Thanks - the add on worked for me too!

Sue

Pam- What did forboys2 say? I don't see a posting here from her/him.
On my work computer I see the script message on either browser. I am using the work around suggested by GW and opening a new tab each time I click on a thread.

All my ads say they are generated from Google. In fact on teh right side of the page there's an ad for Chrome.

Forboystoo recommended enabling a Firefox add on called Yes Script.

After you have downloaded it, you must click on the icon for each page where you want it to work. You can tell it has engaged because the icon will turn black. It blocks java scripts on that page. Of course, I have no idea what I'm talking about, only repeating others!

I managed to do it, so you can too!

Here is a link that might be useful: yes script

I have Java scripts enabled yet I had none of this problem. I'm not running Yes Script. I wonder why.

Pam, thanks for the link. I followed the advice and added Yes Script. Took me a while to figure out that it was working. But it is and the problem has disappeared.

Ann

I don't have yes script but I haven't been having any problems. Firefox w/ad block. shrug! gremlins!

All thanks go to Forboystoo. I only reposted.

Jessy, I didn't have the problem at first either. I read others complaints and thought, hmm, not me. Then whammo -- it hit me. Kinda like unrefrigerated food. ;)

LOL! Thanks for the link!

I downloaded the DoNotBlockPlus and so far, it's working great.

What the heck else can they figure out to do to get our information and make things more difficult, sheesh.

Annie

Annie, I installed it three days ago, and already it has blocked 5,498 attempts to track.

Whoa, got to get that.

Wow, CC!

I installed DoNotTrackPlus at your suggestion over the weekend & it's blocked 102 tracking attempts. I thought that was terrific! But, it's nothing compared to your 5,498. I mostly just read the news, visit GW, & do some shopping online though.

/tricia

CC, I installed it yesterday and it's already blocked 1,095 tracking attempts. I think every site available has Facebook trying to track, Ugh.

I haven't even done any shopping on-line, I've sent some email, checked here, read the daily news from my local newspaper. It's always the same culprits too, Goodle, Facebook, Twitter, Doubleclick, Vibrant Media, etc.

Plus, the gremlins seem to have backed off, no virus messages or script issues and it's a little bit faster, even here at home on my old Dell.

Annie

Latest version of Firefox has the no-track mechanism and it is turned on by default. That's nice.

Yes, we're being tracked everywhere. No such thing as privacy anymore in the digital world.

I didn't know about that Firefox 11 feature. DoNotTrackPlus found plenty of tracking to stop, so when I read your post, Gina, I checked, and it was not turned on by default. Difference between Mac and PC versions of Firefox?
Hmm... now I turned it on but DNTP is still finding stuff.
Notice the Firefox preference is "Tell websites I don't want to be tracked." That may be different from just stopping them?

Nevermind, I've been reading the tech blogs and the do not track feature is not what I thought. It is a feature that is going to be implemented widely later on, with online ad industry changes. These changes are going to come with legislation I imagine.

Now I am obsessed with finding the sites with the most "trackers." TMZ is the leader so far with 8. Yeah, I had to see the candid photos of (blech) Casey Anthony.

My winner so far is Gardenweb, with 7 ad networks and 9 companies blocked for a total of 16!

Annie

I've not had a single company trying to track me on GW. I wonder if my Comcast software was already blocking out some of this stuff? My total is up to 228.

/tricia

Right now it's telling me that the following ad networks are tracking me:

Dedicated Networks
Vibrant Media
quantcast
BlueKai
Nielsen
Mindset Media
Media Innovation Group

These 9 companies are tracking me:

Omniture
Doubleclick
Google Adsense
Vibrant Ads
Quantcast
blueKai
Comscore Beacon
Netratings Site Census
ChartBeat

I do see that some are counted both as an ad network and a company, like Vibrant, Quantcast and BlueKai.

Annie

Yeah, I get 0 tracking me on GW. Could it be Adblock? I am also on Comcast (for now. Price went up astronomically. Switching to Verizon).

Abine says "Clear skies! No tracking found here." for GW. My total is up to 700+.

Okay, I have a new problem. This one is really strange. When I go to the Discussions or Conversations page it asks me to sign in. I usually don't have to sign in, GW remembers me.

So I tried to sign in and it wouldn't let me. However, if I open a thread, like this one, I'm signed in and can post. However, I can't start a new thread. This is very strange.

At first I thought I had been blocked, but if I can post on a thread, I guess not. I never got any warning emails and I don;t remember posting anything controversial.

