Data-profiling… and our privacy?
I like the web. It is a place of freedom, community and knowledge.
However, you must follow some rules and know what goes on when you are sitting in front of your pc.
I am scared by the quantity of information about myself I end up sharing with others - and I don’t know who they are.
They track us down for business. Business is not devil, as Google teaches us, but spying on us every second might be.
If you care about your privacy, have a look at the software below:
- TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one’s tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view. User-installed TrackMeNot works with the Firefox Browser and popular search engines (AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN) and requires no 3rd-party servers or services.
- SCookies - Share your Cookies!
SCookies simply shares your cookies with other users that enabled it too. It sends your cookies to a centralized server and gets another user’s cookie in return. By doing so, your profile will then be built on many other user’ search queries, thus the profiles are not realiable.
It is a Firefox extension. - Scroogle is a web service that disguises the Internet address of users who want to run Google searches anonymously. Scroogle also gives users the option of having all communication between their computer and the search page be SSL encrypted.
Besides anonymous searches, the tool allows users to perform Google searches without receiving Google advertisements. There is support for 28 languages, and the tool is available as a browser plug-in. A secure connection to the Scroogle website is also possible. - Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data, managing HTTP cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
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Sunday, August 24th, 2008
