Well you can’t read much of anything with that annoying Prudential Insurance add that pops up that you can’t close.
Fuck you Prudential. I’m never going to buy anything your selling!
Brian
November 6, 2014 2:15 pm
I find refreshing/reloading the site usually gets rid of that ad.
hardscrabble farmer
November 6, 2014 2:50 pm
Okay, quick question:
I don’t personally give a damn who knows what about me or my browsing habits. I do know that they keep track because if we look at something online like clothing for the children, a specific implement, etc, we notice at some point afterwards that the advertising is targeted by type/brand/style. They “know” us, so to speak. They know our IP because there’s always those little ads that mention the next town over (ours is too small to have it’s own) and who is doing what in those towns.
So whycome during this past election cycle they got the candidate ads for my State and district right, but the party COMPLETELY WRONG?
Every single political ad was for the people I would NEVER vote for based on my browsing history.
Was Googleisevil or whoever it was who was selling ads to the candidates just ripping them off and sending them out to everyone, or was it some weird form of Pavlovian conditioning? How do they know my wife likes a particular kind of blouse or skin care product, but not know I’m to the right of Goldwater?
Inquiring minds and all that.
Hagar
November 6, 2014 4:20 pm
AdBlock and AdKiller in Firefox extensions help kill those annoying popups.
flash
November 6, 2014 4:53 pm
fascist fucks know what you’re reading ,buying and selling and sexting…sheesh. Of course the subsidized monopoly Version sees nothing wrong with collecting all their customers data while charging them an extreme rate for a service as taxpayers they’ve already paid.
The most interesting is the way Verizon collects the valuable data – by forcibly installing “perma-cookies” that track people’s activities on the web on personal devices, reports Wired. And since the header gets injected at the network level, any device could be infected, even if it belongs to those who have never been Verizon customers.
The tracker, called X-UIDH, is injected on a device in an HTTP header, which is then being sent to every unencrypted website a Verizon customer visits from a his smartphone or media tablet. These ‘supercookies’ allow advertising companies that pay for the Verizon service to put together a comprehensive dossier on every web surfer’s browsing habits – without Verizon customers’ knowledge.
The cookie was identified the X-UIDH header. It remains invisible to the user and cannot be disabled or changed via browser settings. The X-UIDH header bypasses built-in browser privacy mechanisms, ignoring such modes as Do Not Track, Incognito, Private Browsing or Limit Ad Tracking settings in both iOS and Android.
Also, Verizon ‘supercookies’ can’t be turned off, so no web browser privacy mode or clearing cookies will help you to get rid of them. That means that even when cookies are cleared out of a device, the intact X-UIDH with the known profile of a user gives an ad company a chance to quickly restore the necessary cookies on a user’s device and continue to ‘guide’ his requests for goods and services.
Because X-UIDH is shared with all unencrypted sites visited by Verizon customers, it gives advertisers more data that only cookies get. On top of all, X-UIDH is installed into all used mobile apps that send HTTP requests, thus correlating users’ behavior on the web and in using apps.
However, according to AdAge: “Corporate and government subscribers are excluded from the new marketing solution.”
Verizon maintains that third parties that are not members of the Verizon’s Precision Market Insights advertising program cannot use the supercookie to track Verizon customers.
“The way it’s built, it wouldn’t be able to be used for that,” company spokeswoman Adria Tomaszewski said.
But web security specialists warn that “de-anonymizing” a user has become commonplace these days, so once a personal profile with a unique ID code gets to advertisers and data brokers, it is relatively straightforward to link the X-UIDH personal profile with a customer.
For intelligence agencies such as America’s NSA, reportedly using cookies to track down individuals as The Washington Post reported last year, the X-UIDH service could become an invaluable source of personal information on citizens.
There are several solutions that would prevent X-UIDH from modifying your traffic and they all imply encryption, as the “ad virus” can only operate on a plaintext traffic, an attempt to modify an encrypted data flow would simply break the whole connection.
Full protection is guaranteed by a virtual private network (VPN) technology or Tor, but you can also try to surf safely using an encrypted proxy or HTTPS.
If you want to know whether your mobile device is already infected – go to Amibeingtracked.com right from it and pass an injected header test.
flash
November 6, 2014 5:06 pm
oh , yeah, in case big Mutherfucker missed something whilst sifting though all the private date stored your PC, the satanic snoops now have the option of remotely turning on your TV to spy on you in the privacy of your bedroom , living room or anywhere else you ignorantly place one of their NSA approved “smart ” TV’s… 4th amendment protection? …surely you jest?
I’m Terrified of My New TV: Why I’m Scared to Turn This Thing On — And You’d Be, Too
Michael Price
October 30, 2014
Cross-posted on Salon
I just bought a new TV. The old one had a good run, but after the volume got stuck on 63, I decided it was time to replace it. I am now the owner of a new “smart” TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media, and Internet browsing. Oh, and TV too.
The only problem is that I’m now afraid to use it. You would be too — if you read through the 46-page privacy policy.
