#web privacy

Hi everyone!

Mozilla is rolling out a new feature that is turned on by default, which they call Privacy Preserving Attribution, as discussed here:

You can easily turn it off, though.

Take a quiz on web privacy

You often can choose a private setting when you browse the internet. But be forewarned: It may not afford nearly as much privacy as you expect. That’s the finding of a new study.

Major web browsers, such as Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari, offer a private-browsing option. It’s sometimes referred to as “incognito.” This option lets you surf the internet through a private window. Normally, your internet browser saves a record into its history of each page that you visited. This option doesn’t. And what sites you visit won’t affect the suggestions your browser makes the next time you’re filling out an online form.

The way your browser normally tracks your activities on the web can make your life easier. It means you can get to your favorite websites more quickly. It means you may get to skip typing in passwords. But if you’re sharing a computer with other people, you might not want them to see such information. So incognito mode can help mask your past browsing history.

Many people believe — incorrectly — that the incognito setting protects them more broadly. Most believe that even after reading a web browser’s explanation of incognito mode.

For instance, a new study had 460 people read web browsers’ descriptions of private browsing. Each person read one of 13 descriptions. Then the participants answered questions about how private they thought their browsing would be while using this tool. (See some sample questions below in our quiz.)

The volunteers didn’t understand incognito mode, their answers now show. This was true no matter which browser explanation they had read.

I should be louder about this too but if no one else is doing I feel pointless :V

like this just happened!!! it's bc of the data protection regulation law from 2016 (GDPR) that went into full effect in 2018. so ok, it's been a while since then, so it's not like this "just" happened but it's still fairly recent.

websites like facebook tracking user habits via web pages they've visited and so on. So they can figure out what kind of ads to push onto a specific user's page. Remember that?

there's a nice reddit thread where ppl explain it a bit more in-depth("explain it to me like I'm 5"), but basically, website cookies are what make the internet interactive. They already existed before, but now websites have to ask for your consent before they store any cookies on your device. that's basically all that's changed. some cookies are used for tracking, some are used to make links accessible etc. but cookies exist websites functional. websites are required under GDPR to tell user's what cookies will be used and give them the choice to refuse some of the non-essential ones (for example).

You can read the Wikipedia article about HTTP cookies for more history on what these are and for tracking cookies, you can read the page about that + see the references at the end.

There were apparently some talks about possibly simplifying the cookie banners but this article is from 2017, so, we'll see about that I guess. I don't know how good or bad it will be in the future, but I like websites not figuring out what to sell me, so I'd rather click "decline cookies" than not have that option at all like how it used to be.

includes download links for all supported browsers (i personally recommend using firefox)

1. ublock origin

firefox, chrome, edge, opera, thunderbird

privacy protection - ad, tracker, popup and miner blocking

2. duckduckgo privacy essentials

firefox, chrome, edge, opera, safari

privacy protection - tracker blocking, cookie protection, etc

3. privacy badger

firefox, chrome, edge, opera, safari

privacy protection - tracker blocking

4. i still dont care about cookies

firefox, chrome, edge

popup blocking - community alternative of the popular "i dont care about cookies" addon, under GPLv3 license. the original addon is owned by avast, gen digital inc.

5. ublacklist

firefox, chrome, safari

search filtering - block specified sites from appearing in google search results

6. save webp as png or jpg

firefox

file conversion - save webp files as png or jpg, with quality options

7. indie wiki buddy

firefox, chrome, other browsers

search filtering - redirects or alerts you to an alternative wiki when visiting a fandom wiki. includes support for breezewiki

8. video downloadhelper

firefox, chrome

file conversion - download web videos and images from various streaming sites

9. volume control for bandcamp player

firefox, chrome alternative