Facebook tracking on LDS Freedom Forum

[firefly]

I also use a program called Little Snitch, which warns me every time any program tries to send any data over the internet. I can either OK it once, until the program quits or forever.

Can you tell if the data is video from a webcam? In case you think the program is just doing one thing, but ends up doing more.

http://www.crn.com/news/security/224400 ... -twist.htm

[gnolaum]

Can you tell if the data is video from a webcam? In case you think the program is just doing one thing, but ends up doing more.

You would be able to tell if you could see the packets. But in the case of that article you referenced Little Snitch would popup and say something like "TheftTrack" is trying to send data on port "80" to "www.whatever.com". If you don't know what TheftTrack is you would deny it, and remove that software from your machine. Simple as that.

[gnolaum]

let me assure you, any packet that leaves your computer is compromised to TPTB, period.

the FBI has backdoor access to all major cloud computing devices, and MOST minor ones. there are a very few places where they have not accessed their access yet, but once it is activated there is 100% packet and digital reproduction capability and 0% ability of the equipment operator to monitor it.

I completely disagree. "They" do not have to break every piece of software or compromise the hardware in order to sniff packets when they, as you state above, own sniffing devices on every backbone routing device that matters.

In other words, the packets are not compromised at the packet level, there is generally nothing that redirects the packets from your computer to anywhere that is not covered in the EULA. TPTB just pick up the packets on the wire no matter where they are headed to or coming from. They are then permanently stored in a mountain of a digital warehouse and accessed by a human when any flags are raised.

My point is that I know CIA/FBI/NSA sniff packets and though I don't like it and believe that it is criminally prosecutable given a government with integrity, there is nothing I send over any wire that I care to keep secret.

In other words, I care but I really don't care. Those in the government who participate in such criminal activity will eventually reap the consequences.

[gnolaum]

you lost me. you said you completely disagree then said about the same thing I said.

TPTB just pick up the packets on the wire no matter where they are headed to or coming from

this is correct.

once you are identified, your packets can be easily flagged.

the ease of doing this makes tracking almost anyone as easy as sending an email or posting this post.

there are most likey many people on this forum that are being tracked as such, simply because you meet many of the SPLC's flags.

I thought you were implying that the government has installed software on everyone's machines or hardware tracking devices as well as putting sniffers in the 'cloud' systems. They don't have hardware tracking because it is too easy to discover and then the dumbed-down populace can no longer ignore their blatant violation of our 4th amendment rights. They don't have software payloads on every machine for the same reason. Cloud really has nothing to do with it. Cloud systems are just the latest buzzword for client-server computing. They have been around for years and are just another high-availability server farm. What they do have is their own router-devices literally on the wires/fiber so that any major crossing from one computer to another over the internet goes through one of their devices.

so, worrying about facebook and stuff seems silly. if you are on the net, you are on the radar. period. and the rest of the stuff to hide yourself is great for commercial databases, useless for government databases and most likely flags you for the government. sometimes the absence of specific indicators is an indicator.

I don't think it is that cut and dry. They don't have enough manpower to have a human look at everything. But if you are on facebook, or this forum, and you talk about your religion, The Constitution, Gospel, 2nd amendment, etc. You will be flagged. But then they still have to go to your ISP and match your IP address to a human identifiable piece of information (your address, phone number, credit card, etc.). Then they have to match that up with the other information they have on you, which had to also be obtained in the same way. They cannot map IP addresses to people unless you use a provider that works with them. (Who knows they may virtually own the major players in that arena as well.)

My theory is that the lesser the amount info you present, the safer you are. A good analogy is putting a padlock on your storage facility. Does that prevent anyone from breaking in? Absolutely not. It simply makes it more effort that it may be worth.

Regardless of government treason and intrusion (which it is by all accounts regardless of the unconstitutional NDAA), these plugins keep me from seeing the corporate plugs to buy things I don't need and prevent marketing companies from knowing anything about me. They cannot control what I allow into my machine or what I allow out of it. Period. Sure they can manipulate and change anything they want once it leaves my box, but that would be breaking 2 base, lower laws (bearing false witness, stealing), in addition to the higher law of the Golden Rule.

