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+---- Thread: Privacy stealing Bitches (/thread-1837.html)
Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 10-18-2010
You all know I've been complaining about the privacy breeches with Facebook. Well, reading my news stories online today I found this headline and decided to dig deeper for the original story. What prompted me to dig? Fucking Facebook and how they invaded my privacy yesterday.
I was out and about with Matt and I accessed my FB account via my cell phone. I never added this to my FB settings nor do I want it in there. Well, I get an email today telling me it's now there and REGISTERED with FB along with all the other computers I have accessed the site with.
I'm pretty well pissed off. Bad enough they've taken over the goddamn internet and everyone is using it and every damn business has to play "Mommy May I?" to get any recognition now, but they try to buffalo me with telling me I'm registered with all my machines for my SAFETY! Do they really think I'm that stupid? Seriously.
Have run my own sites since 2005 I understand there is no such thing as privacy when it comes to the internet and I will tell you all right now that ANY site owner has the ability if they want to, to read all your private messages. A good hacker can get in there and read everything too. Hosting companies can look at your private information as well as mine. It's a vicious circle.
I make it a point to NOT read my members private stuff because I value your privacy as much as I expect my own valued by others. I'm also going to tell you the only way to read YOUR stuff by me is directly from the database and frankly, I just don't know how nor want to know how to do that. I'm a complete moron with the database and I hardly go in there without having someone from the hosting company or Dylan holding my hand, do any fixing that needs to be done. Which, BTW, is a rare occasion. The software runs very well and I don't need to access the DB but for backing up during updates and upgrades or moving the site.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I feel violated and you all should too if you use this stuff. I feel I need to reassure you guys here. I mean. I love technology and all, but taking my cell info without my permission for my own 'safety' just pissed me off. I also want you all to know that unlike some other sites (that we used to or still visit) - there is no need to even question this with me and my sites.
In fact, if you all want, I will make an admin account and you can go in and look and see exactly what I see here. I will restrict the users area from your view and the themes area. I can't afford to breech privacy in the users area (IP addresses - everything else is in their profile that you all can see anyway)or have an accidental button hit in the themes and have to recode something. You'll have full access otherwise but you wont' be able to edit or set anything.
Facebook in Privacy Breach <-- click for story page
By EMILY STEEL And GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
Kim White Bloomberg
![[Image: P1-AX761_facebo_F_20101017185109.jpg]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AX761_facebo_F_20101017185109.jpg)
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the F8 developer conference this spring.
Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.
More From Digits
* Facebook Faces Suit Over Earlier Breach
* How the Data Leaks Happen
The problem has ties to the growing field of companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online—a practice the Journal has been examining in its What They Know series. It's unclear how long the breach was in place. On Sunday, a Facebook spokesman said it is taking steps to "dramatically limit" the exposure of users' personal information.
"A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application," the spokesman said. Knowledge of an ID "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook," he said, adding that the company would introduce new technology to contain the problem identified by the Journal.
"Our technical systems have always been complemented by strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information," the Facebook official said.
More From the Series
* Web's New Goldmine: Your Secrets
* Personal Details Exposed Via Biggest Sites
* Microsoft Quashed Bid to Boost Web Privacy
* On Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only
* Stalking by Cellphone
* Google Agonizes Over Privacy
* 'Scrapers' Dig Deep for Data on Web
* The Tracking Ecosystem
* On the Web, Children Face Intensive Tracking
* Complete Coverage: What They Know
"Apps" are pieces of software that let Facebook's 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. The Journal found that all of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies.
The apps, ranked by research company Inside Network Inc. (based on monthly users), include Zynga Game Network Inc.'s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user's friends to outside companies.
Most apps aren't made by Facebook, but by independent software developers. Several apps became unavailable to Facebook users after the Journal informed Facebook that the apps were transmitting personal information; the specific reason for their unavailability remains unclear.
The information being transmitted is one of Facebook's basic building blocks: the unique "Facebook ID" number assigned to every user on the site. Since a Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profile, anyone can use an ID number to look up a person's name, using a standard Web browser, even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private. For other users, the Facebook ID reveals information they have set to share with "everyone," including age, residence, occupation and photos.
The apps reviewed by the Journal were sending Facebook ID numbers to at least 25 advertising and data firms, several of which build profiles of Internet users by tracking their online activities.
Defenders of online tracking argue that this kind of surveillance is benign because it is conducted anonymously. In this case, however, the Journal found that one data-gathering firm, RapLeaf Inc., had linked Facebook user ID information obtained from apps to its own database of Internet users, which it sells. RapLeaf also transmitted the Facebook IDs it obtained to a dozen other firms, the Journal found.
