Google and Facebook Top Biggest Web Tracker List 103
itwbennett writes "A new report from Evidon, whose browser plug in Ghostery tracks Web trackers, makes it plain that 'if you want to worry about somebody tracking you across the Web, worry about Google,' writes blogger Dan Tynan. Google and Facebook, and their various services, occupy all of the top 5 slots on the Evidon Global Tracker Report's list of the most prolific trackers. 'And if you have any tracking anxiety left over, apply it to social networks like Facebook, G+, and Twitter,' adds Tynan."
Ghostery (Score:5, Informative)
I suggest this Firefox extension. Works quite well for me.
Request Policy (Score:2, Informative)
For Firefox I use the Request Policy [mozilla.org] add-on to block 3rd-party requests. This helps prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) as well.
Re:Ghostery (Score:4, Informative)
Um..... extensions usually do have the same name, regardless of browser. Not only is it called "Ghostery" on Firefox and Chrome, but also Microsoft's Explorer, Apple's Safari, and Opera's Opera.
Back in the day... (Score:4, Informative)
Does anyone remember, back in the day, when browsers shipped configured so that all cookies set had to be explicitly authorized to be set? Remember how the first thing everyone did was change their configuration to auto-accept? Remember how browsers eventually changed to just have that setting by default?
A site cannot track you across third-party sites. Not unless you let them. It's just that users have deferred that responsibility to their browser's configuration, and are now complaining that they've been granting authorization to let these sites track them. The result is articles like this, and heavy-handed legislation like the EUs recent cookie-ban. All because users are too lazy and ignorant to take the responsibility on themselves. Hell, with modern browsers and addon/extension models, you don't even need to use the coarse-grained approach that old-school browsers used. Just a plugin that let's you whitelist cookies.
But it sounds like even that's too much effort for the average user. Just complain, and rely on the courts.
Perfect Brownies (Score:5, Informative)
I agree with you.
Just thought I'd share my ultimate brownie recipe with you. Take a saucepan and start melting real butter (125g) and chocolate (185g) and melt on a low heat. Then add 50g flour, 40g Cocoa and 275g sugar. Stir into mixture and then add three eggs. Pour into a greased or papred tin and place in oven for about 25 minutes and they're delicious. They're not to dense or light and they are rich but not overpowering.
You can also mix in chocolate chunks or nuts to make it even nicer.