Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Covering your tracks with Chrome



Webnotes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Content also covered on WBTV's Protecting Your Cyberturf Segment featuring Theresa Payton and Kristen Miranda, Wednesdays 5:10pm


It seems like every time you turn around, someone is tracking you online.  Whether it’s your phone, your tablet, or even your web browser.  We have given you tips in the past to help cover your digital tracks but now it’s just become a little easier!   


That’s right!  You may remember that we told you that internet browser giants such as Microsoft and Google promised to help consumers out with “do not track” options and Google has just announced that they have added this feature to their browsers.  You had this feature, kind of...sort of...today but you had to know how to set various privacy settings.  Now it’s just easier to do.  Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains.




WHAT IS “Do not track”?:

Do Not Track is the feature that allows you to say, in simple “yes” or “no” terms how you feel about being tracked.


HOW DOES IT WORK:

The Do Not Track feature will send what’s called an HTTP header, this is a short message, to all the websites that you visit with a message that says "it's NOT OK to track me" or, "it's OK to track me".


WILL ALL WEBSITES RECOGNIZE THIS FEATURE?

Not yet so it’s still very important to make sure you set your privacy and security settings and just be aware of who is tracking you and who is no


THREE QUICK TRACKING THE TRACKERS TIPS:

It’s not always easy to get a big picture on who is tracking you and what they do with the information.  Their privacy policies will give you a little clue but they are often hard to read.  Your best bet is to insure you pay attention to:

1.  YOUR BROWSER SETTINGS:  Check those for privacy and security

2.  LOCATION SETTINGS:  Say “no”.  Most will work unless they need to use a GPS to help answer your question

3.  WATCH WHERE YOU CLICK:  Those ads on trusted sites love to follow you around so avoid clicking on them.  


RESOURCES:

This tool at Microsoft tells you if you have do not track set up and it looks at all browsers, not just Microsoft!

http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/browser/donottrack/default.html


You can try these following tools to see who is tracking you online:


Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ckdcpbflcbeillmamogkpmdhnbeggfja


Safari explanation of their do not track feature:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5275?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


Firefox Browsers:  

a.  Abine lets you opt out of targeted advertising and tells you if a site is tracking you.
www.getabine.com

b.  Collusion is an add on that works with the Mozilla   

Mozilla.org/collusion

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