CNET, IDC Find Rapid Increase In Behavioral Data Tracking

retroworks writes "According to columnist Elinor Mills at CNET, efforts to track consumer browsing behavior are 'rising dramatically.' In an interview with Gordon McLeod, CEO of data mining company Krux.com, advertising targeted at browsing habits has increased fourfold since 2010. IDC, according to McLeod, projects the browser-search-term-targeted advertising industry to grow from 'zero to $5 billion in less than 5 years.' Will health insurance companies see us crawling for information on family illnesses? After reading the article, I went hunting for a download of 2008 program antiphormlite, and found nothing remaining at any download site (including CNET). Is there another 'cookie camouflage' alternative to polluting the cookie stream with false positives? Or are we left to 'do not track' pledges and trusting Tor redirectors?"

Ghostery?

[vlm]

Ghostery?

I have not read the article but the summary sounds like a lot of effort to avoid directly naming the FF/Chrome extension called ghostery.

Re:

[vlm]

Oh very well. I read it and its for utter noobs. Not exactly /. worthy material. Not bad for ladies home journal, or maybe cosmo or rolling stone, or something non-technical like wired, but not quite up to the level of /.. "What should consumers do if they don't want to be tracked this way?" is answered with something like its really nice to be tracked and you should lean back and enjoy it and you can't do anything about it but we like having meetings to discuss it, probably because of the catered food.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You fail again in your understanding of the issue. The issue is that ISPs are hiring a company to do deep packet inspection to spy on a user's browsing habits. Adblock plus cannot help with this issue.

Maybe if you spent less time being snarky and actually tried to understand what you were reading you would actually appreciate the significance of the issue.

Just to be sure, I will provide you with a references:

The company's proposed advertising system, called Webwise, is a behavioral targeting service (similar to NebuAd) that uses deep packet inspection to examine traffic... and the ISP BT Group has been criticised for running secret trials of the service.

Also the fact that this service is not opt-in, is concerning. Seems to me like this is an issue that

Re:

[arbulus]

"You fail again in your understanding of the issue. The issue is that ISPs are hiring a company to do deep packet inspection to spy on a user's browsing habits. Adblock plus cannot help with this issue."

This is the part that scares the hell out of me. I use a number of addons to stop websites from tracking me (Ghostery, AdBock, NoScript, RequestPolicy, etc.). But DPI is horrfying, and I don't understand why it's legal. The postal service isn't allowed to open our mail and read our letters. It's a felony

Re:

[certain death]

I wish I had mod points...you would get them all!!

This beats the HELL out of any browser addon

[Anonymous Coward]

Mainly in efficiency - it runs in Ring 0/RPL 0/PnP Kernelmode (on Windows), as merely a filter for the IP stack (no overheads of more driver layers OR browser level slower less efficient addons):

21++ ADVANTAGES OF CUSTOM HOSTS FILES (how/what/when/where/why):

Over AdBlock & DNS Servers ALONE 4 Security, Speed, Reliability, & Anonymity (to an extent vs. DNSBL's + DNS request logs).

1.) HOSTS files are useable for all these purposes because they are present on all Operating Systems that have a BSD based

Re:

[nigelo]

He has a hobby: Constantly updating his hosts file.

Re:

[nullchar]

Having a custom hosts file is all fine and good, but that does not mitigate Deep Packet Inspection:

FTA:

The company's proposed advertising system, called Webwise, is a behavioral targeting service (similar to NebuAd) that uses deep packet inspection to examine traffic... and the ISP BT Group has been criticised for running secret trials of the service.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

What I'd want to know is how he managed to get such a long post through before /. truncates it - usually you get maybe a short essay's worth of text before the "Read more of this comment" link shows up. This guy managed maybe five times that length.

Of course, most modern tracking system, like Google Analytics, rely on webmasters to pass links THROUGH them via javascript, so you can't block GA anymore or the site breaks (good and bad).

Naturally, stuff like NoScript evolved workarounds by faking out the GA sc

Re:

[certain death]

Maybe it _IS_ his hobby!

Re:

[Inda]

I think you forgot the CleanMyPC.com links at the end.

Re:

[Inda]

I think you're confused. My post, with my complete lack of interest, is not there to prove or disprove your rantings about AdBlock.

I get no joy from provoking emotional responses on the internet. Your response actually made me shed a tear. All that typing on Slashdot for fuck all.

#No one cares

Stick that in your newly invented hosts file.

Re:

[arbulus]

Another problem with the Windows hosts file: if you're running Microsoft Security Essentials, it will view modificaitons to the hosts file as a virus and remove them.

Re:

[arbulus]

Not sure why it was happening, either. It was on both XP and 7. Everything with MSE was the default settings. I've seen malware fiddle with hosts files before, but it seemed odd that it would assume that all modifications are malicious.

