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Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Why are you so attached to Firefox? Switch to Chrome. <...snip...>


Google tracks every site you go to, and every search term you use. Then they sell your information to whoever wants to buy it, legitimate advertisers, spammers, hackers, anyone who has the money.

That's good enough reason for me.

I wouldn't mind them selling my information if they would only give me a cut. That would make it worthwhile putting up with the ads and spam.

Insights and incites by Notes


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the people who are really getting ripped off are the people who pay google for my information. Let's say I buy guitar picks from musician's friend. For the next 3 months or more I get pop-up ads for guitar picks. But... too late! I already bought them!

One advantage of being spied on is that the ads I get are usually geared toward my interests. And I have actually gotten ads for products I didn't even know about, but I liked the product enough to buy it after I saw the ad.

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Originally Posted By: Notes Norton


Google tracks every site you go to, and every search term you use. Then they sell your information to whoever wants to buy it, legitimate advertisers, spammers, hackers, anyone who has the money.


And there's the difference in people. I don't care. I have spam filters to fix that.

As far as ads after a purchase, if you used Chrome and added an add-on called AdBlock, you wouldn't see those ads.

Do you really believe Firefox doesn't track your browsing habits? Or MSIE? Or Opera? They ALL do it. Every business on the planet is out to make EVERY PENNY they can and nobody cares about you. Or me. Or any person or any thing that doesn't have a picture of a dead president on them.

People are WAY to militant about "my personal information". Most of you have no idea at all how those analytics are used. Knowing that you bought picks from Musician's Friend or Sweetwater is not a pathway to a hacker emptying your bank account. It's just a way to put ads in front of your eyes to try and tempt you to buy something.

What do you so about billboards when you drive around in your car? Do you have some kind of spam blocking windshield or glasses that blanks out the ads for the furniture store or the bail bondsman?

It's just advertising. If it bothers you, don't acknowledge it. Just don't blame your browser. It's a computer. It's a dumb pile of silicon. It doesn't think, or sense, or judge. You are in 100% control of that computer. Basic knowledge of how to use a computer is all that is required to install the proper add-ons to defeat the ads you don't want to see.

Major corporations have gone to Chrome as their default browser. That was not on a whim. In the opinion of the IT directors who make that call, Chrome is the best performing and most manageable browser, and I concur.

Of course, it's up to you.

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Interesting topic. I actually use IE, FF, and Chrome interchangeably as each browser has its good and bad traits. I've noticed a lot of flash issues in FF about a month ago. This was mostly impacting YouTube and other video apps.

Adobe, Mozilla, and even Microsoft have all released various updates to try and handle issues since I first saw this. It all appears to be working now on my side for over a week, no issues.

IMHO, I think the companies above just don't work together enough when issues arise. For example, Adobe may release a new flash but then FF and IE don't handle it well then they have to update their stuff. There's a lot of back and forth patching with these companies until everything's fixed and for the average user it's just not that simple to figure out root cause when any of these companies' software could be the problem.




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Also remember, Flash has vulnerabilities that CAN be exploited. Not WILL ALWAYS be exploited, CAN be.

Medicine lists side effects because ONE guy had something happen to him when he took it.

Most virus infections, MOST, not all, come because the end user does something silly like open a link from other than a trusted source. I can remember the phases and waves of junk that went around.

"I'm very upset about Tuesday!"

"Someone has searched for you."

"Is she cheating on you?"

I know SO many people (who have called me to clean their computers) that fall for those leading subjects. My last wife used to fall for that stuff all the time and get her computer infected. ("What was I supposed to do Tuesday???")

<click - launch - infect>

Remember through it all, flash is an Adobe product. Nothing to do with Firefox. Firefox just got tired of the complaints about potential risk. I have yet to see any data saying that Adobe's product is any more susceptible in FF than it is in any other browser. I have seen a lot of opinion and reaction, but no data.

But once again, it's your call what you do on your computer. I suggest a lot of research. Never hurts to learn something new, right?

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Nicely put Eddie.

My dad-in-law fell for the "FBI has found [*****] on your PC! Click here to remove." It locked his machine up with an FBI logo on the desktop. That was a challenge to fix.

Malwarebytes and BleepingComputer.com are my main tools on stuff like that.




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Wow, you can't say P**O**R**N on here. Put in some stars on my last response.




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Quote:
Wow, you can't say P**O**R**N on here. Put in some stars on my last response.


Looks like the word filters are in place.

I was on another forum and I don't remember the exact context, but was posting some information about a man named Richard, who went by the name of Dick. Let's just say his name was Richard Smith.

