privacy_protection
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- | ====== Privacy protection ====== | ||
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- | Have you ever wondered why so many web sites offer various services for free? Consider social networks. They let you stay in touch with friends, share photos, chat, recommend stuff, etc. Even if you are not involved in a social network, you are probably using one of those cool services around there such as a web feedreader, photo albums, online documents, and so on. | ||
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- | Are they giving you " | ||
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- | Too much paranoia? Maybe. However, let's try a test. Visit the link below (it will redirect to doubleclick.net; | ||
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- | http:// | ||
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- | It probably guessed your demographic information and/or interests. How do they know? They track your internet usage by means of an HTTP cookie, which is a small file that some websites leave on your computer when you visit them. While it is not a big issue //per se// (they can be used to, for example, save your preferences for a website), they can also be used to collect information about you, as shown above. | ||
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- | A cool and informative visualization of the tracking process can be seen here: http:// | ||
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- | ===== Tracking methods ===== | ||
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- | So, it would seem HTTP cookies (as just seen) are the problem. No, it is (was?) the most widely used/known method. There are various other techinques: | ||
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- | Local Shared ObjectsLike standard cookies, but done with Adobe Flash. Check the [[http:// | ||
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- | Even if you don't care about online privacy, you should be aware of the fact that some of the above techiques can be used to impersonate you. See, for instance, an article about [[http:// | ||
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- | So far we have seen some of the hidden risks to your online privacy that don't require you to do something in particular, just that you browse the internet. There are also various activities that are based on the information you explicitly give (though, of course, the methods discussed above still apply): search engines and social networks. | ||
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- | ===== Search engines ===== | ||
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- | Every time you submit a request to a search engine, they will log it and associate it with you. XXX expand XXX. Alternatives: | ||
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- | ===== Social networks ===== | ||
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- | XXX expand XXX | ||
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- | delete EXIF information | ||
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- | ===== Protect your privacy ===== | ||
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- | So, how to protect your privacy on-line? Some useful suggestions: | ||
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- | * Install an ad- or script-blocker and/or a filtering web-proxy: [[https:// | ||
- | * Turn off HTML in your mail reader (for web bugs). | ||
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- | ===== Resources ===== | ||
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- | * [[http:// | ||
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- | $Id: privacy_protection.html, | ||
privacy_protection.txt · Last modified: 2023/07/19 06:08 by hc9