Author Topic: Trying to understand Tracking  (Read 22875 times)

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Offline polonus

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #45 on: February 26, 2014, 06:30:02 PM »
Hi Charyb,

That goes for extensions but also for plug-ins and the browser as a whole.
This means you propagate to use a browser as by default.
You have the avast shields on? Do you use a sandbox?

Reminds me of youngsters to day.
Give your computer a happy go licky swirl, click and browse around to your heart's content,
when it does not function anymore take the back-ups and restore.

pol
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Offline abruptum

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #46 on: February 26, 2014, 06:37:53 PM »
Well it was not for nothing that Google had announced that they were going to block installation of apps in Chrome from outside the Chrome Web Store.
There were also plenty of security reasons for this move. See all the issues with LastPass to comply with Google rules  :D
Google is hypocritical.There are already many bad extensions in the Chrome Web Store.

  https://www.extensiondefender.com/database-chrome.php

That is one of the reasons why I don't use Chrome.Also I can see problems in the future with installation of browser integration extensions for different download managers.

Offline Charyb-0

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #47 on: February 26, 2014, 06:45:13 PM »
My point is a blanket statement regarding extensions.

For example (posted earlier):
From Trend Micro which was posted January 7, 2014.

http://blog.trendmicro.com/mozilla-firefox-exploit-enlists-pcs-advanced-botnet/

"An exploit in Mozilla Firefox may be enlisting thousands of PCs into a botnet that scours the Web for vulnerable pages that can be targeted later on by automated SQL injection attacks. The issue is a malicious Firefox extension that masquerades as a legitimate add-on. Although discovered only recently, the botnet may have been active since May 2013."

According to Trend Micro, this exploit may have been active for over 6 months.

Could this not be said for "any" open source software?
Not just any open source software, but all software.

You never know if and when it will happen so I quit using extensions to reduce the risk. I can still browse just fine without extensions.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2014, 06:48:27 PM by Charyb »

Offline Para-Noid

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #48 on: February 26, 2014, 06:49:04 PM »
It is not a matter of "not" using extensions.
It is a matter of using the right extensions.

Choose and choose wisely.
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"Look before you leap!" Use online scanners before you click on any link.

Offline Charyb-0

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #49 on: February 26, 2014, 06:51:34 PM »
It is not a matter of "not" using extensions.
It is a matter of using the right extensions.

Choose and choose wisely.
Or, don't choose any and don't have to worry about it.

Offline Para-Noid

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #50 on: February 26, 2014, 06:53:55 PM »
True. But some serve useful purposes.
To each their own.

I'm done here.
Dell Inspiron, Win10x64--HP Envy Win10x64--Both systems Avast Free v17.9.2322, Comodo Firewall v8.2 w/D+, MalwareBytes v3.0, OpenDNS, Super Anti-Spyware, Spyware Blaster, MCShield, Unchecky, Vivaldi Browser and, various browser security tools.

"Look before you leap!" Use online scanners before you click on any link.

Offline midnight

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #51 on: February 26, 2014, 06:56:11 PM »
If polonus tells me an extension is safe I'll keep it, if he says it's not safe I'll remove it, just as I did with Bitdefender's Quick Scan yesterday.  Should he tell me I should remove another extension I will.
I believe polonus gives great advice. Do I believe that one advice is a perfect fit for another? Does one shoe fit all? No.

Have you ever wondered why avast created the SafeZone for browsing which excludes extensions?

Please read here regarding critical thinking. http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

I use the free version so I don't know anything about SafeZone.

I know what critical thinking means.  I don't need to find out from an article that was written 27 years ago. 

I will continue to keep the extensions I have until and if polonus tells me they aren't safe.
.

Offline schmidthouse

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #52 on: February 26, 2014, 07:09:19 PM »
Well it's fine to take advice, and it's fine not to take advice.
I think the point here is to learn from life, so one can make 'independent' decisions not relying on someone else's assumptions, Premises and Paradigms.
imho, We all have different beliefs and learning experiences; none more incorrect then the other :)

Offline polonus

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #53 on: February 26, 2014, 07:50:33 PM »
OK. Conclusions, use secure extensions and do not use those that overlap.

I think this will be some good training steps for midnight and others too. Take one extension at a time, and see what it does and try to learn to work it right.
Just like I explained about DrWeb Anti-Virus Link Checker. Right click the icon in the browser toolbar and you see Options go there and read: chrome-extension://aleggpabliehgbeagmfhnodcijcmbonb/content/options.html  what that extension was made to do.
On what drops down from the icon when you click it you see: Internet Tracker blocked 0 Social Network Plug-ins blocked 0
Flash plug-ins Allowed by default - Allow for this website - Block for this website - (I have allowed by default for our forum site)
Ads blocked by default - Manual blocking mode Select the blocks that you do not want to see on this page and then press Save
In this way you could choose to block the Google ad on forum.avast.com, but I haven't done so. Seen it so many times now, it does not bother me any longer.