The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how, and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.
It also has a built-in camera — with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. On the upside, the images are saved on the TV instead of uploaded to a corporate server. On the downside, the Internet connection makes the whole TV vulnerable to hackers who have demonstrated the ability to take complete control of the machine.
More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Got that? Don’t say personal or sensitive stuff in front of the TV.
You may not be watching, but the telescreen is listening.
I do not doubt that this data is important to providing customized content and convenience, but it is also incredibly personal, constitutionally protected information that should not be for sale to advertisers and should require a warrant for law enforcement to access.
Unfortunately, current law affords little privacy protection to so-called “third party records,” including email, telephone records, and data stored in “the cloud.” Much of the data captured and transmitted by my new TV would likely fall into this category. Although one federal court of appeals has found this rule unconstitutional with respect to email, the principle remains a bedrock of modern electronic surveillance.
According to retired General David Petraeus, former head of the CIA, Internet-enabled “smart” devices can be exploited to reveal a wealth of personal data. “Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvester,” he reportedly told a venture capital firm in 2012. “We’ll spy on you through your dishwasher” read one headline. Indeed, as the “Internet of Things” matures, household appliances and physical objects will become more networked. Your ceiling lights, thermostat, and washing machine — even your socks — may be wired to interact online. The FBI will not have to bug your living room; you will do it yourself.
Of course, there is always the “dumb” option. Users may have the ability to disable data collection, but it comes at a cost. The device will not function properly or allow the use of its high-tech features. This leaves consumers with an unacceptable choice between keeping up with technology and retaining their personal privacy.
We should not have to channel surf worried that the TV is recording our behavior for the benefit of advertisers and police. Companies need to become more mindful of consumer privacy when deciding whether to collect personal data. And law enforcement should most certainly be required to get a warrant before accessing it.
In the meantime, I’ll be in the market for a new tinfoil hat and cone of silence.
Michael Price is counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU
i write things just like i would say them to anyone. Like the Obama regime is fill of psychopaths and that term limits are needed badly. From what the elections,I see that a lot of people are unhappy. Just wait until some more of these Obamacare things start up.
The bullshit of hearing that the unemployment numbers are low? How dam great everything is. And this endless war thing? I think certain realities are actually starting to sink in with the public.
Hagar
November 6, 2014 6:15 pm
WTF, why would anyone buy a smart TV when there are plenty of dumb ones for sale at a better price?
Rise Up
November 6, 2014 6:37 pm
If you browse with FireFox: Ghostery for ad-blocking and Lightbeam to see who is tracking you.
Well you can’t read much of anything with that annoying Prudential Insurance add that pops up that you can’t close.
Fuck you Prudential. I’m never going to buy anything your selling!
I find refreshing/reloading the site usually gets rid of that ad.
Okay, quick question:
I don’t personally give a damn who knows what about me or my browsing habits. I do know that they keep track because if we look at something online like clothing for the children, a specific implement, etc, we notice at some point afterwards that the advertising is targeted by type/brand/style. They “know” us, so to speak. They know our IP because there’s always those little ads that mention the next town over (ours is too small to have it’s own) and who is doing what in those towns.
So whycome during this past election cycle they got the candidate ads for my State and district right, but the party COMPLETELY WRONG?
Every single political ad was for the people I would NEVER vote for based on my browsing history.
Was Googleisevil or whoever it was who was selling ads to the candidates just ripping them off and sending them out to everyone, or was it some weird form of Pavlovian conditioning? How do they know my wife likes a particular kind of blouse or skin care product, but not know I’m to the right of Goldwater?
Inquiring minds and all that.
AdBlock and AdKiller in Firefox extensions help kill those annoying popups.
fascist fucks know what you’re reading ,buying and selling and sexting…sheesh. Of course the subsidized monopoly Version sees nothing wrong with collecting all their customers data while charging them an extreme rate for a service as taxpayers they’ve already paid.
http://rt.com/usa/202035-att-verizon-supercookies-web/
The most interesting is the way Verizon collects the valuable data – by forcibly installing “perma-cookies” that track people’s activities on the web on personal devices, reports Wired. And since the header gets injected at the network level, any device could be infected, even if it belongs to those who have never been Verizon customers.
The tracker, called X-UIDH, is injected on a device in an HTTP header, which is then being sent to every unencrypted website a Verizon customer visits from a his smartphone or media tablet. These ‘supercookies’ allow advertising companies that pay for the Verizon service to put together a comprehensive dossier on every web surfer’s browsing habits – without Verizon customers’ knowledge.
The cookie was identified the X-UIDH header. It remains invisible to the user and cannot be disabled or changed via browser settings. The X-UIDH header bypasses built-in browser privacy mechanisms, ignoring such modes as Do Not Track, Incognito, Private Browsing or Limit Ad Tracking settings in both iOS and Android.
Also, Verizon ‘supercookies’ can’t be turned off, so no web browser privacy mode or clearing cookies will help you to get rid of them. That means that even when cookies are cleared out of a device, the intact X-UIDH with the known profile of a user gives an ad company a chance to quickly restore the necessary cookies on a user’s device and continue to ‘guide’ his requests for goods and services.
