
See all the web bugs tracking you - Ghostery - dcancel
http://www.ghostery.com/
======
mattmaroon
The term "bug" is too confusing. I thought for a while when reading your page
that I point this service at my website and it somehow searches for errors in
the programming. I only kept reading because I wanted to figure out what neat
trick you had for that.

I get the spy novel reference now, but I think it's just too abstract and too
close to a conflicting term to be of use. Especially when there are terms for
that (spyware, cookies) that everyone knows already. Don't reinvent the wheel.

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dcancel
Thanks for the comment, enjoy your blog.

Not looking to reinvent the wheel. Old dinosaurs like myself will remember
that the term "web bugs" was in use long before "spyware" and "adware" became
popular terms.

~~~
mattmaroon
I do love the pac man theme.

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axod
Calling them bugs is just trying to spread FUD. I think a link to a slightly
less biased discussion would be better. With clear reasons why they are used,
what benefits they have for users, etc

The EFF link used is stupidly outdated and pretty much irrelevant these days -
"there is no method of distinguishing Web Bugs from spacer GIFs which are used
on Web pages for aligment purposes."

In any event, the use of them is simply because it's easier and less prone to
error than the webserver doing the call itself (Also harder for webmasters to
tamper etc).

For instance, you could easily setup your webserver to send over information
about each visitor to quantcast, doubleclick, google etc etc, and the user
would never know. The only issue with that approach would be that quantcast
etc would need to trust that the IP etc you're providing is correct, and
you're being truthful in terms of page views etc.

You know what the easiest thing for an advertising network to do would be
though? Setup some innocent domains, and host prototype.js etc there. Then
tell large websites that use the ad network (Under NDA or something) to
innocently link to that version of prototype.js.

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dcancel
Actually not trying to spread FUD at all. I'm the founder of one of the
companies detected, Lookery.com, before that Compete.com, which relied on 3rd
party clickstream sources.

It's not the data that is sent that is a reason for concern but the "cookies"
attached to that data especially when unified across sites.

Anyway the reason to use the tool is to alert you to what the page your on
might be doing. I.e. Visit any popular newspaper site and you'll that beyond
web analytics trackers and ad networks your data is being sent to behavioral
tracking companies like Tacoda and Revenue Science.

Thanks for the comment, ;dc

~~~
axod
But considering the fact that you can view a users history with simple css
link color hacks...

I'm skeptical though. I think the people who are worried about this sort of
thing will likely be already using adblock or disabling javascript, 3rd party
cookies, 3rd party scripts etc etc.

~~~
dcancel
Your totally right. If your worried about web bugs you can and probably
already run tools like you mentioned.

Ghostery is for those of us, like me, who just want to know what ad networks,
widgets and other web bugs the sites I visit are using.

Cheers, David

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indiejade
Now that's some clever concepting and branding: the allusion to Pac Man is
very cute. Maybe take the idea further and tell people more specifically what
they "really" are: Ghost Scripts something of the like instead of calling them
web bugs.

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Timothee
The linked page to EFF is very informative actually. After reading
ghostery.com, I had no idea what this was about. The EFF page made it clear to
me. (I actually never really thought about that problem before)

I think ghostery.com should explain better what it is on their own page. The
small text sounds as if web bugs are a good thing.

On a related note, it seems to me that advertising companies like DoubleClick
aren't in the news as much as they could. I feel like I never hear anything
about them, and in particular in terms of privacy issues, while they should be
amongst the first to be suspected and talked about. No?

~~~
Create
Then the "free" world on the net is more Orwellian, than you could imagine in
your wildest dream. All the scare stories about China internet surveillance
are a joke in comparison to what goes by in the name of advertising. And this
is the trouble with GOOG, and zeitgeist:

"It's data that's practically a printout of what's going on in your brain:
What you are thinking of buying, who you talk to, what you talk about."
\--Kevin Bankston, staff attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Add to this GOOG CEO's AAPL board membership and their 1984 Superbowl ad, and
be scared to death with the alu macbook digital restriction management.

ps: DoubleClick is related to GOOG (layoffs); the latter also swept up
urchin.js -- look for this program on your PC, and dig into what it does. Far
more than a "stray" pixel.

As to understand why this fuss about advertising: it is an extremely latent
and powerful means of exercising power. I would suggest Adam Curtis, Century
of the Self in particular. (e.g. from Brewster Khale's archive.org)

~~~
Create
For those who vote down: take your time to also put down what is factually
wrong; or what is untrue nor real in the above.

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kirubakaran
The linked EFF page seemed to have "Doubleclick" bug! Then I realized that it
is flagged for just having "ad.doubleclick.net" in the text.

Anyway, this is a good tool... Thank you.

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martey
Their "No Spyware" image links to
<http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/ghostery.com> , which says only that the
website is queued for testing.

Since it is a Firefox extension, you can just open up the package and look at
the JavaScript (my quick perusal saw nothing out of the ordinary). Still, it
would be nice if they said "Ghostery parses the web pages you visit to find
web bugs" or something.

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dcancel
Your right I'm waiting for them to review the site. I meant to link to our
softpedia "clean" page, [http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/Ghostery-
Clean-115003.htm...](http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/Ghostery-
Clean-115003.html)

But your right, being an extension you can just peruse the source yourself.

I like your description better than mine, I'll change it to something a little
easier to understand. Thanks!

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halo
Very nice. The logical extension would be to allow easy blocking of certain
bugs and/or blocking all bugs on certain sites.

~~~
dcancel
Good idea. Thanks for checking it out.

David

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dcancel
Thanks for the comments. I'll incorporate everyone's feedback in the next
version.

I plan on adding the ability to click on any of the web bugs and find out more
about that bug. The pages that you land on will be on a wiki so they'll be
open to additions.

~~~
dhimes
excellent idea for a feature add.

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arthurk
Great idea! Is there a Safari version planned?

~~~
dcancel
A bookmarklet version is on its way which will work on any browser, including
Safari.

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hoho
holy ho ho ho xmas <http://www.listenarabic.com>