Name Games
All 10 of the top Facebook apps transmitted users' IDs, The Journal found
![[Image: P1-AX754A_WTKFB_G_20101017205234.jpg]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AX754A_WTKFB_G_20101017205234.jpg)
RapLeaf said that transmission was unintentional. "We didn't do it on purpose," said Joel Jewitt, vice president of business development for RapLeaf.
Facebook said it previously has "taken steps ... to significantly limit Rapleaf's ability to use any Facebook-related data."
Facebook prohibits app makers from transferring data about users to outside advertising and data companies, even if a user agrees. The Journal's findings shed light on the challenge of policing those rules for the 550,000 apps on its site.
The Journal's findings are the latest challenge for Facebook, which has been criticized in recent years for modifying its privacy rules to expose more of a user's information. This past spring, the Journal found that Facebook was transmitting the ID numbers to advertising companies, under some circumstances, when a user clicked on an ad. Facebook subsequently discontinued the practice.
"This is an even more complicated technical challenge than a similar issue we successfully addressed last spring on Facebook.com," a Facebook spokesman said, "but one that we are committed to addressing."
The privacy issue follows Facebook's effort just this month to give its users more control over its apps, which privacy activists had cited as a potential hole in users' ability to control who sees their information. On Oct. 6, Facebook created a control panel that lets users see which apps are accessing which categories of information about them. It indicates, for example, when an application accesses a user's "basic information" (including a user ID and name). However, it doesn't detail what information friends' applications have accessed about a user.
Video From 'What They Know' Series
It's rarely a coincidence when you see Web ads for products that match your interests. WSJ's Christina Tsuei explains how advertisers use cookies to track your online habits.
A new report in the Wall Street Journal's "What They Know" series illustrates how companies like Microsoft must balance conflicting interests: helping people surf the Web with its browser to keep their mouse clicks private, and helping advertisers who want to see those clicks. WSJ's Julia Angwin, Nick Wingfield, and Jessica Vascellaro join host Simon Constable as panelists on this special Digits live show.
Facebook apps transform Facebook into a hub for all kinds of activity, from playing games to setting up a family tree. Apps are considered an important way for Facebook to extend the usefulness of its network. The company says 70% of users use apps each month.
Applications are also a growing source of revenue beyond advertising for Facebook itself, which sells its own virtual currency that can be used to pay for games.
Following an investigation by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Facebook in June limited applications to accessing only the public parts of a user's profile, unless the user grants additional permission. (Canadian officials later expressed satisfaction with Facebook's steps.) Previously, applications could tap any data the user had access to, including detailed profiles and information about a user's friends.
It's not clear if developers of many of the apps transmitting Facebook ID numbers even knew that their apps were doing so. The apps were using a common Web standard, known as a "referer," which passes on the address of the last page viewed when a user clicks on a link. On Facebook and other social-networking sites, referers can expose a user's identity.
The company says it has disabled thousands of applications at times for violating its policies. It's unclear how many, if any, of those cases involved passing user information to marketing companies.
Facebook also appeared to have shut down some applications the Journal found to be transmitting user IDs, including several created by LOLapps Media Inc., a San Francisco company backed with $4 million in venture capital. LOLapp's applications include Gift Creator, with 3.5 million monthly active users, Quiz Creator, with 1.4 million monthly active users, Colorful Butterflies and Best Friends Gifts.
Since Friday, users attempting to access those applications received either an error message or were reverted to Facebook's home screen.
"We have taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms," a Facebook spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for LOLapps Media declined to comment.
The applications transmitting Facebook IDs may have breached their own privacy policies, as well as industry standards, which say sites shouldn't share and advertisers shouldn't collect personally identifiable information without users' permission. Zynga, for example, says in its privacy policy that it "does not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to third-party advertising companies."
A Zynga spokeswoman said, "Zynga has a strict policy of not passing personally identifiable information to any third parties. We look forward to working with Facebook to refine how web technologies work to keep people in control of their information."
The most expansive use of Facebook user information uncovered by the Journal involved RapLeaf. The San Francisco company compiles and sells profiles of individuals based in part on their online activities.
The Journal found that some LOLapps applications, as well as the Family Tree application, were transmitting users' Facebook ID numbers to RapLeaf. RapLeaf then linked those ID numbers to dossiers it had previously assembled on those individuals, according to RapLeaf. RapLeaf then embedded that information in an Internet-tracking file known as a "cookie."
