Ghostery sneaks in new promotional messaging system
Ghostery is a rather controversial privacy add-on for various web browsers including Firefox and Google Chrome.
The extension has been designed to improve online privacy by blocking trackers. Apart from that, it also informs you about trackers used on sites if you want it to, or, if you prefer that, it will block these automatically without notifying you about occurrences.
Ghostery ships with lists that you can subscribe to which block certain types of trackers, for instance advertising, privacy or widgets.
While it may not block ads on the web, it reduces tracking by blocking certain kinds of trackers on sites you visit.
Update: Newer versions of Ghostery come without the option mentioned below. Ghostery Rewards is a new feature that is integrated into the browser extension; it appears turned off by default, however. A test installation of Ghostery in Firefox had the feature turned off. End
The most recent update to Ghostery 5.4.6 for Chrome, Safari, Opera and Firefox introduces two new options to the browser extension that add to the controversial nature of Ghostery.
The first introduces a messaging tool, Ghostery calls it Consumer Messaging Platform, which allows the company to message users directly in the web browser.
According to Ghostery, it will be used for product announcements and promotions. What makes this problematic is that it is enabled by default.
If you have updated to the new Ghostery version already you are automatically opted-in, and if you install Ghostery anew in a browser, you are opted-in as well.
To disable this feature, do the following:
- Open the Ghostery options in the browser you are using. In Chrome, you right-click on the icon and select options, in Firefox you open about:addons and click on options next to the Ghostery entry there.
- Switch to the Advanced tab on the options page and uncheck "Allow Ghostery to show messages in my browser related to product features, updates, and promotions".
- Make sure you click save at the bottom of the screen as the modification won't stick otherwise.
The second new feature is a survey that is automatically opened when Ghostery is installed. Existing users find a survey link at the top of the options page.
This survey asks for personal information such as employment status, location, age or gender.
Closing Words
Ghostery does not seem to have used the feature yet to notify users but it is probably only a matter of time until the first message is sent out to users who have the extension installed.
The main issue here is that this feature is opt-out meaning it is enabled for all users of the extension. Since users are not informed about this when they run the extension, the only way they can find out about the new feature is by stumbling upon it in the options, reading the blog post on the Ghostery website, or reading about it on third-party websites.
Now You: Are you using Ghostery to block trackers on the web?
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.