Help EFF Test Privacy Badger, Our New Tool to Stop Creepy Online Tracking

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by Dermot7, May 2, 2014.

  1. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Thanks for the discussion, I'm feeling a bit obtuse here: isn't the primary control here the use of VPN or proxy? Plus the ability to wipe the session.
     
  2. gorhill

    gorhill Guest

    Ghostery does block itself: `betrad.com` (like EasyList, hpHosts, MVPS HOSTS) (as per my last results)
     
  3. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Yes, all of this "privacy app" stuff is for ones Aunt Marta, so she doesn't get so much embarrassing spam ;) If one is serious about privacy, one uses VPNs, Tor, JonDonym, other proxies, VMs, FDE, LiveCDs, ramdisks, and all of the other cool stuff that we discuss from time to time.
     
  4. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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  5. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    VPN obscures location and protects against MITM, but I don't see how it would reduce ads....?
     
  6. Veeshush

    Veeshush Registered Member

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    It's not about ads, it's more about tracking. I'd add though that a VPN, or even Tor wouldn't protect against https://panopticlick.eff.org/ type fingerprints by itself. I can't wait once and when Privacy Badger gets that sort of function.
     
  7. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    Um, OK.

    Just for the record, for this discussions' posts #21 & #22, my response was acting upon:
    Cheers.
     
  8. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    PB is horrendously slow, and page breaking.

    As gorhil pointed out, this thing absolutely fails on benchmarks.
     
  9. Veeshush

    Veeshush Registered Member

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    https://www.eff.org/privacybadger#i_found_a_bug

    The thing is still early development. Meaning, any frustration about it being crap is warranted and they know that. Best you can do is take the time to file a bug report and at least try to make them aware what pages were broken.
     
  10. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    I'm referring to apps like "Privacy Badger", not VPNs.
     
  11. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Actually you were the one who referred to VPNs in your message #28
     
  12. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Sorry, I raised the VPN word... Problems seems to me with any of the Ghostery/Privacy Badger kind of tools on their own is that there are inevitably slip-ups or holes, at least while they learn or are configured. And once they've associated your real IP address, that's bad (depending on what you're trying to achieve) - and VPNs avoid that.
     
  13. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    On my new Win 8 machine, Ghostery does indeed work quite nicely, I tested it on Opera 26. It's the best choice if you don't want to break pages. But its performance also depends on in which browser it's used I guess.
     
  14. FPGA 88

    FPGA 88 Registered Member

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    Well, starting today, or to be more precise, looking at my Add-ons updates : Thursday August 06, 2015, Privacy - Badger is no more :(

    I’ve checked with Jondo’s check info, and looking at browser authentication, Badger is certainly ON. However, no functionality is available as seen from my captures :


    http://picload.org/image/ipcpwdo/privacybadger06.08.2015-01.png

    http://picload.org/image/ipcpwdc/privacybadger06.08.2015-02.png

    Looking at the GUI, hard to say whether this due to a nature of new looks or added functionality? Surely someone would also confirm having the same issues?

    I’m using the very latest FF39, and Badger was working in perfect harmony with rest of my Add-ons. As you can see, nothing responds. No amount of clicking would trigger anything, it just stays frozen. Badger suggets it is loading, but it never finishes.

    The only thing working and available is the Faq link. Incidentally, does anyone know whether Eff.org, or PB for that matters have official forum? Well, Wilder Security being my favorite security corner, was my second thought while seeking the best response.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2015
  15. Balthazar

    Balthazar Registered Member

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    No such problems here. I did not check on Firefox yet because it's on another laptop that I have to check later. I don't have problems with PB and Icecat, though.

    I do have minor problems in displaying blocked sites in ublock origin and I don't see the number of blocked elements in this little red box on PB. I think this is happening because of another extension maybe because I turn off javascript...I don't know.

    Did you uninstall PB and do a clean reinstall?
     
  16. FPGA 88

    FPGA 88 Registered Member

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    @Balthazar,
    thanks for your note.

    I have just observed the very same thing on my other machine using the latest FF. The old GUI was there showing all sliders, and the moment Badger was updated - exactly the same :(

    So, clearly not isolated. We need to hear more feedback.

    As for my primary FF, I did try to reinstall Badger, but this brought no change. It is clearly in nature how the latest Badger performs with FF, or triggered with some Add-on.

    Hm, I’m using "Classic Theme Restorer" and I will look into this, as possible cause, but, we need more feedback.
     
  17. Balthazar

    Balthazar Registered Member

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  18. FPGA 88

    FPGA 88 Registered Member

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    I have checked with simpler (also the latest) FF and I have disabled Classic Theme Restorer 1.3.6, and once restarted, for life of me, I have forgotten how atrocious is FF without it. Also, away from general reference in Extensions, I was not able to even communicate with Badger. Tools is nonexistent as it is, and Badger option in toolbar is also close to mirage. So I’ve returned to Classic restorer.

    Thank for those links, as excepted, I’m not alone. At least some are lucky to have functionality.
     
  19. haakon

    haakon Guest

    While the toolbar button count changes from site to site (leading me to believe that PB might still be effective) the GUI exhibits the same bug as in FPGA 88's -02.png screenshot in post #39.

    I've been using PB in Cyberfox64 Portable, v38 & 39, for six months with no problems.

    I've emailed EFF my own screenshot, though by now I'm sure they're aware, and reverted to version 0.99.0.
     
  20. FPGA 88

    FPGA 88 Registered Member

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    Thanks for your confirmation Haakom.

    You don’t have to worry about PB being effective, I’ve triple-checked and PB is working hard as always. It just depends how militant are your settings toward services you mostly use, or in case of beloved Google, you try to restrict as humanly possible. In present situation of frozen new looks, if your settings are very strict, you can’t remedy any of those decisions. So, only disabling PB would grant you passage. But one thing is certain, from now on "Automatic updates" will be off, and well informed ear will follow each Badger’s update. This goes for everything today, but PB being very good at what it does, no need for such surprises in the future.

    and mounting : https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerfirefox/issues/458
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2015
  21. Balthazar

    Balthazar Registered Member

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    I just checked and I can see the same behavior as you described on my Firefox as well. So I guess it is a major bug that will be taken care of soon.
     
  22. Dermot7

    Dermot7 Registered Member

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    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/07/eff_privacy_badger_anti_tracking_browser_plugin/
     
  23. Holysmoke

    Holysmoke Registered Member

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    I tried PB with flashblock and plugin blocker and panapticlick went from over 5 million to a couple hundred thousand so it does thwart fingerprinting. Now to get it down to a few hundred.
     
  24. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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  25. Holysmoke

    Holysmoke Registered Member

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    it does a poor job blocking ads compared to ublock with easylist easyprivacy.
     
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