Today in news that should be surprising but isn’t: websites have been harvesting data about your web browsing history (including porn!) without your consent, and they’re using it to market more shit to you.
A team of scientists from the Scare The Shit Out Of You Department at the University of California, San Diego determined that some sites you visit (even reputable sites like investment research site MorningStar.com) contain invisible programs can recreate detailed records of your browsing history without your knowledge. Christ. Really?
This only works on certain browsers- Firefox, Internet Explorer, and older versions of Chrome and Safari, but the loophole that allows data mining has long been suspected of existing. Perhaps this discovery will help fast track a proposal to create a “Do Not Track” program for users to install, but doesn’t it seem a little ridiculous that, in this day and age, we have to specify that we don’t wish to be followed and recorded and have our data sold? Shouldn’t “not being watched every goddamn minute of every goddamn day” be the default setting? Am I taking crazy pills here?
I’m far from an expert on technology in any of its forms, but as far as I can tell now, the internet is basically like Santa Claus in that it sees you when you’re sleeping, knows when you’re awake, and knows that you looked at that weird porn that your friend told you about. Unfortunately, The Internet will never bring your presents on Christmas morning.
While I’m never doing anything “bad” on the interweb, I still don’t want strangers all up in my shit. Besides, if anyone saw what I really do on the internet when I’m not at my real job or working on making little bloggity blogs on this site, they’d be astounded by my level of stupidity.
My god, market researchers will say when they see my data, this moron spends a lot of time looking at pictures of puppies on the internet! And she uses Google like Spellcheck!
Visited Porn? Web Browser Flaw Secretly Bares All [AP News]
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