'History sniffing' on the internet , tracking sites you visit - new findings

[snagglepuss]

snip

Although security experts have known for nearly a decade that such snooping is possible, the latest findings offer some of the first public evidence of sites exploiting the problem.

Current versions of the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers still allow this, as do older versions of Chrome and Safari, the researchers said.

snip

History sniffing is essentially a side-by-side comparison of Web pages you've already visited with web pages that a particular site wants to see if you've visited. If there is a match, users would never know, but the site administrators would learn a lot about their audiences.

For instance, a popular porn site was checking its visitors' histories to see if they'd visited 23 other pornography sites, the study found.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1336049/Internet-browsers-hacked-history-sniffed-firms.html#ixzz17T27WeUz

[guruoo]

1. Abine....

Abine's first product is a browser add-on, “Privacy Suite”, that combines disparate privacy tools into a comprehensive privacy system. By putting all the controls in one place, the Abine plug-in makes it easier to control the amount of personal information being collected and stored about you online. Some features:

* Stopping tracking by hundreds of advertising networks and websites
* Manage all cookies (regular & Flash) and trackers in one place.
* Easily create distinct online accounts for different uses
* Pre-fill registration forms with limited subsets of information
* Shield your real info with disposable emails and phone numbers

http://www.abine.com/about.php

[Catherina]

2. Is it bulky or does it slow down your computer or surfing? Thanks n/t

[guruoo]

3. No differance in speed that I can tell..

I'm now up to 83 tracking, and 116 ad networks blocked.

(And my machine an Asus eepc, (2 gig RAM) made back when they were using the slower Celeron processor)

[Catherina]

4. Thank you. I'll download it. I dumped Zone Alarm years ago

and need something like this. Thank you.

[guruoo]

6. You still need a firewall

When my ZoneAlarm Pro's antivirus subscription ran out about six months ago, and after carefully researching the options,
I chose a combination of ZoneAlarm's free firewall, (still one of the best, IMO) the free antivirus-anti-malware app Microsoft Security Essentials,
and Noscript, a Firefox plugin that helps to limit a user's vulnerability to malicious javascript.

The Zonealarm antivirus (it uses the Kaspersky antivirus engine)that had served me well for over five years, had begun to
allow some of the newer, nastier bugs to infect my machine. Problem was that their virus definitions weren't
keeping up with the proliferation of new viruses, and malware.

So far, I have yet to detect any new infections since switching to the new combination.

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 9.2.076:
http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm-Free-Firewall/3000-10435_4-10039884.html
Microsoft Security Essentials:
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
NoScript:
http://noscript.net/

[Catherina]

7. Thank you. Wonderful. I installed most and feel better already! n/t

[cutlassmama]

5. downloaded. Thanks bunches!