Bottom line: Are we being tracked? Probably.

Do we care? Well, personally, I absolutely do not.

Am I going to make it easy for anyone who wishes to track me? Again, absolutely not.

Regardless of all that. I refuse to let Facebook or Google have any information pertaining to me or what I research. Google has been doing this a lot longer than the feds. The Feds are using Google, and now Facebook to gather information. Why make it easier for them?

If they want to ask me something let them come to my house and face the barrel of my gun when they want to violate my 4th amendment rights, or any others.

Will I die defending myself, my rights and that of my family? Most likely.

Will I take at least one of them with me? Most likely.

Would Joseph Smith have done any different. IMHO, absolutely not.

[freedomforall]

I use 3 Firefox plugins always: Adblock Plus, NoScript and Ghostery.

Do these three or Little Snitch allow third party communication or tracking? This is the type of stuff we look for in the EULA isn't it? Is this why you're confident using them...safe to use?

[gnolaum]

I use 3 Firefox plugins always: Adblock Plus, NoScript and Ghostery.

Do these three or Little Snitch allow third party communication or tracking? This is the type of stuff we look for in the EULA isn't it? Is this why you're confident using them...safe to use?

To the best of my knowledge and experience these 4 items do not do anything unexpected with regard to communicating with 3rd party apps or companies. Little Snitch is praised by the advanced Mac user community and white-hats. Some people like Hands-Off better, but I prefer Little Snitch as it seems more mature and better supported.

See:

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ ... _used_well" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/utiliti ... is-better/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/mac/pr ... or-mac/448" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Something similar for windows:

http://superuser.com/questions/261440/w ... on-windows" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[firefly]

I went to the 9'11 thread and I got a message saying that http://www.ae911truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[dot]org wanted to put a cookie on my computer.

I looked through the thread on that page and found a link to http://www.ae911truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[dot]org that someone had posted. How does a website unrelated to LDSFF do this? What are the implications?

Does this mean that anytime we post a link to a website on a forum, there's a possibility that that website will attempt to attach cookies to anyone who reads that post?

[gnolaum]

I went to the 9'11 thread and I got a message saying that http://www.ae911truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[dot]org wanted to put a cookie on my computer.

I looked through the thread on that page and found a link to http://www.ae911truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[dot]org that someone had posted. How does a website unrelated to LDSFF do this? What are the implications?

3rd party companies and websites can post cookies on your browser even if you don't visit their site directly. The way that happens is likely one of these two:

1) Brian (Webmaster here) has, for whatever reason, allowed javascript on this site from ae911truth.org.
2) Your browser allows 3rd party javascripts and 3rd party cookies, and/or you have some kind of marketing plugin (a 3rd party searchbar, toolbar, or some other kind of plugin) that has ae911truth.org as an advertising client.

Does this mean that anytime we post a link to a website on a forum, there's a possibility that that website will attempt to attach cookies to anyone who reads that post?

Yes, if you visit (click) the link that gets posted and your browser allows Javascript and cookies, you will most certainly be storing whatever kind of cookie they place on your machine.

This is why I recommend Firefox with the 3 plugins above, Private Browsing mode and delete all cookies at least once a month.

PS: Never, EVER install a 3rd party searchbar like Google Search Bar http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rem ... fox-search" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Google offers them, Yahoo offers them, Ask.com offers them, etc. ad infinitum. They are all evil so please don't use them. Same goes for GroupBuy plugins and their ilk. If you have a question about a particular browser plugin I'll do my best to vet it for you. But I recommend the minimum only. Less is more in this case.

[gnolaum]

PS: http://www.ae911truth.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is a doing search engine arbitrage. Which means they are buying search keywords from Google or Yahoo, et. al. and selling them for a profit. It is evil and offers nothing of value in research or any other vein.

[firefly]

Well I understand that by clicking on a link, I go to that website which may attempt to out cookies on my computer.

What had happened though was that all I did was open up the thread on 9'11 here at LDSFF and I got that message. I didn't click on the link at all and I have no other toolbars. So you are saying that perhaps an addon I have placed on my computer may done this?

[freedomforall]

I went to the 9'11 thread and I got a message saying that http://www.ae911truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[dot]org wanted to put a cookie on my computer.

