Somebody’s Watching Me
February 14th, 2012 - 8:48 am
Do Not Track Plus — just go and download it right now. It’s a free browser plugin for all the bigs. Not only does it block companies from tracking your web browsing, it really speeds up your page load times.
Popular Mechanics has nine different trackers on its site, which might explain why it tends to suck so much. Well, not for me, not anymore.
UPDATE: Slate and Daily Caller top the charts with an even dozen apiece. I suspected Drudge would have been one of the worst offenders, but Drudge Report is at a relatively benign four.
Wow. Now that is effective. Way better than other methods I’d been using. Kudos.
WoW! Great tip, Thanks Steve. I’m having fun visiting the more egregious sites and increasing my blocked counter : )
Cosmic timing.
I’d allowed myself to get a bit complacent about online tracking issues, but recently kicked back into my usual, more cautious mode.
I’ve been searching for something like this. Thanks much. Looks like it will be invaluable.
The ixquick search engine, which purports not to track searches, comes up “clean” under Do Not Track Plus.
ixquick: https://www.ixquick.com/
If I’m not mistaken, I learned of ixquick from a VP comment some months ago.
Try it, see what you think.
Thanks Stephen, I’ve noticed both at home and at work (T-1 or better) the intertubes have slowed down.
Gosh, googleanalytics is everywhere.
Heh. Seven from pjmedia.
Physician, heal thyself?
Ha! I was thinking the same thing.
Steve,
THANKS!
works well. Installing on all my machines right now.
Thanks! My computer sped up immediately.
Yes, I’ve noticed a speed-up as well. Honestly, I had no idea the tracking scripts were so cpu-hungry. I don’t really understand why, except that they’re probably very poorly written.
And that there appear to be multiple scripts running at the same time while loading a page…. (ahem!)
I can’t download it. Firefox is blocking it.
(sigh) I suck at tech, because I run into every damned problem. Every single one. Got a bug in your software? I will run into it, every time.
What version? I’m on 10.0.1 and the addon installed without any trouble at all.
Say, where does the magical eight-ball display appear in Safari on my MacBook Pro? Don’t seem to see it.
Wait a minute, there it is on the left side …
SEVEN of those bad boys on this very page?!?!?
Jeez, Stephen. Does Roger know that you wrote this?
I generally use NoScript. Although some sites have made themselves SO dependent on Google Analytics that they don’t load at all if you block it.
(I’m also annoyed at all the sites that have offloaded their comments to Disqus because I can’t get any of my favorite handles on it, and their account system applies across all sites using it).
A bunch of other sites I block using HostsMan, which isn’t a plug-in, it’s an editor for your local Hosts file, which you can use to make certain sites unreachable no matter what.
Vodkapundit: 7
Pretty cool if this speeds up my browser.
Mauser wrote,
“A bunch of other sites I block using HostsMan, which isn’t a plug-in, it’s an editor for your local Hosts file, which you can use to make certain sites unreachable no matter what.”
googleanalytics.com was the first thing I added to my hosts file, after getting an excellent one from here.
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm