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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 4:09:04 GMT
The internet is wonderful -- we can get all kinds of news and information -- the internet is horrible, corporations and social media can track us and spy on us. So...how to have more privacy online? Let's do some detective work and see. Most of you probably know about "incognito windows" or "InPrivate" windows on various browsers, where you can open pages and theoretically not be tracked by corporations when you do this. Well I've experimented with these so called private windows, and I have concerns that they are not always entirely truly private, or that Google or whomever owns the browser, may be getting paid off to let some corporation have "cookie" access to this realm. For instance, -- case in point, reading articles on an online local media source in my area. They only give you THREE free articles a month to read on that paper. This is quite minimal, considering that if I'm really reading the news, I generally read at least 5 or 6 articles a day on a given paper. So I thought, let's test the "incognito window" privacy and see how it works to block a website's cookies from tracking me. So, I read my first three articles on that media site on a standard Google Browser. They tracked me w/ cookies and know I opened 3 articles. So I've reached my limit. Now, if incognito mode or "InPrivate" mode (on Bing browser on Microsoft Edge) was truly private and blocked websites from seeing me there, I theoretically SHOULD be able to open another, a fourth, article if I go to their site on an incognito mode page. However, when I did that, I found that I was blocked from opening the 4th article. I get told I've reached my limit. Well, how would they know I was now trying to read the 4th article, if they were not able to track me and detect me? Which they should not be able to do, if incognito or InPrivate really does what it claims to do? So somehow, it seems -- "InPrivate" is not so private. As well, some media now wont' allow you to open any articles if you are in incognito or Private mode, or have blocked cookies on their site. For instance, if you go into Incognito mode and try to open a Los Angeles Times article, this is what you will see: There are a few other ways to obtain privacy. One is to open some things on one browser, and open different sites on another browser. Theoretically, cookies should not be able to track you across different browsers. So, if you are logged in onto one website, for instance Airbnb or VRBO or HomeAway on one browser like Google Chrome, and dont' want that website to be able to see every other website you visit, then you could visit those websites on another browser, like FireFox or Microsoft Edge. Another option is to use what is called a "Web Proxy Server." Web Proxy servers are basically a website that makes use of randomly rotating IP addresses, so that you regain some online privacy and anonymity, and can combat the ubiquitous spying and surveillance that is being done through tracking cookies by so many entities online. You can read more about Web Proxy servers here, on an article that describes the "Ten Best" ones, and try one for yourself to see how it works. www.lifewire.com/free-anonymous-web-proxy-servers-818058 You also just MIGHT be able to read more than 3 free articles on a local media site that you like, but maybe not enough to pay for a monthly subscription.
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 4:43:10 GMT
In addition, there are also Chrome Extensions that you can get added to your Chrome Browser, which enables you to increase your online privacy and stop trackers. One is called "Ghostery" and you can read about it here: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ghostery-%E2%80%93-privacy-ad-blo/mlomiejdfkolichcflejclcbmpeaniij/related?hl=en-USIf you want to add that to your computer, you can just click on "Add To Chrome", and if you have it and dont' want it anymore, click "remove from Chrome." And another is called "HTTPS Everywhere" chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/https-everywhere/gcbommkclmclpchllfjekcdonpmejbdp?hl=enI added Ghostery recently and it's eliminated some annoying online experiences. It used to be, whenever I went to the local news media online, there would be these automatically popping up video ads that would play. I would close them and they'd pop up again a few seconds later. I would leave my computer and be in the kitchen cooking and hear a voice, and darn, if it wasn't one of those video ads starting up again on my computer. After setting up Ghostery and setting the settings on it so it blocks most everything, I am not getting those annoying pop up video ads on that site!
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 5:21:18 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 6:15:14 GMT
And...on the subject of being asked to pay for news...I concur with the author of this article. www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-to-continue-reading-the-new-york-times-online-for-free.htmlNews media are valuable, but it may not be viable for someone who reads a lot of news, to pay for online access to multiple media sites every month. I read about 7 to 10 different media sites regularly --- not the whole paper each day, but about 1 to 3 articles a day in each --- and paying for full access to each one of those every month would cost a pretty penny. Thus, I think it's useful to learn ways of obtaining news for free ...as long as this doesn't mean you're reduced to "fake news."!! One easy way to get around most news media paywalls, is to view the website on different browsers, as the cookies the sites use to track you, do not cross over browsers: www.labnol.org/internet/nyt-paywall/18992/This article offers a "Cookie cutter" in the form of a snippet of script that you can paste on your favorites -- it's a link on the article: javascript:void((function(){var a,b,c,e,f;f=0;a=document.cookie.split("; ");for(e=0;e<a.length&&a[e];e++){f++;for(b="."+location.host;b;b=b.replace(/^(?:%5C.|[^%5C.]+)/,"")){for(c=location.pathname;c;c=c.replace(/.$/,"")){document.cookie=(a[e]+"; domain="+b+"; path="+c+"; expires="+new Date((new Date()).getTime()-1e11).toGMTString());}}}alert("Cleared "+f+" cookies");})()) Or you can clear cookies and then go back and read more. You dont' have to clear all cookies on your computer (this can be inconvenient as if you are logged in on multiple sites, clearing cookies from the whole computer will log you out of all sites...) but you can use a "cookies bookmarklet" to clear cookies just on one site, as described here: labnol.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-delete-browser-cookies-of-any.htmlOn that article they provide this "NYT Cookie Cutter": The "Cookie cutter" is this script which that article has and allows you to drag and drop it on any site to remove cookies from that site: (function(){C=document.cookie.split("; ");for(d="."+location.host;d;d=(""+d).substr(1).match(/\..*$/))for(sl=0;sl<2;++sl)for(p="/"+location.pathname;p;p=p.substring(0,p.lastIndexOf('/')))for(i in C)if(c=C ){document.cookie=c+"; domain="+d.slice(sl)+"; path="+p.slice(1)+"/"+"; expires="+new Date((new Date).getTime()-1e11).toGMTString()}})()
More information about news media and paywalls, and computer nerds who find ways to get around paywalls:
www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/that-was-quick-four-lines-of-code-is-all-it-takes-for-the-new-york-times-paywall-to-come-tumbling-down-2/
Install scripts to make changes to webpage content:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasemonkey
Change appearance of a website:
userstyles.org/
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 15:01:26 GMT
Actually...I realized something about media paywalls and how online news media spy on you/track you to count how many articles you've read...
