Mike CHS
Herd Master
For the time that I have been on the forum I have really enjoyed all of those mundane boring tasks that comes to mean so much for how we all get to where we are.
Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.
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Actually, the password issue with Sprint isn't the strength of the password... It's the scripts that their site requires to be run in the background, which I don't want run as they are tracking scripts... facebook, google, advertising scripts, data skimmers, etc. None of which have anything whatsoever to do with Sprint and my account. They claim they are enhancing security but by adding all these third party scripts for data mining and tracking purposes, they are in fact doing just the opposite.
CntryBoy777
Herd Master
...and oh so "colorful" too!!....
Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
@Rammy I totally get it. I made my way through *most* of the journals (at least the ones that stay on the main page.) The only reason I got through so many in the short time I did is that I had hurt my back and was stuck in a recliner. Not much else to do that’s very entertaining. Lol
It’s definitely neat getting to know each and every person. Some don’t have journals and their stories are a bit more difficult to piece together but I really enjoy this community and look forward to my time here.
It’s definitely neat getting to know each and every person. Some don’t have journals and their stories are a bit more difficult to piece together but I really enjoy this community and look forward to my time here.
greybeard
Herd Master
That's the case just about everywhere. Anywhere that has anything to do with my personal accounts, or any kind of business, my antivirus automatically opens in a separate secure browser. No scripts allowed, no data mining, no ads.
Even here at BYH, the mining never stops. See the arrow below? I've seen times there were 15-20 instead of 5. Click on it and it tells me how many attempts were made and blocked from this (BYH) website to collect data..among other things.
Right now, it's blocking ads and web beacons or what some call web bugs.
Skimbit or skimlink works by a little javascript snippet installed in the website footer or header, tho sometimes a little 1 pixel x 1 pixel thingie and almost always invisible.
Baymule
Herd Master
@greybeard what antivirus do you have?
Mini Horses
Herd Master
Absolutely. They are very much like the discussions families used to have around a dinner table each day.
The pictures allow us to "visit" in person. This time of year I rarely get to read more than one or two BUT...soon I will be on "catch up" and get the rest of them read. It's MY relax & visit time.
greybeard
Herd Master
One that lots of people don't want, because of who developed it, but I've probably tried them all and it's the best there is.
Kapersky.
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There's a catch to all this computer and internet stuff... Some things you CAN block, and other things you can't. For example, you can open BYH and scan every thread and read every entry. You can block the site from seeing your IP address but the site can see that you've (or someone) opened a page. If you want to post anything however, you have to have an account and you have to sign in. That means you have to actually interact and send data to the site. You also have to share some personal (computer) data with the site so that you can sign in to your account in the future. When you create the username and password, that info is stored and shared at both ends. So even when you have the site blocked, it can and does know that it's you and what pages you've visited, when you started, when you ended, & what sequence each page was visited, (or what order). There's no real way to "hide" this from the site if you sign in to use the site. You can still however block third party software designed to track you as that isn't "required" for the site to function for you. If you use the site's search function, that too opens you up to data mining as the search words you used can be stored and used to target you with specific advertising based around those terms. So essentially, if and when you "send" anything to a site, that info can and will be "used against you" in any way possible.
So really, it's impossible to block all data collection and still have a useful internet... Gotta take the good with the bad. And generally speaking, you have to trust that the sites you choose to use are honest and straight up and are not going to take advantage of you. There is of course the other side to this. Take BYH for example, it costs a LOT of time & money to run a site like this with maintenance, updates, improvements, and just the cost of storing all of the information this site contains. @Nifty is a great guy, and though I'm sure he is generous to a fault, he really has to have some way to recoup what it costs to run this joint. Now there's two ways he can do that... get the money from you, the user, by way of a membership fee, or by third party income by allowing producers of products the ability to advertise to you.
It's become kinda like an internet arms race as many sites now have anti script blocker scripts running so if you load their site and they aren't allowed to run the ad scripts, they block their content from you. Most folks don't see this as they aren't blocking scripts anyway. But for those of us that do, I can vouch for the fact that it's quite annoying when I try to visit a site for information they are offering and I get a large window opening over the site, blocking everything or not allowing it to load, that states "We see that you are using adblocker software, to use our site, please disable this" or the message says "We see that you have Javascript disabled (right to the point there). To get the full benefit of our site, please enable Javascript". Some sites will allow some restricted use of the site even with the ad/script blocker software, but you won't get full functionality. Other sites, you won't even get to first base. On the latter type sites, I simply click away. 99% of the time I can find what I'm looking for elsewhere. Their loss. Actually, they've lost nothing, and neither have they gained anything. Because I won't be linking their web address to anyone (who might not be blocking anything).
ETA You can also see that one of the scripts I'm NOT allowing to run is that skimresources script that GB also pointed out. Doubleclick is another data mining script, as is Googletagservices.
So really, it's impossible to block all data collection and still have a useful internet... Gotta take the good with the bad. And generally speaking, you have to trust that the sites you choose to use are honest and straight up and are not going to take advantage of you. There is of course the other side to this. Take BYH for example, it costs a LOT of time & money to run a site like this with maintenance, updates, improvements, and just the cost of storing all of the information this site contains. @Nifty is a great guy, and though I'm sure he is generous to a fault, he really has to have some way to recoup what it costs to run this joint. Now there's two ways he can do that... get the money from you, the user, by way of a membership fee, or by third party income by allowing producers of products the ability to advertise to you.
It's become kinda like an internet arms race as many sites now have anti script blocker scripts running so if you load their site and they aren't allowed to run the ad scripts, they block their content from you. Most folks don't see this as they aren't blocking scripts anyway. But for those of us that do, I can vouch for the fact that it's quite annoying when I try to visit a site for information they are offering and I get a large window opening over the site, blocking everything or not allowing it to load, that states "We see that you are using adblocker software, to use our site, please disable this" or the message says "We see that you have Javascript disabled (right to the point there). To get the full benefit of our site, please enable Javascript". Some sites will allow some restricted use of the site even with the ad/script blocker software, but you won't get full functionality. Other sites, you won't even get to first base. On the latter type sites, I simply click away. 99% of the time I can find what I'm looking for elsewhere. Their loss. Actually, they've lost nothing, and neither have they gained anything. Because I won't be linking their web address to anyone (who might not be blocking anything).
ETA You can also see that one of the scripts I'm NOT allowing to run is that skimresources script that GB also pointed out. Doubleclick is another data mining script, as is Googletagservices.
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