Gary Kovacs and Collusion (and my personal collusion graph)

[KerriAnn]

Here is the video from TED.com, where Gary Kovacs (the CEO of Mozilla) explains his idea for Collusion...


http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.html


As you surf the Web, information is being collected about you. Web tracking is not 100% evil -- personal data can make your browsing more efficient; cookies can help your favorite websites stay in business. But, says Gary Kovacs, it's your right to know what data is being collected about you and how it affects your online life. He unveils a Firefox add-on to do just that.

And here is my personal graph after visiting a few websites: duckduckgo, RonPaulForums, bing, ehow, and inquisitr.com. As you can see, the collusion graph does not even know I have duckduckgo as my homepage and my search engine. It seems the site really is honest!

Interestingly, my collusion graph tells me that ronpaulforums sent data about me to BLS.gov, youtube, facebook, and a few other sites.



http://i46.tinypic.com/sqmc13.jpg

edit: i wasn't sure where to post this... mods feel free to move it to a more appropriate forum if there is one.

[sailingaway]

Huh, I bet Josh will be surprised at that last bit. I'll pm it to him. Could it be people just posting stuff to their facebook etc? I dunno.

[KerriAnn]

other sites that rpf sent data to:

moobug co uk
imgur com
businessinsider com
io9 com
imageevent com
gifrific com
iowagop org
forlibertymovie com
skype
imageshack
youtube
BLS gov
csmonitor com

[Carson]

other sites that rpf sent data to:

moobug co uk
imgur com
businessinsider com
io9 com
imageevent com
gifrific com
iowagop org
forlibertymovie com
skype
imageshack
youtube
BLS gov
csmonitor com

Maybe shared information with would be a more accurate term.

imgur
imageevent
imageshack

Are all image host. It could be reaching out to them to load pictures.

It is pretty cool and kind of creepy at the same time who our clicks are linking out to. I checked Collusion out several months ago.The Facebook one for me was the freaky one. I'm still not ready for them.

I think I found something that blocked linking with them.


P.S. Yeah. Here it is. I use Firefox. I'm not sure if they have versions for other browsers.

https://disconnect.me/tools


About this Add-on

Facebook is notified whenever you visit one of the more than one million sites on the web that use Facebook Connect and has a history of leaking personally-identifiable information to third parties.

Turn off the flow of your data to them!

Facebook Disconnect blocks all traffic from third-party sites to Facebook servers but still lets you access Facebook itself.

Instructions: The add-on displays an icon in the location bar if a page initiates Facebook requests. You can block or unblock the requests by clicking the icon. Your preference will be remembered the next time you’re on the site.


I sort of forgot about it. It is on but I'm not sure if it is working. Maybe I'll fire up Collusion and see later.


I see on your list, "BLS gov". That one looks extra creepy.

[KerriAnn]

Maybe shared information with would be a more accurate term.

imgur
imageevent
imageshack

Are all image host. It could be reaching out to them to load pictures.

It is pretty cool and kind of creepy at the same time who our clicks are linking out to. I checked Collusion out several months ago.The Facebook one for me was the freaky one. I'm still not ready for them.

I think I found something that blocked linking with them.

yes, some of the results are obvious, especially the image hosting ones. BLS.gov was a weird one though. I can't imagine why RPF would share info with the Bureau of Labor Stats.

[sailingaway]

other sites that rpf sent data to:

moobug co uk
imgur com
businessinsider com
io9 com
imageevent com
gifrific com
iowagop org
forlibertymovie com
skype
imageshack
youtube
BLS gov
csmonitor com

OK, well Iowa GOP might be when people use a link to donate to the Tom Woods thing, from this site, and I do stuff on imgur. forlibertymovie com is likely all Adam T's fault, and youtube is ubiquitous here....

[KerriAnn]

Maybe shared information with would be a more accurate term.


The app does specify that the data shown is specific to sites "that have sent data about you."
you can see in the legend in my image where it specifies that detail.

[sailingaway]

yes, some of the results are obvious, especially the image hosting ones. BLS.gov was a weird one though. I can't imagine why RPF would share info with the Bureau of Labor Stats.

Oh! Now I know, Ron Paul had tweeted a Bureau of Labor stats chart and I put it on the front page so it would have been tweeted out, plus if anyone clicked the link... That must be it. Wish I could call back my pm to Josh.... :o

[KerriAnn]

Oh! Now I know, Ron Paul had tweeted a Bureau of Labor stats chart and I put it on the front page so it would have been tweeted out, plus if anyone clicked the link... That must be it. Wish I could call back my pm to Josh.... :o
OK, I see the link. But how does my collusion graph, or firefox more specifically, know that info was shared with BLS? I mean, I did not personally click on the link that led to BLS. I didn't even see the tweet you are referring to. I did visit the homepage of RPF where that link is found, but what I want to know is what kind of info was shared with BLS?
Does anyone know more about how this works?

As I browse the web more, Doubleclick.net is the biggest circle on my graph, and of course I did not visit the site myself, but all kinds of sites are sharing my info with them. creepy.

[Carson]

I can see my Facebook blocker is working now. It puts a little icon in the address bar that lets you know it's working. It also gives you the option to turn the blocking off.

They also have a blocker for Twitter and Google.

[sailingaway]

OK, I see the link. But how does my collusion graph, or firefox more specifically, know that info was shared with BLS? I mean, I did not personally click on the link that led to BLS. I didn't even see the tweet you are referring to. I did visit the homepage of RPF where that link is found, but what I want to know is what kind of info was shared with BLS?
Does anyone know more about how this works?

As I browse the web more, Doubleclick.net is the biggest circle on my graph, and of course I did not visit the site myself, but all kinds of sites are sharing my info with them. creepy.

I don't know, but I'll watch this thread because I am curious too.

[Carson]

Doubleclick.net

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoubleClick

DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google which develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers (Universal McCann Interactive, AKQA etc.) and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others. DoubleClick's headquarters is in New York City, United States.

Snip...

[Carson]

Here is another thread on Collusion.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?364893-quot-Collusion-quot-New-FireFox-add-on-shows-all-the-programs-that-are-tracking-you.


This was an interesting post;

kahless #9

That article is very deceiving since Mozilla Firefox is an offender since they have Google safebrowsing enabled by default which means every URL you visit in FF is checked by google.

btw - the add-on lights up like a christmas tree when visiting drudge.



I already have safebrowsing turned off. If I did it when I read this before??? I've been doing fine with it shut off.

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/922449