RapLeaf says it strips out the user's name when it embeds the information in the cookie and shares that information for ad targeting. However, The Wall Street Journal found that RapLeaf transmitted Facebook user IDs to a dozen other advertising and data firms, including Google Inc.'s Invite Media.
All 12 companies said that they didn't collect, store or use the information.
Ilya Nikolayev, chief executive of Familybuilder, maker of the Family Tree application, said in an email, "It is Familybuilder's corporate policy to keep any actual, potential, current or prior business partnerships, relationships, customer details, and any similar information confidential. As this story relates to a company other than Familybuilder, we have nothing further to contribute."
Write to Emily Steel at emily.steel@wsj.com and Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 10-18-2010
If you are using FireFox or Safari browsers you can surf the net securely. I just spent an hour online with Apple support trying to find where my cookies are. I'm so happy I bought an Apple instead of a windows machine. All my stuff is in one place.
OK for your private browsing on FF and Safari, go to: Tools > Start Private Browsing
This will allow you to browse the internet and not let those third party cookies install on your system.
To remove the cookies you already have in there, go to: FireFox > Preferences
A new window (pop up) will open and you will have 7 tabs at the top. One of them should be SECURITY - click that.
In here you will see a dropdown that says, "Firefox will" and next to it by default it should say Remember History. Here you can choose how you want your browsing history to be remembered or not. This is a personal preference.
Below that you will see: "Firefox will remember your browsing, download, form and search history, and keep cookies from web sites you visit.
You may want to 'clear your recent history' or 'remove individual cookies'.
Clicking either of these will open a new window and you can see your history and your cookies.
I have cleared all my cookies and when I relogged into Facebook, I now have no less than 100 cookies in here!
I will now be clearing these out more often than I normally do.
Now IE is a little different and Windows computers are even more complex where those cookies are stored. On my Apple, everything is contained in the program's file and unlike a PC machine, I never, ever have to defrag or do a disk cleanup.
So, to find your dirt in your PC Internet Explorer, and all other browsers:
Open your IE go to Tools >internet options - a window will pop up.
On the GENERAL tab of this small window, in the middle you will see a section called BROWSING HISTORY. In here are two buttons: DELETE / SETTINGS. Click delete. A new small window opens. In here you can clean out all that stuff or keep what you want. You should clear out all Temporary INternet files, cookies and history for now.
OK, so now you cleared all that out and you think you're done? Nope. Now you gotta find where all these cookies were installed on your computer! Where are they?
Minimize or close your browser and go to:
1. Select and open My Computer.
2. Select and open the C Drive.
3. Select and open Documents and Settings.
4. Select and open your identity. Note: We can't be more specific here as it will depend on how your computer was set up. Usually it will have your name in it.
5. Select and open Local Settings.
6. Select and open Temporary Internet Files Folder. <-- (thanks Vizzy)
The temporary internet files folder is where they store those secret cookies. Also note that if you deleted your temporary internet files from the above browser cleaning, it DOES NOT clear them all out.
If you're using Windows Vista or W7, the path should be the same or close to it.
You guys should be cleaning out your cookies, temp files and browser history on a regular basis.
You should also do a twice monthly disk cleanup and defrag to get the most out of your computer and eliminate the junk accumulated on the sneak. It will also boost your performance time and help keep locking up and slowness down to a minimum.
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 12-07-2010
You know, I should stick this thread even though no one has had an opinion on this subject. I feel the info is important enough to have handy as a reference. I know it is for me and it took me half an hour to find the thread today. I thought it was titled something different.
I got my Roboform beta test application today and it's for Safari browser only (for now) and in using Safari, I have a plugin called Ghostery installed. Ghostery is available for FF browsers OLDER than version 3.0. I don't know why they don't update it for the latest versions but from poking around, it's not been updated much for Safari either.
What is Ghostery? Ghostery is a plugin that blocks all kinds of things you don't want on your browsing experience and it also blocks those little privacy invading bugs that I mentioned above. I found there are over 200+ little invaders of privacy floating around the internet. Maybe if you browse plugins and add ons for Firefox and IE you may find something similar. I'm going to browse the FF page for something for when I go back to using it.
Anyway, with the need to use Safari to test my Roboform, this Ghostery keeps showing all kinds of things and I figured since I am using Safari, I might as well configure this thing.
I allowed the Alexa, Sitemeter, Google and Yahoo stuff. I can block the google ads but I want them for now to check my ads.
