Best way to block Google Analytics from tracking me?
 

I recently installed Bitdefender "Traffic Light" for Firefox. It tells me big brother Google Analytics is tracking me. I've read that there are three ways to stop it.
1) Google's opt out process
2) a Firefox add-on
3) somehow configuring Adblock Plus (which I have) to stop it

Two questions:
1) Are there any advantages to not blocking Google Analytics? (Besides Google's preposterous reasons.)
2) If I block it, which of the above three ways is best?

Thanks.

I don't know if it's the "best" way, but I use Privacy Badger myself, and it works fine for what you are trying to accomplish.
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

Best regards,
HMW

Since you already use Adblock Plus, i'd say the easiest and least-overhead way is to utilise it.

My Ghostery shows me the Google Analytics URL is either 'http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js' or 'http://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js'.
I would probably write a filter that would block everything from that site (something like 'http://www.google-analytics.com/*').

No, i wouldn't install another addon just for that one tracker.

Hi Gregg...

+1

I use this and it seems to work well for me, too. It (Google Analytics) will show up in the list of "found items" and you can manually block it from there. :)

I'm not sure if there are any benefits to not blocking Google Analytics. I'm not aware of a page not loading up correctly because it was blocked but you would need to take that on a case by case basis.

Regards...

Thanks guys. Privacy Badger sounded easy so I got that. But (see screenshot) why is Privacy Badger allowing the tracking from these three companies? Do I have to manually block everything? (And, ardvark, so these "Filter Settings" are what you're referring to as "found items," right? So when I find Google Analytics there I should just slide the thing all the way over to the left, correct?)

the best way to stop google-analytics.com from tracking you is by blocking the domain completely.
i have been using a "hostsblock" script for more than a year, i never even use adblock anymore, because the script is so effective - and it blocks domains systemwide (not only in my browser).
it's a tad tricky to set up, compared to point-and-click firefox addons.
feel free to disregard, i'm just adding my 2ct.

Hi Gregg...

Privacy Badger learns as it goes. The items you mentioned in your screenshot are examples of "potential" trackers (whether they are or not) that Privacy Badger notices. It will monitor these same cookies (and other content) to see if it can detect any tracking behavior across different websites. If so, then it will begin to block stuff. Take a look at entry "How does Privacy Badger work?" here. However, you can choose to block items manually, such as Google-Analytics, when and as you see fit. :)

Yes, "found items" was my own terminology, as I didn't know what the terminology was that Privacy Badger used. :D

Regards...

That looks good, ondoho. Thanks. But yeah, a little (a lot?) beyond my skill level. Maybe some day. :)

Hi ardvark. Yeah, I read that 'learns as it goes' bit. I was just a little confused by it not blocking giant companies like Google and FB. And how are those two "potential" trackers? They're known notorious trackers.

I just meant in terms of how Privacy badger initially sees them. They have to develop a "reputation," so to speak, before it blocks them, unless you decide to do it manually. ;)

You can also give Disconnect a try as well. From what I understand, it's a bit more proactive from the starting gate, although I've never used it and I'm not sure if it will work under Linux. :)

Regards...

Am I the only one whitelisting cookies, using NoScript to whitelist scripts, using AdBlockPlus and clearing the majority of history after every session too?
I have to admit that I tend to do my online banking in Chromium in incognito mode as it's easier than having settings saved in Firefox to save cookies and allow scripts (would make it obvious to anyone using my machine which bank I used fora start). I do, also, use a similar setup for other, trusted but one-shot sites.
However, for general browsing I find with the relevant sites whitelisted for cookies and scripts and adverts blocked my browsing is a lot less hassle. I even appreciate being able to search for, and select, a YouTube channel without a video auto-playing the first time.

I use NoScript add-on. I'm surprised everyone hasn't heard of it.
After reading about Adblock Plus and NoScript on Wikipedia, I went for NoScript. Of course, you could probably have both.
NoScript also disables java (which is pretty dodgy) unless you enable the trusted site you visit.

