"Google Alarm" Firefox addon alerts you when you're sending data to Google • Hacker News Board

Re: "Google Alarm" Firefox addon alerts you when you're sending data to Google

#21

Post by pbiggar » Wed, Jul 28, 2010, 8:43 AM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #13

Groxx wrote: post #6

From a comment: > Didn’t show any alerts when I hit google.co.uk Which probably means it's just looking for links to "google.com" in the page. In which case I'd doubt it'd catch connections in flash files, and it probably false-positives if you have blockers in place. (edit: checked the JS file, that's exactly what it does. Looks for URLs of: google, gmail.com, youtube.com, blogspot.com)

late-edit: Correction, they search all elements for these domains / files: google gmail.com youtube.com blogspot.com google-analytics.com/urchin.js google-analytics.com/ga.js googlesyndication.com show_ads.js doubleclick.net youtube.com/v/ And finally a ++ if you're using Chrome. Fairly sure that's all of them, I finally opened the file in a proper editor. And, importantly, it appears they're searching for that text…

If this is true (and I have no reason to doubt you), then the extension is so inaccurate as to be useless. In Firefox at least, there are hooks to do everything you need to do a real implementation.

Re: "Google Alarm" Firefox addon alerts you when you're sending data to Google

#22

Post by dedward » Wed, Jul 28, 2010, 12:19 PM UTC

throw_away wrote: post #19

mechanical_fish wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we make the alarm sound like a vuvuzela it'll be like the World Cup all over again.

sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -i en1 -l host google.com or host google-analytics.com 2>/dev/null | perl -ne 'if (time - $lasttime > 1) { `say zzzzzzzz`; print "spoke to google at ", scalar localtime, "\n"; } $lasttime = time;'

Excellent - but the "zzzzzz" part comes out like "zee zee zee zee zee zee zee".... at least on osx....

Re: "Google Alarm" Firefox addon alerts you when you're sending data to Google

#23

Post by throw_away » Wed, Jul 28, 2010, 8:26 PM UTC

dedward wrote: post #22

throw_away wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -i en1 -l host google.com or host google-analytics.com 2>/dev/null | perl -ne 'if (time - $lasttime > 1) { `say zzzzzzzz`; print "spoke to google at ", scalar localtime, "\n"; } $lasttime = time;'

Excellent - but the "zzzzzz" part comes out like "zee zee zee zee zee zee zee".... at least on osx....

ya. that's the best I could do. I couldn't find a vuvuzela audio file on the internet that wasn't surrounded by a bunch of flaming hoops, else, I would have had it open that URL.

Re: "Google Alarm" Firefox addon alerts you when you're sending data to Google

#24

Post by Groxx » Sat, Jul 31, 2010, 8:53 PM UTC

pbiggar wrote: post #21

Groxx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

late-edit: Correction, they search all elements for these domains / files: google gmail.com youtube.com blogspot.com google-analytics.com/urchin.js google-analytics.com/ga.js googlesyndication.com show_ads.js doubleclick.net youtube.com/v/ And finally a ++ if you're using Chrome. Fairly sure that's all of them, I finally opened the file in a proper editor. And, importantly, it appears they're searching for that text…

If this is true (and I have no reason to doubt you), then the extension is so inaccurate as to be useless. In Firefox at least, there are hooks to do everything you need to do a real implementation.

Just installed the Chrome version, and ran it on that comment's page. Results:

  Google Analytics
  Google AdSense
  Youtube Embed
  Google Chrome

And the Firefox plugin's results are coming once I get it downloaded & install the plugin. I'll edit here, and probably blog about it due to its inaccuracy (stupidity should be exposed!!!).

edit: Firefox's results mirror it exactly, minus the Chrome one of course. Plugin review result: utterly worthless.