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Increase Your Privacy Online. Use "Do Not Track".
When you use the web, your online surfing habits and history are of great interest to advertisers. They like to know what you're interested in, so that they can show you adverts that you're more likely to respond to. Which is why, for example, if you search for a local garage that can service your car, you'll see lots of car-related ads over the next few days on many of the sites you visit.
Most of the tracking that takes place is done through cookies in your web browser. Although the only site that can read a cookie from your PC is the one which placed it there in the first place, there's an easy workaround if one agency places cookies on your computer on behalf of multiple clients.
Antispyware programs, and popup blockers, can help to block ads from appearing on your screen. But they don't address the cause, ie they don't stop those companies tracking your behaviour in the first place.
There is though, an industry-wide standard in place to help prevent tracking. Each time you type a web URL into your browser, or you click a hyperlink to load a different web page, your browser sends a request to the remote web server that contains the information your want. Within that request, there's space for the browser to pass information about you to the remote server, such as which browser you're using, what your IP address is, and so on. That information ends up in the server's log files.
There's also a relatively new feature called Do Not Track. If you configure your browser to send a Do Not Track request, the web server is morally obliged not to track your progress through the site.
Not all sites obey the request, and not all browsers allow it to be sent anyway. But if your browser does support a Do Not Track facility, it makes sense to turn it on.
You can find out how at www.donottrack.us.
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Comments
I (and LinuxMint, by default) use DuckDuckGo as my search engine, because google knows a little too much about me already, not that they're evil or anything....
You're going to get ads anyway (unless you use ad-blocking software). My thinking is, if I'm going to have ads, why not have them be more relevant to my interests?
Where is and how does DO NOT TRACK feature can be enabled in IE? It is not very clear from the post. INTERNET OPTION?
Rgrds,
Roger Bertrand, P. Eng.
Good post. I looked at the link and a.) It told me Firefox 9.0.1 supports do not track and told me how to turn it on b.) with a nice screenshot to find it under Tools>Options>Privacy. Thank you.
Thanks! The link in the article wasn't enabled, so your reply helped me get it done.
In firefox, do more than "do not treck" - use also the add-ons beef taco, disconnect, better privacy, ghostery, priv and browser protect; deny installing third part cookies plus erase cookies when closing the browser; I don't want to be "cared" by outlaws;
Personally I like being tracked. Ir means someone is interested in me and wants to know me better. It makes me feel that somebody cares.
What's that - they're only doing it because they want some of my money?? No way!! No, they really care.
This feature is in later versions of Firefox. I have experienced a web site or two that will respect your wishes not to be tracked and block you until it is disabled. TrackerBlock by PrivacyChoice.org is a compatible product but is not compatible with Ghostery;for me it locked up the Firefox browser seriously enough that had to be reinstalled. Early versions of the Firefox Tor browser doesn't have this feature and I'll give it a shot and see if I can download it.
Nothing to download for earlier versions Firefox Tor browser.The JonDo Firefox browser and Tor (Vidalia)work just as well and JonDo's IPcheck says that Do Not Track is on;that's all I need then.
Recent Chromium browser snap shots, if you enter "about:flags" in the address bar, have a setting "Disable hyperlink auditing" that people may want to look into. From what I can gather, the auditing involves sending a ping someplace every time you click a link. You might call it cookie free tracking. :)
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