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[bullpup]

Elsewhere on this forum are some nice examples of /etc/hosts files designed to block many of these sites which I found as a fringe benefit this here olde lenovo laptop works a whole lot faster on the net.
The hosts approach is neat, avoids the problem with https and routers and is good for linux and windows.....'cut the crap'

mike

Yup. That's what I do for years now. There are many to be found on the net (some better than others).

I combine 3 HOSTS files together. One for (against ) general ads, 1 against trackers and malware and a huge list of adservers is also included.

Combine that with privacy orientated settings in about:config (FF) and you are all set. And to unblock some sites my ISP refuses to serve I use TOR as a proxy.

Done.

[Semme]

On point! For all things sensitive - close and reopen your browser OFTEN!

For the sake of accessibility, allow cookies, only from the site you visit, and set to delete when you close the browser. Also set history to delete when you close the browser. Clear your cache on a regular basis. Close and open your browser often.

[bullpup]

On point! For all things sensitive - close and reopen your browser OFTEN!

For the sake of accessibility, allow cookies, only from the site you visit, and set to delete when you close the browser. Also set history to delete when you close the browser. Clear your cache on a regular basis. Close and open your browser often.

Yes, and also isolate your cookies. Throw your browser in Jail (Firejail) and use tab-containers while browsing.

Avoid extensions like adblockers and all similar that could phone home. Your BEST defense is @ system-level NOT browser-level.

The only extension I use is HTTPS Everywhere and that's it.

BP.

[Semme]

Not that I'm here to engage in a debate, but, HTTPS protects you from what exactly? It does nothing more than encrypt your connection. Most any site where you're going to go and initiate a financial transaction has Google sitting on the page. Are they gonna wanna connect via SSL as well? You betcha! And they're NOT the only ones.

Here's a good read that blows the hat off peoples (false) sense of security:

Paranoid2000: The dangers of HTTPS

You'll be (un)pleasantly enlightened.

[bullpup]

Not that I'm here to engage in a debate, but, HTTPS protects you from what exactly? It does nothing more than encrypt your connection

Exactly and that's all I want when I'm on occasion sitting with my laptop somewhere using public wifi (very rare but it happens). Couple years back I took a laptop to a McDonalds here in town, set up a fake AP and thusly re-routing EVERYONES internet traffic through my laptop now serving as the internet access point of that place. I logged ALL traffic and I was embarrassed as to how easy it was and what information I could gather. NOTE: This was a proof of concept action to see what was what. So yeah, encryption is a "big deal" for me BUT I also know it is not THE solution to overall privacy and security.

Paranoid2000: The dangers of HTTPS

Will check it out now,

But coming back to online 'security' (or is there such a thing?) I am baffled as to how many people are using computers for just about anything and are totally unaware o the perils and dangers and even more stunned realizing that said masses don't even CARE about it either.
They just want to press buttons and look at shiny things.....

[tallboy]

I do have an /etc/hosts with some 22.000 entries, so I feel relatively secure.

I just react to the fact that a VPN service need all that kind of info gathered from cookies, when privacy is the main reason for choosing a VPN.

And I totally agree with Semme; close and reopen your browser OFTEN! Empty your .cache and history, if it isn't set to do that automatically. It is also advisable to do the same 'cleaning' before shutting down your PC with a frugal Puppy on it, no need to store the crap in a savefile.

I shudder when I read comments in other forums, where people have their PC running all the time, with the browser permanently opened to their forum for months, even years!

[bullpup]

Well, the first line in defense is the users behavior, right?

(Most) People do as they please, quick fixes. For those there are no consequences.

Hopeless.

[mikeb]

The is usually a setting to block third party cookies too.

Google have not wandered into my banks waving the flag of 'security' yet.
Indeed https is shielding their activity...after all cookery recipes don;t really need all that encryption.

Like a certain virus ...be aware, learn what you can and implement...stay private(safe).

Googles profiling does depend on using the same machine if you read their terms and condidtions if you don't have an account with them so a bit of spoofing and machine hopping helps.

At least this is a place where true security gets discussed

Mike

[tallboy]

The is usually a setting to block third party cookies too.

That unfortunately gives me trouble at times, especially when I try to login to a site where they rely on external services in the login process. I usually keep them blocked anyway, and temporary modify the prefs at such occasions.