Because X-UIDH is shared with all unencrypted sites visited by Verizon customers, it gives advertisers more data that only cookies get. On top of all, X-UIDH is installed into all used mobile apps that send HTTP requests, thus correlating users’ behavior on the web and in using apps.
However, according to AdAge: “Corporate and government subscribers are excluded from the new marketing solution.”
Verizon maintains that third parties that are not members of the Verizon’s Precision Market Insights advertising program cannot use the supercookie to track Verizon customers.
“The way it’s built, it wouldn’t be able to be used for that,” company spokeswoman Adria Tomaszewski said.
But web security specialists warn that “de-anonymizing” a user has become commonplace these days, so once a personal profile with a unique ID code gets to advertisers and data brokers, it is relatively straightforward to link the X-UIDH personal profile with a customer.
For intelligence agencies such as America’s NSA, reportedly using cookies to track down individuals as The Washington Post reported last year, the X-UIDH service could become an invaluable source of personal information on citizens.
There are several solutions that would prevent X-UIDH from modifying your traffic and they all imply encryption, as the “ad virus” can only operate on a plaintext traffic, an attempt to modify an encrypted data flow would simply break the whole connection.
Full protection is guaranteed by a virtual private network (VPN) technology or Tor, but you can also try to surf safely using an encrypted proxy or HTTPS.
If you want to know whether your mobile device is already infected – go to Amibeingtracked.com right from it and pass an injected header test.
oh , yeah, in case big Mutherfucker missed something whilst sifting though all the private date stored your PC, the satanic snoops now have the option of remotely turning on your TV to spy on you in the privacy of your bedroom , living room or anywhere else you ignorantly place one of their NSA approved “smart ” TV’s… 4th amendment protection? …surely you jest?
I’m Terrified of My New TV: Why I’m Scared to Turn This Thing On — And You’d Be, Too
Michael Price
October 30, 2014
Cross-posted on Salon
I just bought a new TV. The old one had a good run, but after the volume got stuck on 63, I decided it was time to replace it. I am now the owner of a new “smart” TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media, and Internet browsing. Oh, and TV too.
The only problem is that I’m now afraid to use it. You would be too — if you read through the 46-page privacy policy.
The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how, and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.
It also has a built-in camera — with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. On the upside, the images are saved on the TV instead of uploaded to a corporate server. On the downside, the Internet connection makes the whole TV vulnerable to hackers who have demonstrated the ability to take complete control of the machine.
More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Got that? Don’t say personal or sensitive stuff in front of the TV.
You may not be watching, but the telescreen is listening.
I do not doubt that this data is important to providing customized content and convenience, but it is also incredibly personal, constitutionally protected information that should not be for sale to advertisers and should require a warrant for law enforcement to access.
Unfortunately, current law affords little privacy protection to so-called “third party records,” including email, telephone records, and data stored in “the cloud.” Much of the data captured and transmitted by my new TV would likely fall into this category. Although one federal court of appeals has found this rule unconstitutional with respect to email, the principle remains a bedrock of modern electronic surveillance.
According to retired General David Petraeus, former head of the CIA, Internet-enabled “smart” devices can be exploited to reveal a wealth of personal data. “Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvester,” he reportedly told a venture capital firm in 2012. “We’ll spy on you through your dishwasher” read one headline. Indeed, as the “Internet of Things” matures, household appliances and physical objects will become more networked. Your ceiling lights, thermostat, and washing machine — even your socks — may be wired to interact online. The FBI will not have to bug your living room; you will do it yourself.
Of course, there is always the “dumb” option. Users may have the ability to disable data collection, but it comes at a cost. The device will not function properly or allow the use of its high-tech features. This leaves consumers with an unacceptable choice between keeping up with technology and retaining their personal privacy.
We should not have to channel surf worried that the TV is recording our behavior for the benefit of advertisers and police. Companies need to become more mindful of consumer privacy when deciding whether to collect personal data. And law enforcement should most certainly be required to get a warrant before accessing it.
In the meantime, I’ll be in the market for a new tinfoil hat and cone of silence.
Michael Price is counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU
http://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/im-terrified-my-new-tv-why-im-scared-turn-thing#.VFtj8q1gc6w.facebook
i write things just like i would say them to anyone. Like the Obama regime is fill of psychopaths and that term limits are needed badly. From what the elections,I see that a lot of people are unhappy. Just wait until some more of these Obamacare things start up.
The bullshit of hearing that the unemployment numbers are low? How dam great everything is. And this endless war thing? I think certain realities are actually starting to sink in with the public.
WTF, why would anyone buy a smart TV when there are plenty of dumb ones for sale at a better price?
If you browse with FireFox: Ghostery for ad-blocking and Lightbeam to see who is tracking you.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/?src=search
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lightbeam/?src=cb-dl-popular
I-S’s IXQUICK search engine works nicely.