With NoScript, it's extraordinary how many sites are being blocked when you visit a page, not just google analytics.

I use Ghostery, and have it block everything. No need for adblock or anything else. Ghostery takes care of all trackers. Occasionally I have to pause it, or whitelist a site or a tracker, but not often. I tend to whitelist sites that I need to work, and which I trust, like my bank. For others, I just try pausing Ghostery while I let something run temporarily, but I don't do that often. I'm a big fan of Ghostery, and I don't go out on the interwebs without it.

Hey ardvark. I got Disconnect and like it a lot. It blocks everything. Privacy Badger seemed pretty neurotic. 'This site doesn't seem to be tracking you.' And its 'learning process.' Sheesh. Disconnect blocks everything and tells you who it's blocking. And Disconnect does a pretty good job on the ads too so I left Adblock Plus off. (Although Adblock Plus does do a slightly better job.)

Yeah, it's extraordinary but it's also pretty confusing. Like which site do you need to unblock to get the functionality you need?

Ghostery sounds a lot like Disconnect. I wonder which one is better. So far I have Disconnect and like it a lot.

Yes, that's a good point.
When I'm on LQ for example, and want to write a comment using the various function tabs (link/quote/code etc), I need to 'allow' LQ, cloudflare and netdna-ssl.
Sometimes allowing one site will push forward further sites which need to be enabled to achieve the functionality you want on the page. You have to do this by trial and error. However, if you think about it, how can this process of blocking spyware be automated?
We need to look at the site name, maybe do a search on it, and then decide if the site should be blocked. If we expect the add-on to do this for us, then things will get complicated.

Ghostery is proprietary software and needs to earn money in some way. Noscript is 'free' and open source - it does not need to earn money in some way.

Hi Gregg...

I'm glad you like it. If it's that good, I think I might have to try it! :)

Is there any noticeable weight on the browser and does it allow you to unblock items if it interferes with the page too much?

EDIT: Couldn't wait, I installed it and am trying it now. :D

Regards...

this is bs.
noscript and adblock are doing two very different things:

• noscript blocks/disables javascript. you can select to allow or block by domains. it does not judge domains whether they are "good" or "bad" - it's up to the user to build up their own profile. javascript gives the server pretty good access to your machine, so it's often a good idea to block it, but javascript isn't "bad" per se.
• adblock blocks certain domains whose sole purpose is to embed ads into your webpages. as such it makes choices for you, but in a corporate/marketing world, it is usually (*) a no-brainer: a list of domains that doesn't change very much. adblock can do some more, clean up the pages and such, maybe detect clickjacking, but simple domain blocking is the core of it.

(*) some sites still show ads - because they have their own ads.


because without google itself (i.e. all google.* domains) there would be much less of an internet to use (i can't say the same about facebook though).
because blocking those domains by default would mean that most people try the addon, realize that "nothing works" - and remove it again.
because some of these "one click privacy solution" addons are actually in bed with some of those giant companies (sorry, i have no firsthand proof for this at all; but i've been reading things over the years, and esp. ghostery has been under vehement criticism).

So what you're saying is: NoScript blocks javascript whereas Adblock blocks ads. However, both softwares also function to block domains.
In that case, they are not entirely dissimilar as they both seek to maintain security and privacy.
Adblock is proprietary and not open-source (unlike NoScript). So although it stops other domains from tracking you, Adblock can track you very well. So I suppose it's a personal decision for each user to have Adblock.

Thanks Higgsboson. Wow. I could see having to do this trial and error process on a more dangerous site but do you really think it needs to be done on LQ and other innocuous sites? I mean, wouldn't everybody be getting killed by viruses all the time then? And I'm using BitDefender Traffic light, which at least gives some idea that the main site is safe. Seems NoScript would be priceless on a iffy site, but it seems quite the hassle on the innocuous ones.

Hi ardvark. I didn't notice the Disconnect interfering with anything and it even has a little bar graph feature to show you how, at times, it loads the site faster. (And I believe a lot of those sites did load faster.)

