Nearly every website now has a privacy policy statement and not to be left behind, here's ours. It's simple:
However, that doesn't mean you aren't being tracked and your data collected. So, now for the unpleasant truths of the internet:
If it's a "free service" then YOU are the commodity being sold.
Your data, your photos, your life, your kids lives are all bundled, shopped, and sold to the highest bidder: Internet Marketing Slavery.
There's not much you can do about it and new laws coming "SOON(tm)" will make it nearly impossible to opt-out of anything. Even if the new laws claim to provide opt-outs, rest assured there won't be any that are meaningful.
So here's what we can tell you about our site.
KimB Editor
Topics:
- Google Hosted
- Front Page Map
- We don't monetize our site
- Pictures, Videos and Other "doodads"
- Anonymity
- We do not track you
- Suggestions on how to minimize the intrusion
- Option 1: Break your browser
- Option 2: Turn off cookies
- Option 3: Create your own White List/Black List
- Exceptions: A Note on Special Interest Groups.
- Sample Black List
Google Hosted
The site is hosted on Google's BlogSpot service. There are Google analytics running on these sites all the time. They track your access, dates, times, operating system, your geolocation and your IP Address and much more. This is collected and stored by Google and they sell this to the highest bidder.
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Front Page Map
There is a map showing the geolocation of users on the front page. This is provided by a 3d party site which provides the map. It collects page views, geolocation (hence the map part) and you can presume they are collecting the same sorts of data that Google collects for the same purposes.
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We don't monetize our site
Google provides an incentive to bloggers to allow them to gather more information by placing ads on their sites. For a kick-back payment, the site holder allows the ads to display. Google selects the ads. The ad companies pay Google for this and Google charges them plenty. The ads themselves have more data trackers and predictive algorithms to see which ones you watch or click on, so they can put more of the same on your site.
Again, we don't monetize our site, but Google is still tracking your visits and passing this on to their advertisers.
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Pictures, Videos and Other "doodads"
We try to use our own pictures or those that are in the public domain or have un-restricted licenses. We don't embed "web bugs" or "1 pixel by 1 pixel web beacons" on the page or in the pictures.
This does not mean there's nothing bad in the images as these things are manipulated on the back side of the blog beyond our control.
Google harvests the pictures similar to Facebook and it's the Google backend the shoves the picture out on the page. Google and others can and do embed "web beacons" in pictures and can place "web bugs" on pages too. This is all out of our control but you can expect it's being done.
YouTube Videos are the property of their creators and many have ads and trackers. Watching the videos embedded in the blog or by clicking on links taking you directly to YouTube may attach more trackers and harvest more information from you.
There are some links to other sites that may have trackers or have advertising. We try to minimize these sorts of links but generally you can expect that clicking on any link that the click will be tracked.
We have one script: the Google Translate drop down box on the front page. This is provided by Google and we added it to allow people from other countries to read the blog in their preferred language. There are other scripts that run as part of the blog service.
At times we have the "fish tank" header or other similar "doodad"; we no longer have these for technical reasons. It can be expected that your data is being harvested from any and all of these add-ons.
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Anonymity
The contributors to the blog have their own "signatures" which can identify them to family members. We don't harvest or collect your personal names or other information.
However, both contributors and viewers are assigned Universal Identifiers by Google, ATT and many other corporate entities as the data rolls back and forth on the internet. These UIDs are designed to remove your anonymity and advertising companies maintain massive databases with cross references just to de-anonymized you.
You can pretty well assume that by now your personal name, address, SSN, phone number, your marital status, your family make up and friends along with a lot of other identifying items are stored in these massive corporate databases. These entities just "want to get to know you better".
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We do not track you
We don't know who you are and we don't care. Our only purpose is to share the history and stories of our family with other family members and with friends both old and new. We publish the stories so that anyone who wants to, can read them. We hope you enjoy the stories about our family and activities. We enjoy getting feedback but it's not necessary. If you get a chuckle or a grin reading about our adventures that's payment enough.
Google and nearly every other corporation with an internet presence, do track you. It's pervasive tracking: 24x7x365.
