Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

In general I think it's best to operate with reasonably high privacy settings. This blocks many of the cookies.

Tools - Internet Options - Privacy Tab

I set it to Medium High or higher.

When websites pop up their defacto banners saying "Use of this website requires the use of cookies" just ignore, don't click on the banner.

After ANY and EVERY visit to a website that has required me to log in with a password I immediately run the option to clear down all cookies and temporary data:

Tools - Internet Options - Delete Browsing History

Tick every box except the first one.

This will ensure that no passwords or sensitive data is being kept in cookies or elsewhere.

Note however that if you are a lazy user who has no care about personal security then you would lose any saved passwords. So if you don't know what they are don't do this.
If this is you, know that your system is very vulnerable to attack and malware/viruses could grab your data and provide your passwords to nefarious hackers.

Really you should ALWAYS enter your passwords manually. Never allow a PC/laptop to store passwords for you. Never accept an offered facility to automatically populate passwords for you, that is patently stupid imo.

As previous poster suggested, Malwarebytes is the defacto software to use to check you system for malware. It is free and can be downloaded easily.

However, word of severe warning . .

Before you ever run a Malwarebytes scan, first go into the settings and change the default settings for:

Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) and
Potentially Unwanted Modifications (PUMs)

Set these to "Report Only"

Otherwise Malwarebytes will get confused with all manner of software programs that it doesn't know about and treat them as threats and "deal" with them.

Once those settings are changed run the scan and watch it pick up any nasties you have on your machine, and most likely there will be some. Often just advertising crap (adware) and the like.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

You seem to have issues with quite a lot of online practices don't you. And Mups called me Mr Angry .

You are referring to something entirely different than honest affiliates who make money from advertises various products. It operates in the same way as major websites. Do you have an issue with them as well?

It is the internet and without affiliation there wouldn't be an internet at all - not to the extent that Google is now. Where and how do you think they earn their money? It all works on the same principle - advertising.

You do hold some incredibly biased opinions. I can't be the only one who notices this surely? I've tempered my thoughts and learned some self restraint and it has done me good. Maybe take a leaf out of my books as it sure brings down your pulse rate.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

You seem to be more than a little touchy, MKJ, in condemning Swimfeeders, or anyone else, who does not want their personal information to be sold on without their permission.

If the creators of Cookies really feel the need, to do what they do, perhaps they might publish some standards, and/or make clear where the info is really going.

In the meantime, I'm a NO!

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

That is the whole point - it isn't.

Casting aspersions without knowing the facts.

What Swimfeeder is referring to is a nefarious practice practiced by some inscrutable hackers for want of a better word but it isn't how the internet works for zillions of affiliates. To condemn online shopping - which is what he has done - is ludicrous. It is a massive growth industry - the mainstay of many a countries economy in fact.

Quite silly.

Tired of having to defend myself all the time so my ignore list is about to lengthen somewhat .

Ah peace ...

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

Hi

It is not just little old me.

The Internet has been seriously misused my some.

Such is the misuse that Governments have forced the introduction of new controls.

That is why you now have a little pop up on your screen, asking if you want to allow cookies from the site.

You now have the choice, your decision, not anyone else forcing you to give away information.

I press no most of the time, some sites, like banking, it makes sense to allow them.

I also do not like adverts, however I do accept that some sites, such as this, cost money to run.

OFF provides a very good service, so fine by me to have adverts on sites such as this.

I prefer to subscribe to the site myself, just my way of doing things, so I don't get the ads.

Other sites are nothing other than an excuse for someone to make money by using my personal information, from cookies.

They are designed to get you to click on links which earn the site owner money, that is their sole purpose.

I have no wish to be part of this, so never accept cookies or click on adverts on them.

I certainly do not get angry about them, I just do not wish to have anything to do with them.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

Swimfeeders isn't being the least bit silly. The industry is using "stealth" technology to gather personal details to use for their own profitable ends. The industry is gathering numerous intel on every individual to build up entire profiles of their habits, their expenditure levels, their likes, dislikes, how they respond to bargains and offers and a ton more besides. People would be horrified to see the levels of information that 1000s of companies have of their life habits.

Presenting the whole thing as just some innocent simple advertising business proposition is really a bit puerile.
People are being tracked, relentlessly.

