Did you know
that social networking
sites like Facebook,
Google+, and Twitter
can track your visits to
any web page that
uses the familiar "Like",
"Follow", or "+1"
buttons, even if you do
not actually click these
buttons? Here i am
going to introduce a
new security tool that
will take care of your
privacy The Priv3
Firefox
extension lets
you remain
logged in to the
social
networking sites
you use and still
browse the web,
knowing that
those third-party
sites only learn
where you go
on the web
when you want
them to. All this
happens
transparently,
without the need
to maintain any
filters. Priv3 is
free to use for
anyone. How Social
Networking Sites
Can Track You? In order to integrate
interactive features—
such as buttons,
comment forums,
activity feeds, or
recommendations—
from social networking
sites, authors of web
content integrate HTML
snippets or JavaScript
code provided by the
social networks into
their pages.
For example, when
you are logged into
your Google or
Facebook account and
visit a movie review
page on
rottentomatoes.com,
your browser
automatically pulls in
the "+1" button from
Google's servers and
the "Like" button from
Facebook. These
downloads include the
session cookies your
browser uses to
inform Google and
Facebook that you
have previously logged
in, and so Google and
Facebook automatically
learn about your
personal interest in the
movie page you're
looking at, even if you
never actually click on
either of their buttons. How priv3 works? Blocking simple "web
bugs" or "trackers" is
fairly straightforward,
because doing so does
not harm your web
surfing experience. By
contrast, completely
blocking social
networking features is
counterproductive,
because doing
prevents you from
actually using these
features—say to leave a
comment, or to "like"
something—when you
would like to do so.
Therefore, Priv3 does
not block third-party
interactions completely.
Instead, it selectively
suppresses the
inclusion of third-party
web cookies when
your browser pulls in
content from the social
networks, but does
provide them if you
decide to interact with
the social networking
features. You still see
the number of "likes"
the page has
accumulated on
Facebook or the
comments other
people left using
Facebook's discussion
mechanism. Facebook
however only learns
the IP address of the
computer you are
using.
Should you decide to
interact with the social
feature, Priv3 detects
any mouseclick or
keystroke directed at
the feature. It then
reloads it with your
session cookies and
passes on the click or
keystroke, thus
revealing your identity
to the social network
and informing it of
your desired action. Download and install