Posted on 05/09/2013 2:39:15 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Jonathan Mayer is the man who turned off third-party cookies in upcoming versions of Firefox. (Cookies are the little bits of code that web sites drop onto your browser as you surf so that advertisers can target you with ads.)
He just told AdExchanger that he no longer cares what advertisers think about privacy and cookies, because they've lost that debate.
His Twitter account has been a brutal stream of sarcasm about advertisers who want a solution that leaves cookies in place.
Mayer's move has angered advertisers, who were in the midst of negotiations for an industry-wide standard on tracking cookies when it happened. Advertisers want the cookies left on by default, with an option for users to turn them off if they want more privacy. The Firefox move keeps them off by default, and users must choose to turn them on.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Good... I like this guys thinking. I DECIDE if I want to buy something and I do not want snake-oil salesmen harping while I read.
LLS
But only one time and then until it expires... you are good to go.
LLS
Really? All of this time and I was thinking that I was just saving money shopping online for needed items.
LLS
There's a difference between that and "third party", or "tracking" cookies. In general, you should be able to allow a site to store stateful information about you via cookies without letting every ad on that site be able to track you likewise.
I abandoned FF for chrome because FF gathered so much baggage some sites ceased to function well.
The article says that FF will only turn off THIRD PARTY cookies. Meaning if you browse freerepublic.com, then FR will be able to set cookies, but other sites that are part of the page (like google analytics) would not.
What this will mean is that advertisers will then just demand that each web site install a proxy that will make it look like the advertiser is setting cookies from that site instead of from the advertiser's site.
This looks the same as:
Is it the same search page? The one I use, btw. I hate Google.
Add the AdAware plugin and FF is pretty decent.
Using Firefox with AdBlocker, NoScript, and PrefBar makes it possible. I see no ads, no graphics, no Flash .... just the text.
If I had to wait for all that background crap to load at each site it might well take two hours to see everything I see in one fourth that time.
To save the switching on/off bother, simply add Disqus to your whitelist.
I use the freeware version of DoNotTrack [IE and Firefox versions]
https://www.abine.com/how-donottrackme-works/
and the Firefox add-on Adblock Plus
http://adblockplus.org/en/firefox
==
A bigger problem is the rapid release insanity from Mozilla/Firefox. They are up to version 21 or so. I am stuck at 15.
If I update to 21, I lose several add-ons that the developers quit updating.
If I stay at 15, I lose a tunnel security program, because it no longer supports older versions of Firefox. In all probability, many websites will force upgrades. And I get tired of the new conflicts with new updates.
Around FF version 12, Firefox and Adobe Flash had massive conflicts. Upgrade Flash, and Firefox crashed. Update Firefox and Flash would not run.
This is set by me in IE settings under Tools>internet options>privacy (low, medium high slider)
but I dont see that option under firefox>tools>options>privacy or security.
It no longer matters. The Internet Sales Tax will kill the internet.
Ad revenue keeps the net free.
As it declines (and it is diving), you will see more and more pay sites.
Of course you now have a generation raised to expect everything for free.
I betcha some of them were in favor of the upcoming Internet tax too.
“Works well enough but doesn’t always give me very many links to choose.”
Well, it searches google, bing, jeeves, etc.. It gives the highest rated links. I always find whatever I’m looking for.
“Is it the same search page?”
It appears to be. If you go there, and click on the word “private,” it opens another page that is titled Startpage, by Ixquick.”
Not to get too technical, but there’s a legacy file in Windows (and most OSs) called hosts.
When your computer looks up the address of a URL, hosts is checked before running a DNS lookup.
There are several sites on the web that have hosts file samples that are filled with advertiser sites, but the address has been overwritten to point to your computer’s internal adapter address.
This offers two benefits.
1) You don’t see the ads that are redirected.
2) The lookup is almost immediate so pages load faster.
The downside is you’re get boxes of “page cannot be displayed” where the ads were supposed to show. If find this to be less annoying than ad saturation.
Been doing this for a few years. The only problem site I’ve come across is Hulu. They seem to be able to detect if their commercials don’t load. Most sites just assume the ads load.
It doesn’t take care of all ads, but it gets quite a few of them for me.
“an industry-wide standard on tracking”
Turn off third-party cookies!!!!
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