How to lower probability of being tracked by advert sites ...

D69

D69

Dagobah Resident
.. and tracking cookies , and getting you personal data being sold to third parties etc etc etc.
Yesterday I was looking for such solution. What I have found is quite brilliant :D I should have got to that looooong time ago :D
This is simple and it works.

There is a website with updated hosts file.
Hosts file is a file on your local computer that translates domain names to IP adresses before your system makes a request to name server outside.
Another part of puzzle is an IP 127.0.0.1 which is a special IP that points to you machine . In other words this is your localhost , your machine.
Idea here is to direct domain names of advert hosts to you localhost :D :D :D
How it works ? So when you open a website with embedded adverts , your browser starts to download data from that website , but except for that , because of embedded code to external websites (adverts) , it also starts to download all that data from external servers - and we don't want that ,unless you like ads ;P and the fact that you are being tracked ;P.
For example, If you put such line to a hosts file:

127.0.0.1 googleadservices.com

when you go to a website that uses googleadservices.com for ads displaying , your browser will be unable to get to googleads because hosts file will point it to your localhost which is your machine , which does not have ads server :D brilliant isn't it ? :P

Ok, if my description is lame , go through better ones on a website with updated hosts file along with instructions.

Here are the links:

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm <--- general info
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt <--- hosts file itself
 
Thanks for sharing, drygol. I just try it and it works. It is indeed a simple and elegant solution. I can understand your enthusiasm :)

Note that the ad blocking is only as good as the file list and can never be complete. Nevertheless, I check the file and it is quite extensive. It should be able to block the most obvious sources of ads.
 
Note that the ad blocking is only as good as the file list and can never be complete. Nevertheless, I check the file and it is quite extensive. It should be able to block the most obvious sources of ads.
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Exactly , i should have pointed that out.
Anyways , this solution is very easy for general internet users , and it works as a charm. Still you can extend it by adding your own finds.
 
Is indeed very simple to install, make shore your Antivirus program allow this action.
Open your Host file in Text editor to make any changes.
 
Just curious , which AV complains about editing this text file ? because it shouldn't afaik .... but hey , again i am not a windows guy so i may not know :D
 
:) Sorry drygol, but I wrote
Kaigen said:
Is indeed very simple to install, make shore your Antivirus program allow this action.
Open your Host file in Text editor to make any changes.
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Not editing. ;)
 
Hello,

you should have written “How to lower (eliminate) possibility of …” ;)
I ponder about this issue regularily. I added entries to my /private/etc/hosts file just yesterday.

The method you described isn't new. It is widely used for different reasons.

There are antivirus programs doing this automatically. Spyboot & Destroy does this, for example. But those entries are rather fraud-related – usually not ad servers.
However, this method isn't very convenient. You should find a more dynamic way (e.g. subscribed lists). Entries within the hosts file are rather static (only for never-ever-to-call-addresses). Server addresses and their IPs change regularly. It's not easy to maintain an up-to-date list of such addresses.

You can use this technique for developing purposes as well. For example, it is possible to write web addresses like my-site.com and point it to 127.0.0.1. Then you can simulate your website and develop it locally but use the real domain you own instead of localhost.

Other ways to control outgoing requests (ads related):
- Local proxy (e.g. Glimmer Blocker and Windows equivalents) on your local machine. They work browser-independently, like the host file solution, and block content instead of hiding it.
- Proxy installed and configured inside your router (e.g. modified Fritzbox firmware). Works workstation- and OS-independently. Nice approach but hard to implement. It's my dream. I tried this once. The problem was that only older firmwares were supported then. I don't know what the situation is in the meantime.

As you probably know, there are browser plugins blocking ads. They have some drawbacks though that one should consider. For example, some of them (or all) only hide ads and undesired content instead of blocking addresses. Ads become merely invisible but still exist.

What is also alarming (I stumbled over this issue recently): synchronisation services. There is a trend to synchronise data from your workstation with online accounts. The only problem is: Where does it go and what? Very often to Google servers because Gmail is more than an email service meanwhile and many people rely on Gmail. It comprises also services such as calendar, chat, everything. And Google might know everything, really everything about you soon. If you aren't careful, your entire address book with all your family's and friends' street addresses and real names might end up on Google servers. Google Chrome is able to synchronise bookmarks. All your bookmarks, perhaps even your history might be available to Google. This is shocking to say the least. 99,999% of all users probably click on “I accept” without reading and never check their programs' preferences with devastating results. You should know your software with 100% accuracy, otherwise it will know 100% of you. :shock:
 
The method you described isn't new. It is widely used for different reasons.
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Yeah ! Thats why i did like, HUGE facepalm dedicated for myself :D
I just never really needed that stuff before. But recently it started to annoy me.

Spyboot & Destry does this, for example.
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Good to know. I didn't know that.

What is also alarming (I stumbled over this issue recently): synchronisation services. There is a trend to synchronise data from your workstation with online accounts. The only problem is: Where does it go and what? Very often to Google servers because Gmail is more than an email service meanwhile and many people rely on Gmail. It comprises also services such as calendar, chat, everything. And Google might know everything, really everything about you soon. If you aren't careful, your entire address book with all your family's and friends' street addresses and real names might end up on Google servers. Google Chrome is able to synchronise bookmarks. All your bookmarks, perhaps even your history might be available to Google. This is shocking to say the least. 99,999% of all users probably click on “I accept” without reading and never check their programs' preferences with devastating results. You should know your software with 100% accuracy, otherwise it will know 100% of you.
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I completely agree on that. I don't use google chrome. I also try to not use google anymore (yes , it is hard but doable).
Chrome is like a poison candy ;P
 
_https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

This program for anon browsing. No one will no what your up to, and if there are certain sites you cant access due to your country of origin you can bounce a relay off that country to gain access to the site, this software is excellent and all of us should be using it.

Also great for money laundering but I wont go there. :)
 
chaps23 said:
Also great for money laundering but I wont go there. :)
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Hopefully you're joking about that, but even if you are, please don't refer to illegal activities on this forum - we really don't need the negative attention.
 
chaps23 said:
_https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

This program for anon browsing. No one will no what your up to
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Maybe for citizens, but for government it's child's play to see "what you're up to".

chaps23 said:
Also great for money laundering but I wont go there.
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Why would anyone on this forum be interested in that?
 
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