Thanks ondoho. But I was talking about blocking the cookies, not the scripts. Blocking the cookies doesn't stop anything from working, does it? Okay, once in a blue moon a site will say 'you need to enable cookies for this site to work' but I can't remember the last time that happened.

So companies are in bed with Bitdefender and Disconnect?

I have Adblock Plus. That's open source, so no worries about them tracking me?

Ha ha. No Scripts isn't letting me use italics here.

Hi Gregg...

I've noticed this slightly, too. I think this one's a keeper, as they say. :)

Regards...

Hi again... :D

That's highly unlikely, since the source code can be inspected by anyone. ;)

Regards...

Yes, Noscript needs its appearance customised a little. It's default setting is 'max paranoia'.
Hover on the Noscript icon, Options → Notifications and unclick the box with 'Show messages about blocked scripts'. This removes the pesky yellow notifications bars and is less intrusive. It's still blocking sites and you can see these when you hover over the icon, but it's not constantly notifying you.

To write comments, you need to allow LQ, the questionnetwork, cloudflare, and netdna-ssl. This will also enable all the icons on the reply menu.

To make this permanent, hover over noscript icon → Options → Whitelist → and then you can select those particular domain names which you've previously allowed.

After that, things are much easier. Personally, I prefer not to whitelist anything and am somehow gently reassured when I have to 'allow' sites so I can use a web page. However, the whitelist feature will avoid any future bother on sites you trust.

I wasn't aware Adblock Plus was open source.

However, although their source code can be seen, unfortunately their 'strategic partners' who can bypass Adblock Plus, cannot be seen.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbloc...d_whitelisting

Thanks Higgsboson. I don't quite get how to do this yet, though. Okay, so I temporarily allow questionnetwork, cloudflare, and netdna-ssl. And then when I go to my Options>Whitelist there they are. How exactly do I make them permanent? I don't see any way. Unless you're referring to the "import" "export" buttons. And it seems when I "temporarily" allow them they stay on my whitelist unless I revoke the temporary thing or remove them. (And sometimes it seems they stay even then.)

I know it will take a while to get used to. And I guess 'temporarily allow this whole page' is a bad idea, right?

And I'm with you in terms of leaving the safeguards in place.

And that first suggestion of yours (about unchecking that 'show messages about blocked scripts') I don't get any messages or yellow notification bars.

I'll get comfortable with it eventually. I appreciate your help.

Nasty. Just nasty. I read that Wiki. And I didn't even realize it but I have checked the 'allow some ads' button (maybe it was by default) in the config. And I looked at the list of 'strategic partners.' Google. Amazon. etc. Yeah, like I'm going to be looking at their ads.

And what about the guy calling blocking the ads "theft"? <shaking head> Just amazing.

Thanks ardvark. But see Higgsboson's post. It's open source but with a caveat. (Even the good guys turn out to be somewhat bad.)

it often is.
it's been an ongoing discussion for years.

but hey, you've had plenty of input and you need to take it all in now.

and you should know that NOT using any of these addons will NOT give you viruses or some such.
it's mostly about privacy, and about reducing the load on your system.

also none of the things discussed here (cookies, domains, scripts) are inherently good or bad, but most of them have the potential to be intrusive.

also, you can never avoid it completely.

Yeah, I get a kick out of people saying stuff online is free. Very little online is free. But linux is pretty cool in that regard. Very cool.

I am fairly certain that, using a combination of IP address tracking and "browser fingerprinting" Google and other entities which serve code to many sites could track any and all individuals with a few statistical tools -- the data will just "open up".
If they're doing that then there is no way around it other than TOR and random MAC addresses.
For the rest of us we do things like clear history and cookies after every session and the like.

Ah yes. It would appear that if you 'temporarily allow' a site, then it goes to the whitelist automatically. So if you re-open your browser, it should no longer be on the whitelist (hence temporary).
To make a site 'permanent' on the whitelist, hover over the Noscript icon and near the bottom of the list select 'Make page permissions permanent' (after you've 'allowed' a site).

