Protecting Your Privacy Online

Over the past several days, the Wall Street Journal has run a series of articles "What They Know" about how Web sites and service providers collect information about users. This information is sold to advertisers so they can target advertising to you, based on the sites you visit. Below I summarize some of the key information from "The Web's new goldmine: Your secrets" byJulia Angwin, and "How to avoid the prying eyes" by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries. Both articles were published in the Weekend Journal July 31, 2010. You can see this information at WSJ.com

According to the study by the Wall Street Journal,

• the top 50 Websites installed, on average, 64 pieces of tracking technology on users' computers
• tracking technologies include cookies, flash cookies, beacons, and third party tracking files
• individual's profiles, constantly updated each time you use the computer, are bought and sold on stock-market like exchanges, mostly for advertising.

The vocabulary:
Cookies: text file put on your computer by websites and marketing firms, usually to remember your preferences and log-in information (passwords); however, they can track you across sites.
Flash Cookies: files placed on your computer by Adobe's Flash software. Flash is the most common way to show videos online (think about how many times you've been to Youtube!). They are also used to remember preferences, but can also track you online, and can reinstall cookies you have previously deleted.
Beacons: software that can track your web surfing and online activities, including mouse clicks and keystrokes.
Third-Party Tracking: A cookie or beacon installed on your computer by an ad network or research firm that can track your activities across websites.

The worst offenders? Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Comcast.net, Careerbuilder.com, Photobucket.com, MSN.com, Answers.com, Yellowpages.com, MSNBC.com, and Yahoo.com (how many yahoo groups do you belong to?).

How to protect yourself:

1. Check and delete cookies: all major browsers let users view and delete cookies. On Firefox, go to tools, click on clear recent history, in the drop-down box choose time range, click on details, and check the boxes to delete. Click "clear now". You can view the cookies by going to tools, clicking on options, and clicking on the privacy tab. Click on the "show cookies" buttons. You have the option of deleting the cookies on in the cookies window. On Internet Explorer, go to tools, pull down to "Internet Options", and choose an option under the "general" tab. Caution: you may have to renter passwords or other login information the next time you go to a site.
2. Adjust your browser settings: Allows you to surf the web without saving any information on which websites and pages you have visited. Firefox private browsing does not save information like visited pages, form and search bar entries, passwords, and download lists. Cookies and cache (temporary files) are deleted when you turn off private browsing. You can also go to tools, click on options, click on privacy, and set-up your privacy preferences including browsing history, download list, searches and forms, cookies and third-party cookies, and set up clear history. Internet Explorer allows similar options. Look under Tools/Internet Options/Privacy.
3. Monitor Flash cookies. Go to the Adobe website: www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. Identify flash cookies on your computer and adjust settings.
4. The Better Privacy plug-in for Firefox (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623 allows you to set rules for deleting third party-flash cookies.
5. Ghostery (ghostery.com) helps you control beacons by alerting you when there is a beacon on a page you are viewing. With Firefox and Internet Explorer, you can then block the beacon from capturing information.

For more information, visit the Wall Street Journal Online.