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Special User Sections => Other Stuff => General Review Discussion => Topic started by: IainB on February 28, 2012, 09:00 PM

Title: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on February 28, 2012, 09:00 PM
Just thought I'd post this which I stumbled upon today in Mashable:
Track Who’s Tracking You With Mozilla Collusion (http://mashable.com/2012/02/28/mozilla-collusion/)
The Collusion add-on is here. (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/collusion/?src=api)

Out of interest, I have it set to make a sound every time a cookie is set in my browser. It was clicking softly when I went back to the Mozilla add-on site to capture the URL for this post!     :P
I'm not sure, but I think Collusion could be a useful addition to augment my privacy - or at least understand where my privacy is effectively being compromised. Knowledge is power, and ignorance is bliss, as they say.

Could be a useful/helpful add-on.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: J-Mac on March 04, 2012, 09:33 PM
Oohhh, be prepared for a LOT of clicking!

Jim
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on March 04, 2012, 11:05 PM
Yes, I can imagine there would be a lot of clicking if you don't use things like Ghostery, AdBlock+, NoScript.
Even so, this map (below) is what I have after 24 hrs or so.
Quite a bit of tracking is still getting through, it seems.
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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: J-Mac on March 04, 2012, 11:42 PM
LOL!  It is really tough to eliminate them all!   :P

Jim
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: joiwind on March 06, 2012, 07:29 AM
Only for FF ?
And it would be great to be able to delete them just by clicking ...
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on March 11, 2012, 08:05 PM
After a week of just general browsing and forgetting all about it:

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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on March 11, 2012, 09:30 PM
How do you make those graphs?

Meanwhile I turned on the "click" and it's like a camera snapshot saying a cookie has been set.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on March 12, 2012, 01:45 AM
Click the icon in the Addon tray:

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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on March 14, 2012, 06:55 PM
Meanwhile I have a small graph, you can't stop all tracking but I close my browser enough it clearly isn't getting all my links (which is good?)

Tip : Youtube goes off like a machine gun when I search - one cookie per letter!

Edit: I just turned Ghostery back on, but I am still getting clicks from Youtube. So is that a false positive from the Collusion that it "attempted to set a cookie" or is Youtube setting something else that Ghostery can't find and block?
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on April 02, 2012, 08:26 PM
...I just turned Ghostery back on, but I am still getting clicks from Youtube. So is that a false positive from the Collusion that it "attempted to set a cookie" or is Youtube setting something else that Ghostery can't find and block?
-TaoPhoenix (March 14, 2012, 06:55 PM)
I wondered about this also, and am working to figure out whether these pests are actually being blocked.
Thinking wistfully of resuscitating JunkBuster...     ;)
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2012, 12:26 AM
What happens if I set my browser to disallow all cookies period? I know I'll lose "a little functionality" but do y'all expect entire sites to break if they can't set cookies?
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on May 02, 2012, 08:05 AM
What happens if I set my browser to disallow all cookies period? I know I'll lose "a little functionality" but do y'all expect entire sites to break if they can't set cookies?
-TaoPhoenix (May 02, 2012, 12:26 AM)
Why not try it and see? You will at any rate discover which sites are designed not to work for you unless you let them set/read cookies.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2012, 09:09 AM
I'll have to check the settings - the latest evil fad is Flash Objects etc, which, not being cookies, don't always get wiped when you "clear cookies". I'll try to report later which sites need/don't need cookies etc.

Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on May 08, 2012, 08:45 AM
What happens if I set my browser to disallow all cookies period? I know I'll lose "a little functionality" but do y'all expect entire sites to break if they can't set cookies?
-TaoPhoenix (May 02, 2012, 12:26 AM)
Why not try it and see? You will at any rate discover which sites are designed not to work for you unless you let them set/read cookies.
-IainB (May 02, 2012, 08:05 AM)

I had a minute to look at cookie settings today. There's two big categories: "Sites" and "Third-Parties". Turning the Site Cookies off seems to be pretty bad - Gmail yelled at me "You don't have cookies enabled. Sudo turn them back on now." (Paraphrased).

So now I'll see how far I get with the Third Party ones off.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on May 08, 2012, 10:09 AM
Good luck in the cookie labyrinth.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on May 08, 2012, 01:30 PM
Good luck in the cookie labyrinth.
-IainB (May 08, 2012, 10:09 AM)

Well, hmm. First Party ones seem to be a big deal, but then (normally!) first party cookies aren't ad-trackers. 6 hours in to No-3rd party ones, I don't see any ill effects.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on May 08, 2012, 08:43 PM
So now I'll see how far I get with the Third Party ones off.
-TaoPhoenix (May 08, 2012, 08:45 AM)

I've had Third Party cookies turned off for years without causing me any problems but then again, if a site relies on the fact that you need to accept Third Party cookies then I just don't go to it after the first time.

Cookies are also only kept until I exit Firefox then they're cleared, again, causes me no ill effects.  Google cookies are either blocked or anonymised so it's a bit hard for them to build any type of cohesive personal profile on my browsing habits and probably explains why after 2 months I have no humongous chains in Collusion like IainB did after 24 hours ;)

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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on May 08, 2012, 09:18 PM
I've had Third Party cookies turned off for years without causing me any problems but then again, if a site relies on the fact that you need to accept Third Party cookies then I just don't go to it after the first time.
Cookies are also only kept until I exit Firefox then they're cleared, again, causes me no ill effects.  Google cookies are either blocked or anonymised so it's a bit hard for them to build any type of cohesive personal profile on my browsing habits and probably explains why after 2 months I have no humongous chains in Collusion like IainB did after 24 hours ;)
 (see attachment in previous post (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30135.msg287992#msg287992))
-4wd (May 08, 2012, 08:43 PM)
Thanks for reminding me!
Yes. I had 3rd-party cookies enabled.
I had meant to disable them and see what Collusion's diagram looked like after that.
So, I have just disabled 3rd-party cookies and restarted Collusion's diagram.
Shall publish the picture in this thread in a day or so.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: TaoPhoenix on May 11, 2012, 09:12 AM
Too bad we can't draw little smiley faces in the diagrams!
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on May 13, 2012, 02:06 AM
...
 ...Google cookies are either blocked or anonymised
 ...
-4wd (May 08, 2012, 08:43 PM)
How do you anonymise them?