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Suggestions on how to minimize the intrusion
There are upcoming laws that will prevent you from opting out in any significant way. There are opt-out services you can subscribe to but these are basically reverse-tracking companies and are not much help. There are millions of websites and millions of companies invested in tracking you and they won't make it easy.
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Option 1: Break your browser
Break your browser by turning off things like JavaScript which will break a lot of pages. Nothing better than seeing where they put the trackers when you get that "blank box" effect.
Tracking companies spend a lot of money developing JavaScript to track you and line their pockets with your information. By turning off JavaScript you will limit what they can do. They can still do plenty but you can block much of it.
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Option 3: Create your own White List/Black List
A White List is a listing of sites you allow or consider safe. A Black List is a listing of sites you consider unsafe or have policies you don't agree with. Creating this list is daunting but you can block an awful lot of sites in short order. Most people visit a handful of sites on a regular basis and these sites are easily identified by checking the webpage itself for the names of advertisers. There are millions of possible names but you might only need 20-50 for your normal browsing habits.
All browsers have the ability to block sites or allow sites. You have to put the Black List ones in the block column and the White List ones in the allow column.
All browsers have a "developer" option. In Internet explorer it's F12 or click the Gear Icon and select Developer Tools. From developer tool window you can see much of the HTML and JavaScript code running on the page. It's tedious but you can go through the script on the HTML, Script and Console tabs to find the names of "suspicious" characters to place on your list.
As you build your Black/White Lists you want to see things like this on the Console Tab:
A download in this page was blocked by Tracking Protection.You can ID tracking companies pretty fast: They aren't the web page you are looking at.
ex: googlesyndication. comYou can bet you didn't click on that URL name to see "the news".
There is a list of companies at the bottom of this post for starters. You have to create these entries on every browser you use on every device. Currently there's no import/export option for these lists. By now you can guess why not.
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Exceptions: A Note on Special Interest Groups
Even with all the best efforts you can only limit a tiny bit of the tracking and tracing. You can only limit this from legitimate companies. If you are going to some "weird" places on the internet you will need a lot more than the above.
It will not stop any tracking by any 3Letter Agency from any country on the globe. You can expect all your information is being held in Romania, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Canada, Tasmania and any country that has a security service with an internet connection.
You have no privacy or freedom from this group.
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Starter Black List
*.2o7. net
*.adextent. com
*.adnxs. com
*.adroll. com
*.adstream_mjx. ads
*.akamaihd. net
*.amazon-adsystem. com
*.atdmt. com [bundled with IE / microsoft partner]
*.baynote. net
*.big-direkt. de
*.burstnet. com
*.casalemedia. com
*.chartbeat. com
*.coremetrics. com
*.criteo. com
*.demdex. net
*.domdex. com [maybe malware]
*.dotomi. com
*.doubleclick. net
*.dynamicyield. com
*.ensighten. com
*.exct. net [email target marketing]
*.facebook. com
*.facebook. net
*.fastclick. net
*.fbcdn. net
*.fetchback. com
*.fimserve. com
*.gigya. com
*.googleadservices. com
*.google-analytics. com
*.googleapis. com
*.googlesyndication. com
*.googletagmanager. com
*.googletagservices. com
*.guim. co. uk
*.insightexpressai. com
*.krxd. net
*.llnwd. net
*.mediaplex. com
*.mediavoice. com
*.meebo. com
*.msads. net
*.msn. com [not sure this will work]
*.mxcdn. net
*.networkadvertising. org
*.newrelic. com
*.nr-data. net
*.omniture. com
*.omtrdc. net
*.opbandit. com
*.openx. net [maybe malware]
*.optimizely. com
*.outbrain. com
*.perfectmarket. com
*.quality-channel. de
*.quantserve. com
*.redirectingat. com
*.refinedads. com
*.revsci. net [aka Audience Science]
*.rfihub. com [maybe malware]
*.rubiconproject. com
*.schema. org
*.scorecardresearch. com
*.serving-sys. com [maybe malware]
*.specificmedia. com
*.spotxchange. com
*.tiqcdn. com
*.troveread. com
*.turn. com
*.twitter. com
*.upsellit. com
*.w4. com
*.webtrendslive. com
*.wlxrs. com [microsoft ad push]
*.wunderloop. net
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