side by side - Ghostery vs DNT
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| helios Jul 09, 2012 11:14 AM EDT |
This feature was actually a comment made on another article dealing with extensions and it was suggested that I publish it here as an article. In those comments, folks offered additional extensions that might be useful and as we've come to expect from LXer contributors, they are. However, I decided to test Ghostery against Do Not Track....both privacy extensions that block other websites and companies from tracking and profiting from your browsing habits. I ran them side by side, both installed at the same time, then I ran them as the only tracking extension installed on Firefox. There was no difference, either way. I was surprised at the results. Ghostery detected and blocked by far, a much larger number of trackers and web bugs. I was a bit disappointed in DNT's performance and the lack of preferences/tools by which to tweak it. Ghostery has a large number of "blacklists" that have been submitted by users whereas DNT seems to have only one, but updated by the developers frequently. Posted below is a side-by-side comparison of the results taken from foxbusiness.com. I tried msnbc and abcnews.com as well but their Ghostery lists were about half again longer. Salon and Slate.com were both huge lists as well. I simply chose the shortest one to save file size. I know some of us have slow connections and my "cloud" solution can be a bit slow on the uptake. Note that many of the Ghostery entries are grey vs a few of them that are bold. The bold listings are those I chose to allow for this screenshot. http://tinyurl.com/7vuooev Click the white arrow in the top right corner for a larger view. |
| shem Jul 10, 2012 3:34 AM EDT |
Thanks! I have to use the download-button to see the image :( The flash-thing tries to load then shows error #2036 (after I allow through flashblock of course). Happened recently too on another image you posted on Humyo... A list of my extensions (not so different from yours): Adblock Plus BetterPrivacy Collusion Flashblock Ghostery HTTPS-Everywhere Not privacy related: DownloadHelper, Forecastfox & FoxClocks. (Oh, yes, my Firefox (actually Iceweasel) is a bit slow to startup, but that is mainly because of Forecastfox) |
| helios Jul 10, 2012 9:30 AM EDT |
Yeah, an inherent problem with flash-based stuff. Unfortunately, Humyo is about all I can afford for "cloud" services. Much cheaper than dropbox or Amazon S3. |
| skelband Jul 10, 2012 12:32 PM EDT |
If you haven't tried it yet, there is an interesting extension called "Collusion" which allows you to visualise cookies dropped for third parties. Makes interesting reading. I've been running it for a while and it is pretty horrific to say the least. Just reset the graph after installing Ghostery to see the effect. |
| helios Jul 10, 2012 6:29 PM EDT |
Thanks Skelband....will play with it tonight when I get home. |
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