PSA: How The Guardian Is Quietly and Repeatedly Spying on You

[Turborama]

Programmers for sites like The Guardian, and even here at The Huffington Post, have embedded tiny, invisible file objects within each page. When you view a page, web bugs are automatically downloaded to your computer along with everything else that appears on the page. From there, the objects send information back to servers owned by various corporate analytics and ad networks tasked with gathering, compiling and analyzing the data. Web bugs differ from "cookies," small text files containing information about how you browse through a particular site, but can function in conjunction with cookies as a means of more thoroughly collecting your data and creating a profile of how you get to a particular site along with what you do once you're there.

=snip=

Ironically, The Guardian embedded a massive 95 web bugs on Schneier's post in which he discusses how the government and industry have "betrayed" the internet.


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Perhaps the most invasive bug on this article, and which is contained on nearly every page at The Guardian, is provided by an Adobe service called Omniture. This tracker collects your analytics data, your browser information, demographic data, hardware/software type, your interaction data, your page views, your IP address and, interestingly enough, your search history. On the Adobe website, it defines search history as: "The searches you have performed, including searches that led you to that company's website."

In addition to all of that, the Omniture bug at The Guardian is potentially capable of collecting your: "Social network profile information, including photos, fan and like status, user IDs, age, and gender." Neither The Guardian nor Ghostery specifies whether this information is actually being collected. But it can be.

By the way, there's another tracker on The Guardian provided by Experian Marketing Service, a branch of, yes, that Experian: the credit reporting agency. According to Ghostery, the Experian bug collects the same wide array of information as Omniture.

Unless one of the trackers collects your social media details, which is unclear, nothing that's collected about you contains your name, address or other specifics about you. Put it this way: there's nothing collected that's any more or less intrusive than the email or phone metadata that's collected, anonymized and eventually destroyed by NSA.

Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/how-the-guardian-is-quiet_b_3923408.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

I didn't know about Ghostery until I read this article and have since installed the app to my browser. FWIW it found 4 trackers with this Huffington Post article.

They've got the apps for all major browsers on this page: http://www.ghostery.com/download

[cui bono]

1. I use a Firefox add-on called NoScript. I wonder if it blocks these things?

It's a bit annoying, since sometimes to get a page functioning I have to allow some scripts and some pages have a ton of them so I allow one by one trying to guess which one will let the media I'm trying to see come through.

I never allow Facebook scripts or Google Analylitics, though I'm not sure that helps too much. Thing is I can't tell what I'm gaining from it! Still, I run it. Just in case.

[Turborama]

2. I haven't used no-script, I don't think it exists from Chrome

But this Ghostery thing is very user friendly, and you can easily see what it's picking up.

I recommend giving it a try to see how it compares...

BTW it says this page has only 1 tracker, Google Analytics, and I don't mind leaving it for DU as I think it's a very important tool for the owners. I'm more circumspect on other sites, though.

[cui bono]

3. I installed Ghostery. I see Google Analytics and Facebook a lot on here.

And just had a list of about 5 things on a different page here but didn't read them all before I clicked on here. I think it was on the "my posts" page where more showed up. I've set it to block everything.

Okay, after I posted it showed:

Facebook Connect
Google +1
Google Analytics
Twitter Button

You know, my friend told me that every time you click "like" on a page, like CNN that they would know a lot of info about you as far as your internet activity. I guess this is what he meant.

[Snarkoleptic]

4. Ghostery is top notch freeware!

I also use the Better Privacy add-on for Firefox as it deletes LSO "Supercookies".

More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plug-in to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

What’s even sneakier?

Several services even use the surreptitious data storage to reinstate traditional cookies that a user deleted, which is called ‘re-spawning’ in homage to video games where zombies come back to life even after being “killed,” the report found. So even if a user gets rid of a website’s tracking cookie, that cookie’s unique ID will be assigned back to a new cookie again using the Flash data as the “backup.”

http://www.wired.com/business/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/


I also never use google or yahoo for searches, duckduckgo and startpage are both (comparatively) strong on privacy.

[starroute]

7. I've got BetterPrivacy and ShareMeNot for Firefox

ShareMeNot prevents things like the Facebook "like" buttons you see on all sorts of websites from tracking you around the Web.

[cui bono]

9. I heard about duckduckgo from Thom Hartmann.

I keep reverting to Google, I don't know why. I guess it's ingrained somewhat. going to make a real effort to switch. I added it to my search window thingy, maybe I'll delete Google from there.

[Turborama]

11. Thanks for the tips on Better Privacy and Duckduckgo

I'm considering moving from Chrome to FF. I had critical problems with FF on my ancient laptop - caused by Adobe, ironically - but I'll try it again with my new one and the apps.

[Turborama]

10. The Google+, Facebook and Twitter ones are for the buttons at the bottom of OPs

And it don't think they're "trackers" as such unless you click on the buttons. I've blocked them anyway because I never use them.

The Google Analytics one is there to help DU's admins so I've clicked on the always leave it for DU thing to the righr of its slider. It's blocked for any other sites, though.

I've totally gone off adding anything to FB now, I rarely visit but when I do I just lurk in groups and pages. LOL My brother refuses to have an account and I've considered closing mine as I hardly ever use it, but I don't like the idea of losing contact with so many long lost friends again. IYKWIM?

[cui bono]

12. I'm actually finally considering caving in and signing up for FB!

I'm still a holdout. I have a thing about having my life and pictures posted online.

Probably not do much of that but use it for networking and seeing what my friends and relatives are up to.

[whttevrr]

5. This ghostery thing seems pretty active...

I use NoScript and Flashblock...

Huffpo is a bear to load in my browser. Now I know part of the reason... all their tracking info loading takes time.

[brooklynite]

6. I'd teach them a lesson by refusing to read their FREE website...

[cui bono]

8. Your position on personal privacy is duly noted.

[brooklynite]

14. My position on privacy with respect to commercial entities...

...is to decide what prvacy I worry about, and not to patronize those businesses. Beyond that, tracking my web searches et al doesn't bother me.

[cui bono]

15. Fine. Other's position's are to block their tracking and not deny themselves. n/t

[brooklynite]

17. If the Guardian put its page behind a paywall...

...how many of the same people would be complaining that "information should be free"?

[cui bono]

18. Well that's another topic. If they want to charge they have the right to do so. n/t

[Hutzpa]

13. This is story is misleading and is an attempt to

create uncertainty.

The Guardian newspaper is not the only one doing this, Washington Post, Huffington Post,
even DU to name a few, every major website is doing it. I blame system admin that have
allowed this stuff to have gotten out of hand.

[bluestate10]

16. Many websites download Cookies to your computer when the sites are visited. That the

Guardian downloads Cookies isn't a revelation. Some cookies do more than others, some just sit on your hard-drive, some can extract personal information, some can seriously damage a computer.