People using Facebook for example are having their movements tracked everywhere they go. Doubtless they signed up to that when they created an account, it's probably in the small print. The FB widgets you see on millions of website where you can "like" something, are grabbing information about your visits and recording it.

Companies don't go to all this effort purely to enhance their own ability to sell product to you. That's totally naïve.

The data is the product. It is a hugely valuable product and companies trade that data to 1000s of other companies who are all jealous of the corporates who are able to gather it. Every business wants to have an A Class target audience which they can go and badger and try and sell to.

Data warehousing has been THE major big business direction for many years now.

Unfortunately it's a black market. It sees people's personal data including all your buying habits and service using habits, peddled for money and that then leads to 100s of companies badgering you for sales.

Where do people think all the nuisance telesales calls come from? People answer the phone and think . . . "how the hell did they get my name and number?"

Answer. YOUR data has long since been sold on to 1000s of companies for profit and then all those companies come after you for sales.

The entire industry is inherently wrong imo. It's a black market and should be outlawed.

The simplest way to protect yourself from all this . . . sh*t . . . is to disable JavaScript in your browser settings. It is the running of those scripted programs when you visit websites that typically gather the details. Scripts can (and do) take a peek at data on your PC that you haven't protected, like cookies. Scripts are also responsible from slowing down the loading of websites.

Disable Javascript and you immediately prevent websites from doing a lot of their tracking and as a bonus you prevent most of the annoying adverts and banners from appearing.

Now I'm sorry of that means a website isn't getting its drip feed of profits from people clicking on those adverts. Even on a forum like this on, there will be revenue being generated by you as a user having to see and put up with all those adverts. Disable JavaScript and the adverts go away and that revenue is lost.

I appreciate that sites need financial support to stay alive, but selling your souls out to nefarious advertising companies, which you have no control of, is frankly a poor way to generate income. Websites and forums alike tend to have to agree to provide a "space" in which companies can advertise, but they have no control over what gets displayed or advertised in that space.

If the forum has say got into bed with Google Advertising and provides a banner or column for them to show ads there, then typically Google will use their "analytics" to tailor all those ads to what they know you will be interested in.

There are good and bad things associated with that practice.

In the end, I believe forums and websites alike need to come up with better, safer and more moral ways to generate income from their user base instead of going for the "easy option" which sees people's data used as a profitable product.

Would people here pay a small membership fee to use this forum? Perhaps. But then the forum would have to be sure to provide a sterling service, be ruthlessly impartial in its moderation activities, favouring no-one in particular and have good rules and standards.

Notice that Wikipedia has recently been canvassing its visitors for donations as an example.

Bottom line, for your own surfing safety, disable JavaScript as your default position and then only re-enable it when there is a website that needs it to function (such as online banking or when buying something) and then disable it again afterward. You'll be much much safer, websites will load instantly, there won't be pop up adverts and flashing banners and you won't get your data tracked.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

Some cookies are absolutely necessary - some allow you to return to a page at the same location that you left it, some are used for banking, one, in my case, is used to remember my favourites TV channels on a TV guide. If that cookie got deleted I'd have to set the whole thing back up again.

I use Ccleaner history clean-up program which allows you to retain some cookies (like the aforementioned banking and TV stations) and delete all the others. Simple enough. If you're that concerned about people tracking you there's a `Private Window` setting on most modern browsers which stops all cookies, webpages visited, searches and temporary files from getting anywhere near your computer. Firefox (my browser of choice) also has anti-tracking built in too.

I also have Ghostery and Ublock origin as browser add-ons - no adverts, no silly animations, no pop-up windows, zilch. The only adverts on this site that I can see is dogs and cats sister sites when I'm posting. I could easily block those too but they aren't intrusive.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

I don't use/need any such 3rd party utilities or bits of software. Disabling JavaScript simply blocks the lot. No adverts, no banners, no pop ups, no tracking. Nada.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

We all know this - or at least I do but to blame it all on cookies and affiliates is simply daft. So daft in fact unlike you I really can't be arsed to reply - just not worth the effort. I view it as a personal attack - maybe it was - another dig.

Loads of affiliate websites do not gather information such as email addresses and so on. This forum doesn't pass on your details when you click on an advert. IPs are dynamic in the most part. Any 'gathering of data' is done mostly on the merchant's own site.

