65
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #57

So, it's going to be noise among a patterned world. How will they not be able to filter this out? People are creatures of habit. Example: I read HN with my coffee every morning. Interjecting meaningless data doesn't prevent them from finding my patterns.

so we need a plugin that creates a patterns. could we crowd siurce a patterns also. lets say i share my pattern with everybody and you share yours.

I bet the ML guys and gals would be able to suss out my pattern from a fake pattern.

Re: Noiszy – A Chrome plugin that creates meaningless web tracking data

#70

Post by literallycancer »

sneak wrote: post #27
codydh wrote: post #9

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but why put out this kind of privacy-minded plugin for Chrome, one of the browsers I'd probably least trust to respect my privacy?

If you have specific privacy complaints about Chrome, spill it. Content-free finger pointing like this isn't constructive.

Here's one: why isn't there a feature to export settings without using a Google account?
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