Some sites will become permanent on the whitelist if you allow it often enough. That's Noscript making things easy for you. But you can always take them off again (if you want) by selecting 'Remove selected site' on the whitelist tab.
Also, Noscript comes with a default whitelist of sites. Sometimes it will add more sites to the whitelist as 'trusted'. Again, you can manually take them off.

I see. In which case, best to tinker with the whitelist and keep an eye on it periodically.
I must admit sometimes I look at the whitelist and see google.com! But I do have to 'allow' it when I login to YT. So keeping an eye on your witelist is probably a good idea.

It's better to allow the whole page until you get used to it. Since if you don't have it, you'd be doing that anyway!

That's unusual.

I agree. Google APIs is a toolkit to add functionality to a page. Many sites use it and it's not clear whether the toolkit is dodgy or not.
My browser is set to never remember history or accept cookies. Although I don't know where cookies are kept on a debian system and simply hope it's deleted after every session!

uBlock origin, other privacy add-ons & FF settings
 

Dunno about Adblock, but Adblock Plus has controversially whitelisted some advertisers, which I suppose might also come with some privacy implications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbloc...d_whitelisting

I prefer uBlock Origin, which doesn't collect data on the user. It works very well for me.

Other Firefox privacy-related plugins I recommend:
- Https everywhere
- Disconnect
- BetterPrivacy (deletes LSOs) - this one is brilliant/seemingly little known. Enter settings and tell it to delete Flash cookies/LSOs on startup, exit and immediately after they are placed on your 'puter.
- Privacy Badger

---

For a more detailed How-To on Firefoxing whilst avoiding advertisers, tracking, LSOs and all that nasty stuff see these links:

https://www.privacytools.io/#about_config

and

https://www.privacytools.io/#webrtc

Thanks a lot for the explanations, Higgsboson. I'm getting it. I don't think I necessarily need to allow the whole page to use a site though, do I? (Some of those sites have seven or eight domains that would be activated.) And I don't have the yellow bars (which is probably a good thing--or is it?) and I don't see a NoScript icon on my whitelist window (which is kind of a bad thing because I would like to know how to make things permanent). Could you point it out to me in my screenshot? Thanks.

Thanks a lot, Zdenko. I had Https everywhere and Disconnect but uBlock origin was a revelation and I ditched adblock plus and installed it. I'll need to get familiar with it, but there was some stuff on the whitelist already (see screenshot). Do I need any of that stuff or should I just delete it?

Aren't Privacy Badger and Disconnect doing the same thing? Do you have both of them at the same time?

Better Privacy is another revelation (as are Flash Cookies--geez, they seem like little malware--unbelievable). I am pretty low-tech but would like to try it. Do you think I'd be okay if I just left everything on the default setting with it?

And thanks for the great links!

Some replies:

I have not deleted it. Doesn't look harmful to me.

I think they overlap substantially. I've had no bad effects from running both. Privacy badger seems less mature, but I like the fact it comes directly from EFF. Disconnect has more stuff, e.g. for mobile - just in case you're interested: https://disconnect.me/

I change from the default settings: see attachment. Basically, I set it to delete LSOs within 1 second of receiving them, and all other delete options maxed. I've had absolutely no bad effects from any of this in terms of FF usability.

---

One more add-on I like:

- Click&Clean.

Admittedly, I don't know how trustworthy they are, so I feel less compelled to recommend them. But it's basically a one-button delete for all cookies, history, LSOs, etc. I attach my settings.

I like to hit the C&C icon every now and again just for good measure, or if I am changing what I do in a way that I don't want cookies to follow me to the next thing but don't want to close my browser.

One thing C&C seems to do is make Privacy Badger forget what it was supposed to be picking up from what you taught it. But Disconnect picks up the slack as I have them running side-by-side.

Finally, I use Firefox sync to make sure each instance of FF on other 'puters has the same setup. (But the options always need tweaking on new FFs).