I was using hosts for web filtering for a small business client of mine. They wanted some computers to have limited access to the web, while allowing others full access. Hosts files were the easiest solution. But not long after I implemented it, MSE flagged them all as vir

Don't accept cookies.

[couchslug]

Incognito/private browsing FTW. Use (for example) one browser for browsing where you don't mind cookies, and a second for items you don't want tracked.

You can have many browsers, any decent PC can run many browsers, so have at it.

Re:

[hey_popey]

1- If you don't accept cookies, some websites simply don't work
2- Incognito/private browsing is not enough to avoid other trackers like pixels, scripts...

Re:Don't accept cookies.

[PopeRatzo]

2- Incognito/private browsing is not enough to avoid other trackers like pixels, scripts...

Can "other trackers like pixels, scripts" track actual identifying data? I don't know enough about this stuff to know.

And if I can remain anonymous enough, should I still care if data is collected?

I run ghostery but I really need to pay more attention to this stuff and educate myself about incognito/private browsing. Not so much that I browse somewhere illegal or that my crazy leftwing politics are going to get me in trouble, but I really can't stand the idea of data tracking.

I would gladly give up all the "benefits" that come with data tracking. But then, I thought the internet was just great in 1993, before the commercialization of the Internet. I would love to have seen how the Internet would have developed if it hadn't become a sleazy shopping mall/TV combo.

I really like this idea of "cookie camouflage". I never heard of this "antiphormlite" program before today. Too bad it seems to have been disappeared. I would enjoy showing these trackers the back of my hand.

Re:

[PopeRatzo]

The only way to browse the Internet with privacy is to disable javascript, or use a mobile browser.

I'll have to look up what you mean by "mobile browser". I don't think you're referring to a browser on my smartphone.

Re:

[mwvdlee]

Does incognito browsing, such as chrome's incognito tabs, help against fingerprinting methods?

Re:

[couchslug]

"Multiple browsers is not an acceptable solution for the vast majority of the public."

This forum is not directed at the "vast majority of the public".

Re:

[Charliemopps]

Even the cheapest tracking software includes methods for tracking people with cookies turned off. Buisnesses have wised up and are tracking you based on info you can't change, like your IP, windows version, etc... Then they share this info with each other. Private browsing is NOT private. Your only hope is to use a proxy service.

Re:

[Hatta]

What does multiple browsers help when you're browsing from the same IP address? I think Google's smart enough to figure that out.

Re:

[AliasMarlowe]

What does multiple browsers help when you're browsing from the same IP address? I think Google's smart enough to figure that out.

Actually, our entire household browses from a single IP address. In that case, if we each used one unique browser (or mostly just that one) per user, the multiple browser approach would assist in differentiating people for advertising purposes. As it is, we each use any of 3 PCs which all run Xubuntu, but identifiably unique due to display resolutions, installed fonts, etc. Similarly, even the kids use two or more browsers each while my wife and I use three or four regularly, and everyone knows to clear th

Re:

[vlm]

especially because I haven't logged into any web services on that machine

Let me guess, except for google because you're using chrome on both browsers.

Cookie camouflage - firephorm

[mauriceh]

Well, there is firephorm:
http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/14/firephorm-the-anti-phorm-firefox-extension/ [ghacks.net]

Collusion plugin for Chrome/Safari

[charnov]

Collusion plugin for Chrome/Safari from Disconnect.me blocks all known trackers. Since using it for a while, I have noticed a disappearance of eerily targeted ads in Google searches, etc.

aren't you missing something?

[slashmydots]

Tor? Why? How about in Firefox or IE8 or 9 hit ctrl-shift-P. Tada, temporarily no more non-session cookies are preserved (among other privacy perks).

Re:

[Z00L00K]

And then you still need to clear out caches for all your browser plugins like Java, Flash etc.

Otherwise you will still sit there with tracking cookies.

noscript??

[apcullen]

Doesn't using noscript block most of the sites that track one's browsing?

Re:

[oldredlion]

It certainly blocks some.

I went to that cnet page and ghostery reported 5 trackers.

I then did noscript "temporarily allow all this page" and ghostery reported 11 trackers, so noscript seems to be blocking 6 out of 11.

Just One Question

[Ukab the Great]

How many users did they have to track to obtain that finding?

My "Solution"

[Droog57]

I use Opera and the Ghostery extension along with WOT. Then I run CCleaner a few times a day. I ALWAYS log out of any site once I'm done with what I logged in to do, and that goes double for Google. Then run CCleaner. I take a small hit with some occasional unpredictable behavior on some sites with Ghostery running, but screw 'em. If they want my junk, I can find (95% of the time) what i want elsewhere. Strategy seems to work pretty well, low spam incidence in gmail and my "real" email addresses are rarely