I looked through the thread on that page and found a link to http://www.ae911truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[dot]org that someone had posted. How does a website unrelated to LDSFF do this? What are the implications?

3rd party companies and websites can post cookies on your browser even if you don't visit their site directly. The way that happens is likely one of these two:

1) Brian (Webmaster here) has, for whatever reason, allowed javascript on this site from ae911truth.org.
2) Your browser allows 3rd party javascripts and 3rd party cookies, and/or you have some kind of marketing plugin (a 3rd party searchbar, toolbar, or some other kind of plugin) that has ae911truth.org as an advertising client.

Does this mean that anytime we post a link to a website on a forum, there's a possibility that that website will attempt to attach cookies to anyone who reads that post?

Yes, if you visit (click) the link that gets posted and your browser allows Javascript and cookies, you will most certainly be storing whatever kind of cookie they place on your machine.

This is why I recommend Firefox with the 3 plugins above, Private Browsing mode and delete all cookies at least once a month.

PS: Never, EVER install a 3rd party searchbar like Google Search Bar http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rem ... fox-search" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Google offers them, Yahoo offers them, Ask.com offers them, etc. ad infinitum. They are all evil so please don't use them. Same goes for GroupBuy plugins and their ilk. If you have a question about a particular browser plugin I'll do my best to vet it for you. But I recommend the minimum only. Less is more in this case.

So with Ghostery one needs to block ALL 3pes's?

I use the free version of AVG, due to the fact it was recommended by my computer repair guy. And I use a free version of Malwarebytes...but I didn't check the EULA for any red flags. I've been told to only have one virus program because more than one can causes conflicts between the two and computer trouble. And perhaps no more than two malware type programs.

[gnolaum]

Well I understand that by clicking on a link, I go to that website which may attempt to out cookies on my computer.

What had happened though was that all I did was open up the thread on 9'11 here at LDSFF and I got that message. I didn't click on the link at all and I have no other toolbars. So you are saying that perhaps an addon I have placed on my computer may done this?

FF, yes that is quite possible. What browser do you use?

[gnolaum]

So with Ghostery one needs to block ALL 3pes's?

I use the free version of AVG, due to the fact it was recommended by my computer repair guy. And I use a free version of Malwarebytes...but I didn't check the EULA for any red flags. I've been told to only have one virus program because more than one can causes conflicts between the two and computer trouble. And perhaps no more than two malware type programs.

Yes, block all 3pes. Computer repair guys are notorious for recommending what they know. I am puzzled as to why most of them are still not familiar with the incredibly thorough Avast. It is free as well for personal use. I used to use Norton Anti-Virus, many years ago, once considered 'the best'. My machine was sluggish and acting like it was infected with a trojan horse, and Norton was asking me 'again' for money so I decided to remove it and search for something else. After a few hours of research I found Avast, a Czechoslovakian product at the time. I installed it and it immediately found a half-dozen virii on my machine that Norton completely missed. Since then I recommend it exclusively to all Windows user friends and family. You can stick with AVG or whatever you want. I just trust Avast because I've seen it discover bad juju that others have missed.

Yes, more than one anti-virus program is counter productive. But I would use Avast over AVG. As for Malware there was something that I used to use, I can't remember the name but that plus Avast was all I used along with a firewall called ZoneAlarm or something like that.

[firefly]

Firefox on a linux computer. I put some addons to stop tracking but maybe they're fake and do the opposite.

I got another attempt to add a cookie by lewrockwell.com when I visited the 13 page of The Fundamental Principles of Liberty. I was wondering if it's just me or is this happening to other people.

I've been looking for something similar to little snitch on linux, but I haven't yet found one.

[gnolaum]

Firefox on a linux computer. I put some addons to stop tracking but maybe they're fake and do the opposite.

I got another attempt to add a cookie by lewrockwell.com when I visited the 13 page of The Fundamental Principles of Liberty. I was wondering if it's just me or is this happening to other people.

I've been looking for something similar to little snitch on linux, but I haven't yet found one.

Firefly, please post the link and I'll tell you if it is the website or something on your end (browser, plugin, etc.).

