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[Previous entry: "super size him"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Worth1000: Celebrity Time Travel."] 11/12/2004 Entry: "How protect your privacy with FireFox." How to protect your privacy with FireFox. As some of you might know, google inserts a tracking cookie (which never expires) when you visit their page. From then on they can create a profile of you and everything you search (scroll down). This data is used for all sorts of data-mining purposes, all of which violate your privacy. Here's an easy way to get rid of this tracking cookie forever. Also, funny how no anti-spyware programs remove this cookie. I'm really starting to get sick of the google double standard. Note: this cookie does expire, but in the year 2038 which is the end of the world as far as UNIX computers are concerned. Anyway, lets get to it. Click on "link to this entry" below to get the full article w/ screenshots. --- First off, chances are you have the google tracking cookie. So lets get rid of it! FireFox makes this very easy to do. Just goto Tools>Options>Privacy and click on Cookies. Now click on the View Cookies button. Scroll down to the google.com cookie like so:
There yet? Good. Now just click the Remove Cookie button. You may have other google cookies, I believe these other ones are harmless. Its this one that is the evil tracking cookie. As you can see from the screenshot it expires in 2038. If the cookie you've chosen expires at some other date, then you've picked the wrong cookie. Make sure to scroll down to "google.com" and not "www.google.com." The "www.google.com" cookies are safe to delete also. Okay now just click on the Exceptions button:
Now just add www.google.com and google.com to the exceptions list like so:
That's it. Now google can't track you as easily, if at all. Even if google is given a warrant they can claim they have no data on you. The only catch is that if you want to do an image search with the "adult" option or if you are a gmail.com user, you'll need to re-enable cookies or choose the "allow for session" option instead of block cookie option (screenshot). If you choose "allow for session" the google cookie gets deleted when you close the browser, which is a pretty good privacy compromise if you do a lot of "adult" image searches or use gmail as your primary email provider. Enjoy your privacy! Feel free to email this entry to people who are interested in privacy. See also: My ad blocker program.
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