I know I'm paranoid, but why on earth does this page load a hidden java applet? It took forever to display, i was like wtf, and then I see the java console application appear and then I was like, even more wtf??
There's been an increasingly aggressive trend toward tracking user behavior and it's disturbing. I don't know what that java applet was for, but it was invisible, which makes me feel uncomfortable with rww.
They're also running some javascript that pings a tracking server every 10 seconds you're on the site. If you have Firebug installed, you can watch it go on the net tab.
From the Ghostery/Better Advertising Privacy Policy- "We collect user traffic patterns"; "we track click-through information, including IP addresses"; "We may place a text file called a 'cookie' in the browser files of your computer."; "We may provide personal information to or permit access to personal information by our vendors and service providers"; "If Better Advertising should ever file for bankruptcy or have its assets sold to or merged with another entity, information Better Advertising receives from you, from this website, is a Better Advertising asset and may be transferred."
I just add them all to my hosts file I don't see the need for anything additional. I think I may have adblockplus installed. I was reading the top article now the one about firefox and h.264 and saw a lot of net hits for disqus, so I added that to my hosts file too and wow, does the page ever load faster.
is this needed even with adblockplus?
[edit - adblock doesn't stop the js pings with the default us subscription] [edit2 - or with an explicit listing; i ended up blocking them via dns] [edit3 - no i didn't; firefox is ignoring my dns?! confused...]
i intend to look again this evening - i may well have made a mistake, but i couldn't understand what was happening (i am on linux, restarted firefox, and also restarted nscd; i didn't modify hosts, but did add a master record for the domain to my local network's name server - "host" and firefox were, apparently, inconsistent) (i was so surprised i went into the code and checked it was using a name and not a numerical address...)
There's been an increasingly aggressive trend toward tracking user behavior and it's disturbing. I don't know what that java applet was for, but it was invisible, which makes me feel uncomfortable with rww.