Hi Gregg,

I noticed you used xubuntu. I don't know if you know, but Ubuntu's Unity desktop sends (even ostensibly "local") searches to Amazon, which shows just how much Canonical care about privacy.

I guess you're not using Unity, in which case this doesn't affect you.
But you can disable the thing anyway (why not, right?)


sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping


Not really related to the original Google Tracking issue/Firefox privacy add-ons line, but I thought I'd throw this in since being stalked by Amazon isn't any better than being stalked by Google. And perhaps a Unity user will read this and find it informative. (More details here: http://www.howtogeek.com/126995/how-...us-unity-dash/)

I also disabled "Send reports to Canonical" in Kubuntu.

I'm quietly hoping that's all I have to worry about on the 'buntus, but something tells me a move to another distro would be wise. Problem is, I'm basically a noob on linux, so I'm hunting around for user-friendly options.

Anyway, that's by-the-by. Just thought I'd throw that 'buntu thing in for completeness.

Hi ardvark. An update. It seems to me Ghostery works better than Disconnect. I noticed that my Bit Defender was reporting cookies on some sites and Disconnect wasn't picking them up, whereas Ghostery was.

Read about Ghostery's business model:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery#Business_model

Not true of Disconnect.

Food for thought.

Hi Zdenko,

You know what, I deleted that stuff. It seemed pertinent to just about nothing. I'll see if it affects anything.

I was excited too that Privacy Badger came from EFF but Privacy Badger just seems weird. It's "learning" about what to block. LOL 'These might be tracking you.' LOL
Thanks for the screenshot. I'm thinking I'm going to hold off on this one for a while. Seems just a touch complicated at this point.

Thanks for the reminder about Click N Clean. I actually put it on my sister's work Windows computer and she loves it. I didn't even think about it for Linux. (I added it. But I have so many icons I can't see its! I'll trust it's working. (I configured it on the add-on page.))

Did you mean Session Sync (screenshot)? I couldn't find Firefox sync. This would be very handy.

Don't hold it off. It's set it and forget it stuff. Try my settings. All they do is remove those nasty LSOs at every opportunity and without even bothering you. Nothing to it. I've had this set up for ages, works all the time, never had a problem. The only time you'll hear from the BP add-on is when it updates during a FF startup every month or so. Then just close the tab.


No. It's not an add-on. It somes with FF. You just need to set up a Firefox account.
It can choose what it syncs. Options are: bookmarks, history, addons, etc. (I don't keep history as I don't like storing any info on where I've been.) When you log into the account from another FF on another 'puter, it will install all your add-ons, etc.

See here for a recent instruction video on how to set up the account:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq-QjHrnv3E

This way, you don't have to worry about which add-ons to install all over again every time. You just need to set up the few settings. But that's quite simple. Just set Better Privacy to how I showed you, and in FF's settings, put the privacy tab as in the attachment.

Hey Zdenko,

I ran that command and this was the result:

Then I ran this to check on the kernels:

aptitude search linux-image |grep '^i'

And got this:

I think I'm getting kind of lost in this. The first one is talking about headers. Hmm. I'm wondering why it would
install things when I was removing something?

Anyway, I removed the old kernels and I think it got rid of most of that stuff that was installed while removing the unity-lens-shopping. Meh, everything seems to be working okay. I'm not going to worry about it.

P.S. Found Firefox Sync.

Here's the whole journey if any of you Linux mavens want to have a look:

Sheesh. Are there no white hats anywhere? :)

Thanks for the encouragement, Zdenko. I got the Better Privacy and used your settings. Tomorrow I'll probably get the FF sync. I think my computer's getting in pretty good shape. Appreciate the help!

Your noscript icon should automatically appear on the toolbar of your browser.

Ok, I'm starting to get it. LOL Thanks. I see what you're saying about hovering over the icon and allowing a site. Then it seems only sometimes does it give the option of making the page provisions permanent. But I don't think that's a big deal because if I allow the site and don't remove it or revoke it, it will be permanent anyway.