The DrWeb search results you get on a google search results page: Dr.Web Link Checker allows checking links on the Internet through the Doctor Web servers without anti-virus installation on your local computer. OK we can have it next to avast! as an additional. No wrong interactions/conflicts seen.

Here is what you get when you click a link for scanning with DrWeb;s url link checker:

Example pre-scan results after you see a clickable link to be checked with DrWeb:
Quote
Checking: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200171906-Error-522
Engine version: 7.0.7.12100
Total virus-finding records: 4977660
File size: 9606 bytes
File MD5: 155f2c93b4e8a5e358e6fc17b781e2c7

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200171906-Error-522 - archive JS-HTML
>https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200171906-Error-522/JSTAG_1[32e][26a] - Ok
>https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200171906-Error-522/JSTAG_2[790][11d] - Ok
>https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200171906-Error-522/JSTAG_3[22ed][1ba] - Ok
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200171906-Error-522 - Ok

this site is safe/secure to click as far as DrWeb url cheker knows.

Now we know what the extension does. How to use it on websites and how to check on a particular clickable link.

Get the habit for working it, do some practice until it all becomes routine whenever you need it.
And remember whenever you see other colors than green, first come here and report at virus and worms.

Remember always this DrWeb extension is an additional, sometimes you need further checking because of the limits on the  depth of the scan
and external link checks, but as a first means of pre-cheking links it is a good pre-scanner.

For a more thorough scan is to manually scan here: http://scanurl.net/?u= (funny DrWeb is not there, but is on VirusTotal scan.

Now for those that do like to check without installing the extension, you can help yourself to the pre-scan here: http://online.us.drweb.com/?url=1

Oh and having Bitdefender's TrafficLight next to DrWeb's gives you an additional detection layer, because of the awful wide detection scope of Bitdefender's.
It is renowned for this.

That is all for now.

polonus
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Offline bob3160

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #54 on: February 27, 2014, 02:23:04 AM »
@Polonus,
I have 2 computers running Windows 8.1 at our Senior Center without any AV or extensions for the Browsers.
What I do have installed on those 2 computers is a safeguard that always brings the computer back to a clean state
every time they are rebooted.

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Offline polonus

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #55 on: February 27, 2014, 07:58:41 PM »
Hi bob3160,

Fine good for you, but until you restore you are confronted with all sort of ads. Or do you still have an adblocker extension installed. You see how people are subtly being manipulated to believe that extensions are bad and a security risk. In the context of adblockers the opposite is true, adblockers help prevent certain adware related malware. Just recently a big false flag campaign was raised in Germany to get users to uninstall their adblocker of choice on grounds of alleged security problems. They could not be upfront and say you are interfering with my paying model, disable your adblocker for my site or you get no access, because they also fear to loose users that reject this ad-promotion flat-out and conclude then your site must not be worth the trouble of visiting.. I won't uninstall my Adblocker or tweak it because someone like to serve me ads unhindered and I also won't be manipulated by false agent reports to run the reputation of adblockers and extensions as a whole into the ground.

pol
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Offline Charyb-0

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #56 on: February 27, 2014, 10:57:19 PM »
<snip>
I won't uninstall my Adblocker or tweak it because someone like to serve me ads unhindered and I also won't be manipulated by false agent reports to run the reputation of adblockers and extensions as a whole into the ground.

pol
Specifically, who is making these "false agent reports" that you mention?
« Last Edit: February 27, 2014, 11:24:12 PM by Charyb »

Offline polonus

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #57 on: February 28, 2014, 12:10:23 AM »
Hi Charyb,

Translate into English and verify the misinformation there: http://www.browsersicherheit.info/ and you see what I mean.
And they tried it before: http://paidcontent.org/2013/05/14/german-online-publishers-anti-adblock-campaign-backfires/

polonus
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Offline bob3160

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Re: Trying to understand Tracking
« Reply #58 on: February 28, 2014, 01:29:10 AM »
Hi bob3160,

Fine good for you, but until you restore you are confronted with all sort of ads. Or do you still have an adblocker extension installed. You see how people are subtly being manipulated to believe that extensions are bad and a security risk. In the context of adblockers the opposite is true, adblockers help prevent certain adware related malware. Just recently a big false flag campaign was raised in Germany to get users to uninstall their adblocker of choice on grounds of alleged security problems. They could not be upfront and say you are interfering with my paying model, disable your adblocker for my site or you get no access, because they also fear to loose users that reject this ad-promotion flat-out and conclude then your site must not be worth the trouble of visiting.. I won't uninstall my Adblocker or tweak it because someone like to serve me ads unhindered and I also won't be manipulated by false agent reports to run the reputation of adblockers and extensions as a whole into the ground.

pol
adblockers help prevent certain adware related malware
Quote

Very true but only on a computer that can be infected which isn't the case on the 2 I described. :)
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