Over the years I've used a couple of blog trackers. I would periodically check them, just out of curiosity. It was mildly interesting to see who was visiting and from where, what they were reading, that sort of thing.
I began noticing hits from outfits including Lockheed, US Naval Intelligence, US Army Intelligence, the odd hit from the CIA, the FBI (once) and the Speaker of the US Senate (twice).
One thing that was especially curious was the browser that they were shown to be using, something called Rippers 0. It was back in September, 2010, that I did a post asking for information about this Rippers browser. There wasn't much helpful information except some tips about how to remove it at least temporarily. That didn't seem to make much sense.
Over the years my interest waned. I haven't checked visitor stats in years. Until today. I did another search of Rippers 0. This time I found an explanation:
Rippers 0 browser is an employee web monitoring utility, used by large corporations and governments. This browser utility monitors employees activity while they are using the Internet with Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.
If that's true it suggests I might have been, possibly could still be, under some sort of surveillance. At first I thought I'm obviously not an employee and they don't have the right to surveil individuals until I remembered their power to surveil individuals is restricted in the case of American citizens, not foreign nationals of which I am decidedly one.
Anyway, with that warning I think I might want to look into my visitor stats once again. So, please tell me, what are your favourite blog trackers?
4 comments:
Anyong...
Are people who follow you and post comments under a name or a pen name tracked as well?
Anyong, I spoke with a friend, a computer expert of 30+ years in the business. He said that meta-data mining has advanced in recent years to the point that private and public-sector interests are now logging everything. You write it and they've got it. What they do with it, in the overwhelming majority of cases, is nothing in the context of the individual. They can, however, choose to monitor or track individuals and that's where the restrictions relating to American citizens apply.
By "tracker" do you mean browser? I use Firefox with extensions: ublock Origin, Self Destructing Cookies and BetterPrivacy. I normally run with Flash turned off. These extensions are why I have trouble posting here; Google doesn't like for users to post privately.
As an experiment, for this post I'm using the Tor browser.
https://www.torproject.org/index.html.en
Let's see if this works.
.. I track on foot ..
I try to leave minimal trail ..
I try to organize my s%%t in one bag, back up offline & search on foot
I manage triplicate + a work copy of 50,000 photo images
many of which originally shot 4x5 large format, 35mm or other
My film + video roll into that
Maybe 30 terrabytes in all.. scattered to 3 or 4 locations
one of which with me somewhere where I am
Like in the Turks & Caicos - walk in snorkeling
I was recently hacked on Facebook.. ooh, big deal
I have their address, IP, device model..
They pimped dubious merchandise.. almost nakid chicks for free
Same on my email .. it happens, they zing ya
and the net result is a rotation of your Contacts
getting ads from you.. for Sears full figure, women's girdles
or a lawn sprinkler that will spray your nosy neighbor
So... many units, drives, CPU's hold my web links
but I avoid 'the cloud' where possible
Twitter & Facebook & Apple deter this of course
so I flog them anyway..
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