Some of these things are really scary! Check this one out called SpyLog http://www.ghostery.com/apps/spylog
Here is the list of things I had to choose from to block:
3DStats
[x+1]
Acerno
Act-On Beacon
AdaptiveBlue SmartLinks
AdBrite
AddFreeStats
AddThis
AddtoAny
Adify
Adknowledge
AdMeld
AdNexus
AdRiver
AdScale
AdSide
Adtegrity
AdTiger
AdultAdWorld
Advertising.com
Alexa Metrics
Alexa Traffic Rank
Alexa Widget
AlmondNet
Amazon Associates
Apture
AWStats
BackType Widgets
Baynote Observer
Begun
BidVertiser
BinLayer
Bizo
Blogads
BlogCatalog
BlogCounter
BlogHer Ads
BlogRollr
BlueKai
Bluelithium
Bluemetrix
BLVD Status
BTBuckets
Burst Media
BuySellAds
Bzzster
Casale Media
Channel Intelligence
ChannelAdvisor
ChartBeat
CheckM8
Chitika
ClearSaleing
ClearSpring
Clickability Beacon
ClickFuel
Clicksor
ClickTale
Clicky
ClixMetrix
Clixpy
ClustrMaps
Collarity
Collective Media
CompeteXL
Comscore Beacon
ConversionRuler
Coremetrics
CPX Interactive
Crazy Egg
Criteo
Crowd Science
Cubics
DC StormIQ
Demandbase
Digg Widget
DiggThis
Disqus
DomoDomain
Dotomi
Doubleclick
DoubleClick Spotlight
DoublePimp
DoubleVerify
Dynamic Logic
eBay Stats
Eloqua
Engagd
Enquisite
eProof
etracker
eXelate
eXTReMe Tracker
Facebook Beacon
Facebook Connect
Fathom SEO
Federated Media
FeedBurner
Feedjit
Fetchback
ForeSee
Fox Audience Network
FriendFeed
FunctionalTrends
Genius
GetSatisfaction
Glam Media
GoDaddy Site Analytics
Gomez
Google Adsense
Google AdWords Conversion
Google AJAX Search API
Google Analytics
Google Custom Search Engine
Google FriendConnect
Google Website Optimizer
Google Widgets
GoSquared LiveStats
gumgum
Gunggo
Histats
HitsLink
HitTail
HubSpot
HubSpot WebsiteGrader
i-stats
IndexTools
InfoLinks
INFOnline
InsightExpress
IntelligenceFocus
Intense Debate
interCLICK
iPerceptions
JS-Kit
Kampyle
Kanoodle
KissMetrics
Kontera ContentLink
LeadBack
LeadForce1
LeadLander
Lijit
LiveBall
LiveInternet
LivePerson
Logdy
Lookery
Loomia
Lotame
Lynchpin Analytics
Lyris ClickTracks
Magnify360
Marin Search Marketer
Marketo
MashLogic
Media6 Degrees
mediaFORGE
Meebo Bar
Mercent
Microsoft Analytics
Microsoft Atlas
Mindset Media
Mint
Mirando
MixPanel
MSN Ads
MyBlogLog
Navegg
NebuAd
NedStat
NetMonitor
NetRatings SiteCensus
NextAction
Nooked
Nuconomy
Nugg.Ad
Omniture
Omniture TouchClarity
OneStat
OpenAds
OrangeSoda
Others Online
Outbrain
Pardot
Peer39
PercentMobile
phpMyVisites
Piwik Analytics
PointRoll
PostRank
Quantcast
Quigo AdSonar
Quintelligence
RapLeaf
Real Media
Reinvigorate
Resonance
ReTargeter Beacon
Revenue Science
RichRelevance
RightMedia
Rocket Fuel
Rubicon
Salesforce
ScribeFire QuickAds
SearchForce
Seesmic
SexInYourCity
ShareThis
ShinyStat
Silverpop
SiteMeter
Six Apart Advertising
Skribit
Snap
Snoobi
SpecificClick
Sphere
Spot200
SpyLog
Statcounter
Statisfy
Statsit
Summit Media
Sweepery
Tacoda
Technorati Widget
Tell-a-Friend
Thummit
TouchCommerce
Traffic Marketplace
Trafic
Tribal Fusion
TriggIt
Trovus Revelations
Tumblr
Turn
Tweetboard
TweetMeme
Twitter Badge
TwitterCounter
Tynt Tracer
Typepad Stats
Unica
UserVoice
ValueClick Mediaplex
Vibrant Ads
VisiStat
vistrac
Visual Website Optimizer
VisualDNA
ViziSense
W3Counter
Webtrekk
WebTrends
WebVisor
Whos.amung.us
Wibiya Toolbar
WidgetBox
WidgetBucks
Woopra
Wordpress Stats
WordStream
XiTi
Yahoo Analytics
Yahoo Buzz
Yahoo Overture
Yandex.Metrics
YieldBuild
Zango
Zedo
Zemanta
Zendesk
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 12-07-2010
OK found a couple of FF add ons that will work. One of them IS Ghostery!
