SouthernBreeze
You're being watched - h
Forget the NSA.
Forget the FBI.
Forget the Federal Government.
You ARE being watched by EVERY online business... including Yahoo!, parent firm of Flickr... and MORE!
What you're seeing here is a partial list of trackers that have been stopped by some of the add-ons listed here below.
In the United States, by comparison, there are fewer online/data privacy laws that in European Union member nations, Australia or Canada.
• Read both sides of a brief Yes/No opinion on the matter here:
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324338604578...
• Read a current (2013) news item about the matter here:
www.nbcnews.com/id/15221111/ns/technology_and_science-pri...
• And for the wonkier among us, here is Stanford University Law School's Center for Internet and Society
cyberlaw.stanford.edu/
Unbeknownst to most computer users, there are literally hundreds, thousands or more scripts, codes, hidden pixels, cookies and more which are all designed with one purpose in mind... TO TRACK YOU ONLINE.
Some malicious hackers take advantage of the abundance of such computer code to attempt to trick your computer into "giving away" valuable information, such as your identity, passwords to sensitive accounts (not just email, but online banking, prescription services, etc.), and more.
While in years past the Congress was motivated to address various aspects of such legitimate concern, and enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), there is little reason to now imagine that this present Congress will do anything about anything... except sit on their big, fat cat asses and collect their taxpayer paid salaries, and enjoy some mighty fine health insurance and retirement benefits.
There really is no "watchdog" to protect consumers' interests, and the FCC is steam-rolling towards a system wherein only the BIG DOG companies can pay to play in the high-speed lane, and thereby, slow everyone else down. If you like the Internet AS IT IS NOW (not your provider, but the idea that EVERY SITE gets treated equally, i.e., PLAYS BY THE SAME RULES) then it is incumbent upon you to ACT NOW to share your comment with the FCC.
You may do that here, and select Proceeding Number entitled:
"14-28 Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet":
Meanwhile... when Congress gets in the mood to cooperate for the benefit of the people that elected them, and NOT the MAJOR CORPORATIONS, we can expect more of the same type of nonsensical foot-dragging which has hampered American economic recovery.
There ARE a few things you can do, however, to assist keeping your private information private, and to lower, and practically eliminate much of the tracking efforts and scripts that run amok in your computer.
Here's a partial list of FREEWARE, browser add-ons, and other tools which can significantly reduce the time it takes for various pages to load, as well as provide some level of control for you over the things that ask to flow through your computer.
Privacy Badger, anti-tracking browser add-on, by Electronic Frontier Foundation
HTTPS Everywhere, secure connection browser add-on, by Electronic Frontier Foundation
www.eff.org/https-everywhere-node
Ghostery, anti-tracking, privacy browser add-on by Ghostery
ghostery.com
Disconnect, blocking, counter-tracking browser add-on, by Disconnect
Disconnect.me
NoScript Security Suite, script blocker/identifier, Firefox browser add-on, by Giogio Maone
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/
MaskMe, hides your email address in online forms & provides "disposable" hidden email addresses, by Abine
DoNotTrackMe, browser add-on/mobile app, by Abine
abine.com/donottrackme.html
Flashblock, blocks Adobe's Flash player-mediated functions until you specifically request it, Firefox browser add-on, by Philip Chee
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/
And the Granddaddy of them all...
GPG Tools & Suite, public key encryption software for the Apple OS (Macintosh), by GPGTools
gpgtools.org/
You're being watched - h
Forget the NSA.
Forget the FBI.
Forget the Federal Government.
You ARE being watched by EVERY online business... including Yahoo!, parent firm of Flickr... and MORE!
What you're seeing here is a partial list of trackers that have been stopped by some of the add-ons listed here below.
In the United States, by comparison, there are fewer online/data privacy laws that in European Union member nations, Australia or Canada.
• Read both sides of a brief Yes/No opinion on the matter here:
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324338604578...
• Read a current (2013) news item about the matter here:
www.nbcnews.com/id/15221111/ns/technology_and_science-pri...
• And for the wonkier among us, here is Stanford University Law School's Center for Internet and Society
cyberlaw.stanford.edu/
Unbeknownst to most computer users, there are literally hundreds, thousands or more scripts, codes, hidden pixels, cookies and more which are all designed with one purpose in mind... TO TRACK YOU ONLINE.
Some malicious hackers take advantage of the abundance of such computer code to attempt to trick your computer into "giving away" valuable information, such as your identity, passwords to sensitive accounts (not just email, but online banking, prescription services, etc.), and more.
While in years past the Congress was motivated to address various aspects of such legitimate concern, and enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), there is little reason to now imagine that this present Congress will do anything about anything... except sit on their big, fat cat asses and collect their taxpayer paid salaries, and enjoy some mighty fine health insurance and retirement benefits.
There really is no "watchdog" to protect consumers' interests, and the FCC is steam-rolling towards a system wherein only the BIG DOG companies can pay to play in the high-speed lane, and thereby, slow everyone else down. If you like the Internet AS IT IS NOW (not your provider, but the idea that EVERY SITE gets treated equally, i.e., PLAYS BY THE SAME RULES) then it is incumbent upon you to ACT NOW to share your comment with the FCC.
You may do that here, and select Proceeding Number entitled:
"14-28 Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet":
Meanwhile... when Congress gets in the mood to cooperate for the benefit of the people that elected them, and NOT the MAJOR CORPORATIONS, we can expect more of the same type of nonsensical foot-dragging which has hampered American economic recovery.
There ARE a few things you can do, however, to assist keeping your private information private, and to lower, and practically eliminate much of the tracking efforts and scripts that run amok in your computer.
Here's a partial list of FREEWARE, browser add-ons, and other tools which can significantly reduce the time it takes for various pages to load, as well as provide some level of control for you over the things that ask to flow through your computer.
Privacy Badger, anti-tracking browser add-on, by Electronic Frontier Foundation
HTTPS Everywhere, secure connection browser add-on, by Electronic Frontier Foundation
www.eff.org/https-everywhere-node
Ghostery, anti-tracking, privacy browser add-on by Ghostery
ghostery.com
Disconnect, blocking, counter-tracking browser add-on, by Disconnect
Disconnect.me
NoScript Security Suite, script blocker/identifier, Firefox browser add-on, by Giogio Maone
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/
MaskMe, hides your email address in online forms & provides "disposable" hidden email addresses, by Abine
DoNotTrackMe, browser add-on/mobile app, by Abine
abine.com/donottrackme.html
Flashblock, blocks Adobe's Flash player-mediated functions until you specifically request it, Firefox browser add-on, by Philip Chee
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/
And the Granddaddy of them all...
GPG Tools & Suite, public key encryption software for the Apple OS (Macintosh), by GPGTools
gpgtools.org/