[firefly]

well here was the link.

http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... &start=360" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but I no longer get that message.

I tried to recreate it. Before going to that page I removed the block I placed on lewrockwell.com, and then see if they would attempt to do it again. No luck.

[gnolaum]

well here was the link.

http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... &start=360" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but I no longer get that message.

I tried to recreate it. Before going to that page I removed the block I placed on lewrockwell.com, and then see if they would attempt to do it again. No luck.

That page asks my browser to load the following Javascripts:

1) ldsfreedomforum.com, inline JS
2) http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/styles/L ... orum_fn.js" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
3) Some stuff from google.com, which I deny
4) And some embedded stuff from youtube.com, which I allow

It does indeed load a cookie from lewrockwell.com and those from youtube.com. The cookie from lewrockwell.com may come from the embedded youtube video, but it is also possible that this image http://lewrockwell.com/buttons/secede-LRC-bumper2a.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; loads and drops the cookie on your machine.

I can explain how it is done but you will likely find it boring and uninteresting. Suffice it to say that you may think you are loading an image like this 'mybogus.gif', but that the URL actually loads some javascript that loads the image among other things like drop a cookie and track what you are doing on the page.

[gnolaum]

Check here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1019 ... e-requests" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[firefly]

Thanks for checking the page gnolaum, at least now I know its coming from the website itself and not something I've put on my computer.

[gnolaum]

my pleasure

[freedomforall]

Well I understand that by clicking on a link, I go to that website which may attempt to out cookies on my computer.

What had happened though was that all I did was open up the thread on 9'11 here at LDSFF and I got that message. I didn't click on the link at all and I have no other toolbars. So you are saying that perhaps an addon I have placed on my computer may done this?

FF, yes that is quite possible. What browser do you use?

Firefox

[A Random Phrase]

This is why I recommend Firefox with the 3 plugins above, Private Browsing mode and delete all cookies at least once a month.

My Firefox cookies are set to delete every time I close the browser. Also, my "accept 3rd party cookies" is turned off. I have to turn them on when I want to comment on blogspot blogs (including my own, even when I am signed in), but I delete the cookies and turn off the 3rd party cookies when I am through commenting.

I have also refused to install some programs I wanted because the EULA said they had the right to track me. Open Source programs like LibreOffice seem to be okay. Their premise is that people have the right to freely share programs among each other. Part of the agreement is that one can freely alter such programs (and if you improve them, you can share your improvement with the site that the program originated from).

It is true that none of us is "safe" from tptb - but too much tracking slows down the computer and the browser (plus it can become majorly irritating). At some point in time, I plan to stop using the web so much.

[freedomforall]

This is why I recommend Firefox with the 3 plugins above, Private Browsing mode and delete all cookies at least once a month.

My Firefox cookies are set to delete every time I close the browser. Also, my "accept 3rd party cookies" is turned off. I have to turn them on when I want to comment on blogspot blogs (including my own, even when I am signed in), but I delete the cookies and turn off the 3rd party cookies when I am through commenting.

I have also refused to install some programs I wanted because the EULA said they had the right to track me. Open Source programs like LibreOffice seem to be okay. Their premise is that people have the right to freely share programs among each other. Part of the agreement is that one can freely alter such programs (and if you improve them, you can share your improvement with the site that the program originated from).

It is true that none of us is "safe" from tptb - but too much tracking slows down the computer and the browser (plus it can become majorly irritating). At some point in time, I plan to stop using the web so much.

To me trying to stop tracking is like putting a bandaid on a bleeding sore, and then another bandaid over the top of the saturated one and so on. Somehow, some way we will be, or are being tracked in ways we haven't heard of.

I try to use a popup blocker and yet still get popups, so what's the use?

I have another problem if someone can help. I attempted to load Google Earth one day last week, and it crashed. And along with it several hundred placemarks disappeared, every single one of them. I did a search for .kmz files...not there, .kml files...not there, .zip files...not there, recycle bin...not there. They're gone. Is there a way to restore them? Aren't they still on the hard drive some place?

[A Random Phrase]

Ouch! I cannot help you with your problem.

I think you're right about the band-aid. It is a rather useless fight.