After watching tonight's "60 Minutes" story on "The Data Brokers," I decided to try and block all trackers. Those are the businesses that use your IP address and computer's MAC address to get your real name, your email addresses, your physical address, track all web sites you ever visit, etc., then sell all of that information.
I have used the Ghostery Safari extension for years. It blocks tracking sites, and allows you to selectively whitelist sites that you trust. But when I checked my Ghostery settings, I saw that there are more than 1,800 trackers, none of which I had blocked. So now I'm blocking all advertising, analytics, beacons, "privacy" trackers, and widgets. I'll try it for a while and see if it causes any problems on search sites, e-tailer sites, blogs, etc. And if it causes a big enough performance hit, I'll need to figure out if it's worth it or not.
Interestingly, the iMore.com home page is far less cluttered with ads now that I've blocked all those trackers. Especially the right column. Plenty of blank white squares where there used to be ads and other crap that I totally ignored anyway. Good. Riddance.
I also recommend blocking cookies, disabling plug-ins, and disabling javascript on sites that you don't trust for whatever reason. First open the Security pane of Safari Preferences, then un-check Enable Javascript and Allow Plug-ins. Click to the Privacy pane, then click the "Always" button for "Block cookies and other website data." And make sure you have checked "Ask websites not to track me." Also, you can see what cookies have been added to Safari in the Privacy pane. Click the "Details..." button in the "Cookies and other website data" section.
Try blocking trackers and let me know if you notice much difference. If nothing else, you'll be telling sites that use trackers to f_ck off.
I have used the Ghostery Safari extension for years. It blocks tracking sites, and allows you to selectively whitelist sites that you trust. But when I checked my Ghostery settings, I saw that there are more than 1,800 trackers, none of which I had blocked. So now I'm blocking all advertising, analytics, beacons, "privacy" trackers, and widgets. I'll try it for a while and see if it causes any problems on search sites, e-tailer sites, blogs, etc. And if it causes a big enough performance hit, I'll need to figure out if it's worth it or not.
Interestingly, the iMore.com home page is far less cluttered with ads now that I've blocked all those trackers. Especially the right column. Plenty of blank white squares where there used to be ads and other crap that I totally ignored anyway. Good. Riddance.
I also recommend blocking cookies, disabling plug-ins, and disabling javascript on sites that you don't trust for whatever reason. First open the Security pane of Safari Preferences, then un-check Enable Javascript and Allow Plug-ins. Click to the Privacy pane, then click the "Always" button for "Block cookies and other website data." And make sure you have checked "Ask websites not to track me." Also, you can see what cookies have been added to Safari in the Privacy pane. Click the "Details..." button in the "Cookies and other website data" section.
Try blocking trackers and let me know if you notice much difference. If nothing else, you'll be telling sites that use trackers to f_ck off.
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