{"id":216,"date":"2011-02-19T17:10:17","date_gmt":"2011-02-19T17:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=216"},"modified":"2011-02-19T17:35:29","modified_gmt":"2011-02-19T17:35:29","slug":"do-not-track-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/do-not-track-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"Do not track lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do not track lists (and browser extensions)<\/strong>
\nWindows XP, Windows Vista, Window 7<\/p>\n

There’s a big brouhaha boiling over do-not-track \t\t\t\t\t\tlists. To make a complex thing simple – it take simple \t\t\t\t\t\tminds like ours to skim off the cream and leave the \t\t\t\t\t\tmilk behind\u00a0 -we’re going to give you nothing but \t\t\t\t\t\tcream:<\/p>\n

Do not track (me) is similar to the do-not-call lists \t\t\t\t\t\tyou’ve heard about. Supposedly the new Internet Explorer \t\t\t\t\t\tis going to allow you to opt-out of being tracked by \t\t\t\t\t\tevil cookies (as opposed to Christmas cookies) deposited \t\t\t\t\t\ton your computer by evil advertisers who want to know as \t\t\t\t\t\tmuch about you as they can learn from an evil cookie. \t\t\t\t\t\tThese evil cookies are text files downloaded to your \t\t\t\t\t\tcomputer unbeknownst to you. Of course what most people \t\t\t\t\t\tdon’t realize is there are all kinds of things being \t\t\t\t\t\tdownloaded to your computer unbeknownst to you – every \t\t\t\t\t\tpicture you see on the Web, for example, is being \t\t\t\t\t\tdownloaded onto your computer. In fact the web pages you \t\t\t\t\t\tsee (for the most part) are downloaded to your computer \t\t\t\t\t\tand you see them from your own computer\u00a0 – and not \t\t\t\t\t\tthe web. If you don’t believe this, just check your \t\t\t\t\t\ttemporary internet files folder.<\/p>\n

Microsoft is and will be spending zillions of dollars \t\t\t\t\t\tadvertising its new Internet Explorer 9 browser – and \t\t\t\t\t\tone of the things it will try to be convince you of is \t\t\t\t\t\tthat you need to have this do-not-track thingie so that \t\t\t\t\t\tevil advertising networks can’t track you. And why would \t\t\t\t\t\tthey want to track you? Why to find out what you like \t\t\t\t\t\tand what you don’t, that’s why. If you are browsing the \t\t\t\t\t\tweb looking for African violets, you might see ads for \t\t\t\t\t\tAfrican violet plant food, flower pots, and other \t\t\t\t\t\thorticultural goodies. See because the evil cookies they \t\t\t\t\t\tplace on your cookies (the text file) may show you’ve \t\t\t\t\t\tbeen to some African violet sites. You don’t want them \t\t\t\t\t\tto know that! Heaven forbid!<\/p>\n

What can you do. Well you can download an extension \t\t\t\t\t\tfor Google Chrome that lets you opt-out of tracking – or \t\t\t\t\t\tthere are several sites (here’s \t\t\t\t\t\tone<\/a>) you can visit that will let you opt-out of \t\t\t\t\t\ttracking cookies, or you can wait for the next version \t\t\t\t\t\tof Firefox – or you can download Internet Explorer 9 \t\t\t\t\t\t(release candidate).<\/p>\n

If you choose “do not track” you won’t have to worry \t\t\t\t\t\tabout seeing any ads for flowers, or African violets, or \t\t\t\t\t\tflower pots or anything that may be of interest to you, \t\t\t\t\t\tyou’ll see ads for really cool stuff like Cialis, \t\t\t\t\t\tDepends, and Tootsie Rolls – or whatever happens to \t\t\t\t\t\trandomly appear on the sites you visit. In other words, \t\t\t\t\t\tyou won’t be opting out of ads, you’ll only be opting \t\t\t\t\t\tout of ads that some chance of being of interest to you.<\/p>\n

What’s baffling about all this stuff is this kind of \t\t\t\t\t\tmarketing has been going on for years. Do any of you \t\t\t\t\t\thave one of those shopping cards from a grocery store? \t\t\t\t\t\tYou know the ones that give you special prices or an \t\t\t\t\t\textra percentage off certain items. I’m sure a lot of \t\t\t\t\t\tyou do. Do you know if you use that card, that store \t\t\t\t\t\tknows everything you’ve bought, when you bought it, and \t\t\t\t\t\tall your shopping habits. Do you think they just use \t\t\t\t\t\tthat information for themselves – or do you think some \t\t\t\t\t\tof those coupons you’ve been getting in the mail for \t\t\t\t\t\tsome of the products you buy most just appeared \t\t\t\t\t\tcoincidentally?<\/p>\n

The kind of marketing done on the web is no different \t\t\t\t\t\tfrom kind of marketing grocery stores, department \t\t\t\t\t\tstores, and magazines have been doing for years. It’s \t\t\t\t\t\tonly the fact that a few paranoid fear-mongers have made \t\t\t\t\t\tthe situation worse than it is. Really.<\/p>\n

As my buddy William Shakespeare once wrote – this is \t\t\t\t\t\tmuch ado about nothing. If you agree or don’t agree, we \t\t\t\t\t\twanted you to know that running scared from cookies and \t\t\t\t\t\topting out of so-called “tracking cookies” only makes it \t\t\t\t\t\tmore likely you’ll take your eye off far more malevolent \t\t\t\t\t\tthings. Remember: You read it here first.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do not track lists (and browser extensions) Windows XP, Windows Vista, Window 7 There’s a big brouhaha boiling over do-not-track lists. To make a complex thing simple – it take simple minds like ours to skim off the cream and leave the milk behind\u00a0 -we’re going to give you nothing but cream: Do not track (me) is similar\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8,9,41,44,14,42,43,7,22,33,6,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}