[Galbi]

And what about HTTP/3 that is near. Protocol developed by... guess who?

..."HTTP/3 is also known as HTTP-over-QUIC or Hypertext Transfer Protocol over QUIC. The reason is that the third version of this protocol is based on QUIC, a technology developed by Google and combined with the UDP protocol. The purpose of QUIC protocol, launched in 2012, is to provide low-latency and secure connections through the use of UDP."...

Source (in spanish): https://hipertextual.com/2020/06/http-3 ... o-internet

[mikeb]

And what about HTTP/3 that is near. Protocol developed by... guess who?

sell sell sell...i assume they get a cut from landfilling.

Hope they invest in oxygen production too.

mike

[mikeb]

Ok technical head prevailing.

Google were struggling to keep up with their educational commitments...eg virtual classroom during lockdown due to the extra bandwidth needed. After all their servers main traffic appears to be serving mindless crap to the masses al la TV. It was a bit embarrassing hence the search for a way to use UDP rather than TCP/IP since its bandwidth overheads are lower...basically larger packets are sent before error checking which means bigger chunks need to be resent when there is corruption on route.
This is similar to why NFS is faster than SAMBA but networks are much more reliable than the days of dial up so like hard drives error checking its less of a need now.
Also https encryption itself increases overhead.

I did muse over whether the huge upload bandwidth the net now requires was in fact distributed serving sharing the load among users ala BBC iplayer. Even for data harvesting a MB a page seems excessive.

So goldfish bowl syndrome where the data grows to fill the bandwidth and storage available regardless of need and rather than address data waste find workarounds...a bit like the oil industry.

mike

[Smithy]

Hi mike, the biggest laugh is seeing big horrible cross scripting warnings on respected organisations home pages.
I write to them-they stay silent.

Duckduckgo is broken as from a few days ago.
Tried onesearch, that seems to work okayish,.
Startpage, mmm, sort of okay.

Have you a top three of benign search engines you use?
Ones that will work well with links and netsurf as a common denominator.
Ones that will work well with links and netsurf as a common denominator.

[mikeb]

Duck ducky behaving here but have had their server keel over on occasion....getting popular.
In town there is a big billboard advertising them at the moment.

I did use ask for ages mainly for the less cluttered results.

Also tried kiwi browser on this tablet..... chrome renderer but independant everything else... seemed a good one...main interest was being able to use addons that google forbid on android.
Palemoon does have some neat workarounds under the hood to counter web control I noticed.

I am on the practical fringe of this subject generally trying to achieve a balance and avoid supporting oligarchys .
Mike

[Smithy]

Quick off the mark there this morning, thanks!
Yes duck, it pings and ssls.
Try Ducky with javascript off. Then you'll see what I mean.
Guess I will have to use bookmarks more often, it will still work if you type stuff in the url bar.
Onesearch okay. but enrique might come along and inform us as to whom (verizon?) is and whether they do respect privacy,
or are just like the other betterware sales people ramming their foot in your door

[Smithy]

Just updating this on the duckduckgo problem. (Like when javascript is temporarily off or disabled).
When you got to:
https://duckduckgo.com/
And then you put the mouse or whatever into the search box. If you hit enter or click on the S to the right of the search box. You get:
https://html.duckduckgo.com/html

Then normal searching is available. Don’t know why this second step is introduced, but at least it works.

The CEO of Ducky was on the internet last week, apologising on a forum for some (unrelated?) other stuff about accidentally releasing some search data, and said they were fixing it pronto.

He got some rough treatment, but you probably wouldn’t get any of those facebook, google etc CEOs actively engaging in a forum, so fair play to the guy.

The pertinent question one of the spanish inquisitioners asked was, “What the hell were you doing with the data in the foist place to accidently lose it down the plughole? (bearing in mind ducky’s no nonsense mission statement).

I can’t get on with Firefox 76 etc, crashes if you try to save a pic and no I haven’t time to send a report to mozilla (which pops up on the screen), they should know this already, but it’s that bulky they would probably have to spend a year finding the problem, by which time 80 would be out with more bugs etc.

My mate still watches the professionals on youtube with FF 25, does his transactions (tweaked obviously). does his facebook and angry tweets, maintains client websites and also picks up some nice recipes for chutneys and the like..
All on a little atom and it never misses a beat.