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The newest leak from NSA internal documents is a presentation that gleefully explains how those targeted ads you see in Gmail and Google searches are actually being used as tripwires for “offensive hacking operations.” In other words, the NSA is piggybacking on technologies that companies use to target your advertising, and watching ads you click on to see if you need to be hacked. We talked about this a few days ago, but I bet many of you are still using Google, still thinking those ads are no big deal. Guess what? They’re a huge deal.
Of course, they claim that it’s all for your safety.
The NSA’s use of cookies isn’t a technique for sifting through vast amounts of information to find suspicious behavior; rather, it lets NSA home in on someone already under suspicion – akin to when soldiers shine laser pointers on a target to identify it for laser-guided bombs.
Lovely visual, right?
Get off your Gmail. Stop using Google. Use DuckDuckGo instead. Stop using Chrome and IE. Use Firefox with the NOscript addon. For the love of all that is holy, people, stop making it so easy for them.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/nsa-signal-surveillance-success-stories/647/
Eleanor in Hell says: “Get off your Gmail…”
I’ll be looking for your new VGB email address an day now. 😉
Kate says: Snort!
ALman says: Mama said,
“Don’t trust anyone who will whosper ‘sweet nothings’ in your ear, yet won’t repeat them out loud.”
“Don’t trust anyone who smokes big cigars, drives fast cars, and drinks hard liquor.”
And, “Don’t trust anyone who fools with your cookies!” (grin)
GWB says: I have Firefox (at home – alas, my work computer is still IE) and set it to delete all cookies when I close it. *All* cookies. Yes, I have to log into all my sites every time I start it up, but it means nothing is left after I restart the browser.
I also use Opera. (I use it partly so I can keep a “public” view of some webpages that I update – since the account isn’t logged in over in Opera, I see it as everyone else sees it.) It has a “sandbox” feature that will isolate any particular tab as if it were all alone on your machine, without any cookies or any acknowledgement of the other tabs you have open in your browser.
I also *ALWAYS* decline installing any sort of “helper bar” in my browsers. ALWAYS. And, as was mentioned in the privacy post yesterday, block the ad websites and things like google +1 in your browser or firewall.
Frank says: One more thought, admittedly a bit of an outlier.
With the acquisition of the popular traffic and navigation app Waze, Google has acquired an ability to track and store your driving routes, destinations, and “favorite” locations.
Consider also removing Waze from your smartphone. It might be warranted.
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