Ghostery
MORE HERE but these have few reviews and some not so good. Pick your add ons and enjoy some privacy.
Get Microsoft Plugins for IE8 <- I don't know if there are any security plugins there. I haven't browsed the site fully.
That Ghostery is great. NO MORE targeted ads for me on stupid Facebook.
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 02-26-2011
Hey, I know you all see me talking to myself here but I got some news about Ghostery. Damn I
that thing on my browsers!New versions with cookie blocking here: http://www.ghostery.com/download
From the Ghostery blog:
New and improved! Ghostery for Firefox 2.5.2
Here's the skinny:
* Ghostery's library is getting large (and ever morecomprehensive) - we're up to 486 trackers and 337 cookies. That means Ghosty is working his sheet off trying to scan when you open a page. We did a couple of regex/string matching tricks to make this go much faster, and the regex engine in Firefox 4 gets lots of improvements, so we're confident things will work better going forward. Lab testing indicates that this versions performs much faster than 2.5.1.
* Previous versions of Ghostery included options for scanning things like images, dynamically included elements, object tags, and embed tags. We left those out of the UI when we updated the options screen... so we added them back, and included the option of looking for redirect chains (one script launches another, which launches another, etc). These features are enabled by default - but if you're experiencing performance issues, you can pick and choose how you'd like Ghostery to work. Every one of the features that is disabled might give Ghostery a little performance boost, but it also means less comprehensive scanning and blocking.
* Cookie blocking should be used carefully. Like we suggested in the last release post - it's like turning Ghosty into Rambo and giving him a bazooka. We'll do our best to make sure that it's not behaving any way it shouldn't, but know that sometimes blocking cookies has unintended consequences. If you see strange results on a site, try disabling cookie blocking. Whitelisting the site will not keep cookies from being blocked - we currently don't have a way to associate a cookie request with a particular browser tab.
* Ghostery now comes with a End User License Agreement - you can see it by checking the "credits" section of the help screen. Ghostery is "open", meaning that we don't encrypt or obfuscate the code - but we do retain rights of distribution and development. That just means we don't open Ghostery to disassembly and reverse engineering for any purpose other than personal edification, it's not a GPL or CopyLeft license. You can find the agreement in the Ghostery directory (
* We've added a lot of features, and changed the UI, and even had some reports of some lost settings. So now is the time to double-check your Ghostery options, and make sure everything is set how you like it. Hopefully that's all the auditing you'll have to do this year.
Thanks for all the feedback - as always, our community is the most valuable part of improving Ghostery. Don't hesitate to let us know what you think of the new release, or send any other thoughts and suggestions to feedback(at)ghostery.com.
Happy Browsing,
Andy
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twilla - 02-26-2011
I'll give that ghostery thing a try. I don't particularly mind the ads but it does seem to take up monitor space.
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twilla - 02-26-2011
Hmmm... that didn't work so well on my games site. The 'web bugs' completely blocked the game offerings on the home page. I guess I need to figure out what specifically applies to that site so I can open it again.
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 02-26-2011
Open your Tools > Add Ons in your FF browser. Look for Ghostery in your list and hit preferences to configure it.
Set up Ghostery there. You need to either white list those game sites or go through the massive list there and uncheck what you know is on the game site you want to allow in.
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - Twitchin Kitten - 10-01-2011
(02-26-2011, 10:16 AM)Twilla Wrote: Hmmm... that didn't work so well on my games site. The 'web bugs' completely blocked the game offerings on the home page. I guess I need to figure out what specifically applies to that site so I can open it again.
Inside Ghostery's settings there is a place you can white list sites that get blocked. Just add them in. Bigfishgames.com is one of them you need to whitelist.
Ghostery is the best for keeping your web surfing private, even on facebook but only a small degree there.
RE: Privacy stealing Bitches - John L - 05-20-2012
My Ghostery seems to be doing quite well with my Opera browser. Some pages I access have close to twenty names in the little box at the top right hand of the page. I don't get any more moving advertisements, or even non-moving ones that suddenly crop up when I show up somewhere.
Thanks dear for the heads-up on this program.