Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads.
Increasingly, what we do on the Internet is being combined with other data about us. Everything we do now involves computers, and computers produce data as a natural by-product. Everything is now being saved and correlated, and many big-data companies make money by building up intimate profiles of our lives from a variety of sources.
Tag Archives: privacy
Residents challenge Google camera
Angry residents in Milton Keynes blocked the driver of a Google Street View car when he started taking photographs of their homes.
The great DRM disaster
Record companies and movie studios like products. Real, tangible, physical products you can buy, place in a bag, and carry home. This keeps the issue of distribution and ownership nice and straightforward – those who are holding the product in exchange for money hold a licence to use it, within predefined boundaries. Accountants, lawyers, and those fresh out of an economics degree can cope with this model with no problem at all.
But what if the customer doesn’t necessarily want or need a physical, touchy-feely product in a box? What if, for example, they can download the album or film or book or whatever, and this fits in with their highly digital lifestyle?
Google Desktop privacy branded ‘unacceptable’
Uttered by Copernic, reported by The Register. Are toys leaving the pram, or does this accurately highlight the beginnings of something deeply ugly?
Blocking Ads with a Hosts File
You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, cookies, web bugs, and even most java scripts. This is accomplished by blocking the Server that supplies these little gems.
In many cases this can speed the loading of web pages by not having to wait for these ads, banners, hit counters, etc. to load. This also helps to protect your Privacy by blocking servers that track your viewing habits.