'Stealth technology' as you say is growing and I should know as I constantly monitor my website visitors and can see dangerous crawlers at work - email harvesters and so on.

If you condemn cookies and affiliates and took them out of the equation the entire internet world would collapse. It takes money to create and run websites - from creation to hosting takes time effort and money. People pay for all sorts of services to be able to afford do this - including putting a massive amount in Google's coffers. It has made them stinkingly rich and continues to fill their pockets.

Users have to register at shops to be able to pay for goods. No-doubt the unscrupulous could sell off such details but there are pretty strict rules in place to combat this but it does go on for sure. It is the sign of the times. We live in a pretty crooked world these days but online shopping is a growth industry. I would say it will continue to grow too as the world becomes a more inhospitable place.

The gathering of personal data is something I hate but it is inevitable now. You can hide from the intrusion as much as you can for sure but really only geeks have any chance against it. For the common man massive amounts of data is being collected. The very fact that the world is becoming a more dangerous place to live in only adds fuel to the fire as it helps further legislation to take hold.

Lets face it you should really be paying attention to what you write and where. I have been very remiss with regards to this so I'm probably well and truly sunk and will have to face the consequences.

But to lay all this on affiliates and cookies - well, go figure.

I will add one point though in defense of Swimfeeders in that I never join any website where I have to hand over any details - join up for something or to subscribe unless it is a reputable merchant website. By doing so you are handing over the very information that can be sold on. Emails are used to pass on offers etc and are worth money on the black market hence spam mails. I also never trust any website offering something for free as again more often than not they are merely ways to pique your interest and to hand over valuable personal information.

Re: Allow Cookies, Yes or No

And noone suggested it did. However that is entirely irrelevant. When a forum or any other website makes a deal with an advertising company to provide them with a space to advertise, a banner at the top, a column down the side, a pop up during login etc, then the website has simply absolved itself of responsibility and allowed its userbase to be targetted by these advertising companies.

Websites have absolutely no control overt the advertising content or the advertising funtionality (use of scripts/programs etc). Yes there are basic terms in the agreements such as agreeing that there will be no offensive material displayed, no sexual content etc etc, the basic stuff you would expect, but the bottom line is that websites rent a space and what goes on in that space the website has no control of.

That means, regardless of what anyone thinks, that use of this forum or any other, without security measures to block adverts and pop ups, could lead to one or more of those advertising spaces running scripts to pick up information in your browser cache, or cookies, or elsewhere.

Forums/websites make money from renting that space and companies pay them that money so that they can use that space to gather your personal intel as well as displaying adverts.

Like I said before, there really should be better ways to generate income and there should be tighter laws around companies running scripts and peeking into people's computers, but at present the laws are lax and will likely remain that way.

Nothing would collapse MKJ. Websites would simply have to adapt and find different strategies to achieve their ends. That's how the whole world works. On TV we have many channels who allow advertising and some that don't. Different business models.
The world of football, once consigned to simple gate entry fees, is now a mega business that is funded by sponsors and selling of football merchandise, clothes, annual footbal kit, brochures, magazines, plastic figures etc etc.

People just go for the easy option knowing that the people they get into bed with are going to exploit their own user base.

If you're a TV company and allow advertising, you know that in doing so you are going to unleash the nefarious PayDay loan sharks onto your public and that many vulnerable people are going to be sucked into loans with 4 figure APR percentages. Is it right to just shrug your shoulders and say "so what, it's not my problem, it's up to someone else to police"?

The world is largely the way it is because we are all trying to get one over on each other. We all try to get ahead by keeping someone else down. We haven't yet learned to stop doing that and instead share wealth and materials and services for our joint mutual benefit.

Yep but that's why everyone needs to stop being lazy and take responsibility for their own education of such technical matters. Disabling Javascript is a quick and very simple thing to do for anyone wanting to take privacy seriously.
It cuts out a huge amount of tracking nonsense and most of the adverts and makes everything run a lot quicker.

The advent of Windows 10 and the awful way in which MS chose to force it out on the population convinces me that people's amount of control over their PC is being diminished. How long will it be before the operating system is displaying adverts and pop ups with no way for you to disable them (unless you pay someone for that service!)?.
There will come a time when Win 10 is more of a selling platform and portal for apps imo. Watch this space!