Well, the forum didn't allow the word Dick (capitalized or not), and made a substitution for you. So after I clicked "post", and went back and read what I wrote, every reference to Dick Smith was substituted with Thingy Smith.

smile


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Nice....




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My older brother's name was Richard but his siblings called him Dick. A forum we both frequented would change his nickname to "censored". Imagine: "Dear brother "censored".

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For those of you who use Firefox: Install the Lightbeam add-on. Lightbeam shows who gathers information about your activities in the digital universe. That is impressive. Use Firefox, regardless if you like it or not, for one day with Lightbeam active and be astonished where in the world you have left your foot- and fingerprints.

Lightbeam was first introduced in 2012 with the name "Collusion". (http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers)

English: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/lightbeam/
German: https://www.mozilla.org/de/lightbeam/

Dependings on my settings I only get the German mozialla sites. You might be successful replacing the /de/ with your country code.


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Some time ago I have seen, I believe, a TED talk about likes, friends, and advertising.

The methods to create data about you "out of nothing" are incredible. Even if you don't share any data about yourself, other people do (that for you). You are marked in pictures, mentioned in online conversations. So, even if you don't have a Facebook account, Facebook knows you. Probably better than you could imagine. Even if you have a Facebook account and behave very neutral, the method of "birds of a feather..." shows which products you probably like because your friends like them...

Above I wrote "The methods to create data about you "out of nothing" are incredible." Have you ever tried to solve thos logic puzzles where you have a handful of information and then you have to find out who is living in the yellow house and who owns the border collie?

It is dark outside now for some hours already, so I go to bed. I will try to find the video in the next two or three days and post the link to it here.


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It appears that this talk I mentioned above currently is hard to find without knowing when it was or what the title said.
But here are some intriguing articles and videos that show some of the strategies:

What Facebook Knows About You: http://time.com/73769/watch-dogs-digital-shadow-facebook-data/
How To Discover Everything Facebook Knows About You: http://uk.businessinsider.com/everything-facebook-knows-about-you-2014-12?r=US&IR=T
What facebook knows about you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvAUqs3Ofg
What FACEBOOK and GOOGLE are Hiding from world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6vM4dhI9I8


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If you get the latest update to Flash you will be OK. Firefox lets you use the latest update so it should be all right. I just updated, ran some tests and so far no problems. If I run into any I will let you know.


When you are at the checkout line and they ask if you found everything say "Why, are you hiding stuff?"

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I wonder how many people realize how easy it is to find someone on the internet?

For $30 you can sign up for Intellius.

Visit switchboard.com and put in the name and city. From there you get a landline phone number.

Look for a LinkedIn account. There you see the professional resume and often an email address.

Then look at their Facebook account. People say WAY more there than they should. They post vacation pictures WHILE on vacation. With the other pieces of information, you know where they live and that they are many states away. Care to break into a house?

With some social engineering thrown in, you could park in front of their house and with some basic hacking skills you can get their router password and access their computers. (Remember, the average home computer user is oblivious to security and such. From there you can steal the password file from their browser and get into accounts IF they are unaware enough to have embedded passwords in their browser. (Yes, it is convenient to have your browser save your un/pw, but it is not safe.)

Now granted, someone has to have some skill and knowledge and a reason to think there is something to gain from parking in front of John and Mary's house, but the point is that it CAN be done. I could do it, but I also have morals and scruples and would not do it. I am in the minority though.

Buyer beware.

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Thanks Eddie.

I recommend the uninitiated to watch TED presentations on the general heading of Internet Security. Be prepared for a real eye-opening.

The only constant in technology is that it can and will be used against us. One Security professional says that hackers are an asset because they find the problems and "back doors" to programs originally intended to protect our sensitive personal data.

I learned that there are three Data Brokers sifting through and selling our personal data in Chicago alone! That would equate to thousands nationwide.

Since new technology allows ID Thieves to scan our wallets without ever coming in direct contact with us, a hot selling product today is carbon-composition, stealth wallets.

More than my concern for my personal bank account is the fact that Social Security Administration gets hundreds of cyber attacks every day!

That would bring the entire nation to it's knees! Our modern enemies are using laptop computers, not nuclear weapons.

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Just do the basics and don't waste a lot of time worrying about it! Use regularly updated antivirus/malware software, choose strong passwords that you change frequently, update your browser and plugins regularly and be careful about clicking nefarious links. You'll be fine!

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Talk about attacks:

http://map.norsecorp.com/

Interesting...


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Thanks Mike.

Looks like China is leading the pack by a huge margin.

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