[LINK] Never wear the same browser two days running

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Craig Sanders
> Sent: Monday, 21 February 2011 10:13 PM
> To: Link list
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Yet another reason why I dislike Facebook 
> intensely
> 
<SNIP>
Great Post Craig. I use different browsers so automatically, that I
don't even think about it. As I'm sure do many Linkers..

> that's the main reason why i use a particular browser, 
> gnome's epiphany, to access my gmail and other google 
> accounts. and don't use that browser for *anything* 
> else...certainly not for casual browsing. i don't want google 
> tracking me any more than i want any other company doing that 
> (the Adblock and NoScript and OptimizeGoogle plugins on FF 
> nicely take care of google cookies, google analytics etc).
> 
> similarly, and also due to healthy paranoia, i use a 
> different browser solely for internet banking and never use 
> it for anything else. i start it up when i want to log in, 
> and log out & exit the program as soon as i've finished.
> 
> i've got about half a dozen browsers installed. i mainly use iceweasel
> (firefox) for general browsing (because of NoScript, Adblock 
> Plus, No Squint, Stylish, Greasemonkey, and a few other 
> essential plugins
> - some of which work on other mozilla-based browsers too, but 
> some don't). iceape (aka SeaMonkey, what the old mozilla 
> browser became) as a secondary general purpose browser. and 
> epiphany, midori, galeon, konqueror, and others (including 
> even google's chromium) for various other special purposes.
> 

I also use different browsers for different tasks.
With the addition of a sacrificial virtual machine.

I would actually recommend this to all young people and would go so far
as to suggest:

That utilisation of separate browsers for banking, everyday browsing and
serious research should be taught in school.
TomW...?

The ladies will pick this up real quickly... (never wear the same
browser two days running...)

The major problem will be laziness.
And of course, that young people like to find out that a burning match
is HOT... All by themselves.

Unfortunately, in this instance, Craig, Roger and others on Link are
correct... We are selling our private preferences extremely cheaply.
Free? What a joke.

Here little girl, here's some Free Candy, [insert browser name instead
of Candy], now go looksee around the web so I know what adverts I should
push at you next week...

The downside of this is that long term, when today's crop grow up,
INGSOC will have a complete record of every click and it will be too
late to learn that the match is burnies...

Of course, today INGSOC clearly states that they will do no evil.
Ooops, they don't say that, do they. They just say, Do no evil... As in,
Hey You, Google user, Don't do anything naughty coz we're watching...

Of course XP doesn't make multiple similar browser installation easy...
So I have some running on different operating systems but they are all
available to me via various tunnelling options [happy to discuss what
tunnelling options off list].

I'm multi-homed (3 ISP's and 3 IP numbers) and I have a VM the other
side of the world that allows me a tunnel, additionally, I regularly
drop the DSL links for up to an hour in an attempt to pick up a new IP
number (usually works).

Additionally I use various anonymiser services on an adhoc basis. Trying
to never visit the same service with the same browser two days running
from the same IP address.

Am I some criminal type attempting to avoid interception ? NO. I'm just
a member of Joe Public that doesn't particularly believe that my privacy
should be given away for free and I am sick of Malware key loggers, that
sometimes were inserted by leading names in the community.

Am I accusing various sites of spying?

No, but I use Lynx on certain sites like Zdnet, WSJ.com Facebook.com
etc. for a reason and that reason isn't that I like white type on a
black terminal window...


TomK