Most media use cookies to track you, not your IP address. So you can get more articles to read by clearing cookies from your browser, or using the neat "cookie bookmark" type scripts to clear cookies just off one website (as referred to above) while leaving the rest uncleared, so that you wont' be logged out of everything. Or, you can switch to incognito or InPrivate mode, where cookies can't track you, or go to another browser to get more articles to read.
If the media site blocks you from reading more articles even if you open their site on incognito or InPrivate mode, or even if you open their site on another browser, then they are tracking you by IP address and not by cookies. In that case, you can get more articles to read by using a web proxy server as mentioned above, which masks your IP address (read about how different web proxies work...I think most use rotating IP addresses) and viewing their website through the web proxy.
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 18:42:15 GMT
Smart Phone Privacy Info on how to obtain more privacy on your Iphone or other type of smart phone: lifehacker.com/the-privacy-enthusiasts-guide-to-using-an-iphone-1792386831Note the article states these browser apps are recommended for your phone: Brave Firefox Focus There is also a Brave Browser for your desktop computer: brave.com/download/ Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) Another topic in the realm of online privacy, is what is termed "VPN" or Virtual Private Network. What's the difference between a VPN and a web proxy server? This article gives info on that www.howtogeek.com/247190/whats-the-difference-between-a-vpn-and-a-proxy/The last sentence in this article sums it up: How a Proxy SErver works: How a VPN works: A VPN system for smart phones: thebestvpn.com/reviews/nordvpn/A recommended VPN system for desktop: strongvpn.com/Whereas you can do a lot with computer settings, clearing cookies, using different browsers, and using web proxy servers all for free, generally it seems you cannot get good VPN protection for free. VPN systems cost money so you usually will need a subscription. Here's some info about some possible free VPN providers: www.vpnmentor.com/blog/top-really-free-vpn-services/Checking how your IP Address is readYou can perform a check to see if a web proxy server is masking your IP address as it claims to do. TO find out what your IP address is at any time, you can use www.iplocation.net If you go to that site, at the top of the page in green numbers you'll see it telling you what your IP address is. So if you are logged into a standard browser, it will detect your normal IP Address. Now, if you open a tab for a web proxy server, such as us.hidester.com, now you can go to that same IP address site and check and see what it's detecting as your IP address through the proxy site. Or, you can use a site like ipleak.net to test this. You should see that there is a whole different IP address number showing when you use a web proxy site...if not, the proxy site is not working correctly.
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 1, 2019 19:09:59 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 2, 2019 17:52:44 GMT
I have a friend who works at Apple in Silicon Valley. As some of you may have noticed in the news this week, there was a spat between Apple and Facebook, having to do with online privacy issues. www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/technology/apple-blocks-facebook.htmlSimply put, Facebook and Google and many other online giants, are heavily oriented to tracking you and have no respect for your privacy. Apple is different, it respects users' privacy, and Apple's Safari browser has more privacy built into it than other smart phone browswers, for that reason. What galls me, is that when we have so many very serious issues going on in the world now -- mass homelessness, health care system in a crisis, global warming, nuclear stockpiling, international relations disasters, mass poverty and famine, as well as violence in developing nations, -- what are the brightest minds of our generation focused on? They are trying to figure out ways to track you via the dust motes on your camera lens gizmodo.com/facebook-knows-how-to-track-you-using-the-dust-on-your-1821030620www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5262297/Facebook-track-using-dust-camera-lens.htmlOr, trying to figure out how you can be tracked by your battery status indicator: www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/02/battery-status-indicators-tracking-onlineThe amount of energy and resources, and money and time, going into spying, instead of towards solving REAL problems in the world, is absolutely appalling.
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 2, 2019 19:54:56 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 5, 2019 4:10:47 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 14, 2019 15:31:31 GMT
I'm finding that "Hidemyass Proxy"at www.hidemyass.com/en-us/proxy is one of the better web proxies. I had previously been using "Hidester", but on HIdester most of the photo and video content of any site you look at, will not come through, when seen through their proxy server. Hidemyass does a better job and I'm able to see some photos, if not all of them. You just enter the URL of the page you want to view, and this allows you to "somewhat" break through either a site's tracking cookies, whereby it keeps track of you as you view the site, or its paywall, so that you can read as many articles as you want on a news media site without finding access shut down and a popup page telling you that you have to be a paid subscriber to see more articles. I say "somewhat" break through because there are some limitations. For instance as I mention above, you probably wont' be able to see ALL the photos on a given article. And, I find that the comments section on articles on some news media, is not available to be viewed through the web proxy. So, if you want to read comments and post your own comments, you will have to use another option. Yet even clearing cookies from your computer may not suffice, as some media keep track of you by IP address or device (computer) info rather than cookies.
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Post by High Priestess on Aug 13, 2019 0:24:27 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Aug 23, 2019 14:41:29 GMT
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