Here's mine, after about 5 days...
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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: urlwolf on May 13, 2012, 02:11 AM
I really wonder what the limits of 3rd-party cookies are.
It defies everything I know about cookies.
Anyone here knows this field well?
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on May 13, 2012, 06:37 AM
How do you anonymise them?
-IainB (May 13, 2012, 02:06 AM)

The now unsupported OptimizeGoogle (http://sourceforge.net/projects/optimizegoogle/) addon - whether or not it now actually works due to changes Google may have made in the meantime is another question.

But I don't get any kind of cross-linking between sites connected to Google, (as you see in your pic),
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there is only one "ring" of sites feeding back to Google, (as opposed to the possible 3 or more in your pic),
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nor do I get ads related to anything I type, (after disabling other addons), since installing it, eg. as Renegade found here (http://cynic.me/2012/04/20/google-opt-out-is-bullshit/).

So something somewhere must be doing something :)

Then again, I'm never logged into Google for anything except maybe once a month to check the spam folder in email, so really I guess the only thing they can go on is my IP.

I might do a little testing in a VM with just OptimizeGoogle and Collusion installed and see what eventuates.

Addendum:
I thought I'd do something simpler: do a search, read the cookie ID, delete it, do another search, read the cookie ID again.

Before ID: e3d6010785247c84:FF=0:TM=1336956597:LM=1336956597:S=PEa3IUp2Cw-N-RTt
After ID:  d6389bb5e8d134bb:U=7c4d84c4aa943c7f:FF=4:LD=en:NR=100:TM=1336956662:LM=1336956662:S=1ZXOzkMmGGEFmo_U

I've done it a few times and the only item that seems consistent is the TM, (time), entry - the other are always something different.  I would think that if they wanted to track me using a cookie then they would have to use a consistent ID string based on my machine configuration, (or Google login - which I don't).

BTW, Data Liberation Front (http://www.dataliberation.org/) - something I just read about in APC, (Australian Personal Computer).
This site is a central location for information on how to move your data in and out of Google products.

It's run by Google - so take that how you will :)
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on May 14, 2012, 05:26 AM
@4wd: Thanks!
Have installed the OptimizeGoogle addon. Will see what difference it makes - if any.
I think the reason I get all those Google hits is because I am logged in to Gmail most of the time I am online, even though I might not be using it.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on May 14, 2012, 07:41 AM
I think the reason I get all those Google hits is because I am logged in to Gmail most of the time I am online, even though I might not be using it.
-IainB (May 14, 2012, 05:26 AM)

Don't forget, I also clear all cookies when Firefox shuts down, so any Google cookie will only be regenerated when I next do a Google search - along with OptimizeGoogle it means it's an anonymised ID each time I start Firefox.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on January 26, 2013, 08:24 PM
Well, after three weeks of running Change Referer Button (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/change-referer-button/) and RefControl (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/) my Collusion graph looks like this:

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A vast improvement over what it was before - I could probably do away with Change Referer Button as I have both it and RefControl set to forge the destination site but it gives a faster method of switching between modes.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: PhilB66 on January 27, 2013, 12:11 AM
Off Topic
nor do I get ads related to anything I type, (after disabling other addons), since installing it, eg. as Renegade found here (http://cynic.me/2012/04/20/google-opt-out-is-bullshit/).
-4wd (May 13, 2012, 06:37 AM)

So, Ren, you like balding Filipinas?

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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on January 27, 2013, 12:59 AM
Well, after three weeks of running Change Referer Button (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/change-referer-button/) and RefControl (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/) my Collusion graph looks like this:
...
-4wd (January 26, 2013, 08:24 PM)
Now that's impressive. Thanks. Installing them now...
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: 4wd on January 27, 2013, 02:47 AM
I originally had CRB set to send no referer and then added sites where they needed a referer into RefControl, (which was set to the default of Normal - Send Referer), but then I changed RefControl to Forge and CRB to set the referer as the destination, (Mode 1, equivalent to RefControl Forge mode).

That seems to make all the sites that I've visited happy and I don't need any site specific settings in RefControl, (at least for any sites I've frequented so far).

I also run ProxyTool (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/proxy-tool/) so that when/if I hit a site that requires something more, I'll have the info available to input into RefControl.

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Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on January 27, 2013, 05:06 AM
@4wd: Ah, that's brilliant. Thanks again. Didn't know about Proxy Tool. Those certainly seem to be nifty tools. I'm just getting the hang of them.
That referrer faking is redolent of how I used to use JunkBuster. I didn't know there were tools to duplicate that kind of functionality.
Title: Re: Quick Review: Collusion - Firefox "tracking" add-on
Post by: IainB on January 29, 2013, 03:57 AM
Thanks to @4wd's suggestions/tips, my Collusion diagram now looks all black...like this:
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I also spotted this tip today on http://fixtracking.com/ - might be useful (I have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware with real-time checking ON, so I do not need the Firefox defaults ticked ON as well):
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