I thought maybe it was because I downloaded Abine, so I disabled it, but no change.

Is anyone else having this problem? I am getting tired of battling with GW.

I frequently have to sign in, but never from one page of the forum to another. Even though I check "Remember me on this computer" GW forgets me all the time.

Like CC, Gardenweb often "forgets" me, even if I check the box that asks it to remember me. Sometimes I stay signed in for a couple of weeks, some days I have to sign in on every single thread I open.

Gardenweb IS a constant battle, far worse than it's ever been. (sigh) I haven't had any problems since downloading Abine, but it says it's blocked 10,161 tracking attempts! Maybe it's my internet provider? I have my internet through AT&T because it's the only one that could give me DSL here instead of dial up.

Annie

Okay, things seem to be back to normal for the moment. When I tried to sign in, it would bump me to the front page of Gardenweb, kind of like getting a trip to Disney.

I start Abine again and see what happens. My internet is Comcast, soon to be Verizon since Comcast increased my bill by $20 a month.

Annie, I think it's your internet provider responsible for all that tracking you're experiencing. I've been online a lot today searching for & ordering new linens, rugs, & other stuff. My counter is still only at 277.

/tricia

Providers have nothing to do with the tracking.

Gina, is there an echo in here? LOL.

Hmmm. So I wonder why I get all those companies tracking me here when others don't? I get the same using Firefox or IE, the only difference is with Explorer I get a message saying that "the page has been modified to prevent cross-site scripting". Whatever the heck that is....

I am using Vista, which I just hate, so I'm going to blame that, LOL.

Annie

This tracking stuff is way complicated - even for programmers, so I don't trust that any messages you are getting from the anti-tracking software you installed about how many trackers they stopped, etc. to be correct.

Gardenweb seems to be on an ad-selling campaign. Which is good, don't get me wrong, they aren't charging us anything so the money has to come from somewhere, even though the ads slow the site, mess with users, etc. Hope they'll smooth things out.

I like to see what ads the tracking is feeding me - it's interesting from a purely technical point of view, but I think feeding you ads based on what you've visited is not working very well. Yes, I visited xyz, don't feed me ads about xyz over and over again - give me ads about stuff similar to xyz, new sites, duh.

What I don't like about tracking is the potential misuse - you know someone's gonna eff it up.

Did you see where the gov is releasing census report data from the 20s, 30s and 40s? Many of those people are still alive. What happened to the "privacy" part of census info? I'm glad I didn't fill out the supplementary census crap I got a couple of months ago. They were really persistent to the point of coming to my door. I had to shut the door in her face - she wanted to push into my house! Next census I'll use this info release as my reason for not trusting the privacy of the census, seeing as they consider privacy to have an expiration date.

The 1920 and 1930 censuses have been out. The 1940 is about to come out. They are released after 72 years.

Gina, it's all starting to make me testy, they want more and more information.

Since I bought the remainder of the farm I've gotten government agricultural surveys. I was all ticked about the National Animal Identification System, they want me to microchip every animal I own for "safety of the food supply". Uh, yeah, that includes the horses. Oh, and I have to give 24 hours notice before eating one of my own chickens. Whatever, I didn't sign up.

Now I'm getting surveys with dire warnings about how I have to complete them "by law" or I'll get a personal visit. The government entities can't bother or have enough time and money to inspect our food facilities or shipments of food stuffs from other countries, but they'll knock on my door if I don't fill out the form? They want to know how many cows I have, how many chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, hives of bees. How many fruit trees? Grape vines? Do I have a garden? Do I sell any produce? How much hay, how much pasture? I threw it away.

Ugh. And now this with the census and the computers, everyone wants to know what the heck we're doing, you'd think we had interesting lives or something, sheesh.

Annie

And then there is the story of Target knowing that a teenager was pregnant before her dad knew.

Gina, I'm interested in Abine (donottrackplus) and their ilk. Sorry to read that they are probably not the end all cure.

Here is a link that might be useful: Target story

Jessica, I think Gina was saying that the Firefox preference does not do what she thought. I don't think she was talking about DoNotTrackPlus.

I really don't care that much if I am tracked. My life is pretty ordinary so if they want to track me and be bored to death, so be it. What I don't like is the constant barrage of ads of any kind. Before Adblock, I'd see fat jiggling bellies and thighs with cellulite alongside my Yahoo email, probably because I'd visited Weight Watchers. I don't know what's on Gw these days but I remember a particularly obnoxious ad for Honey Bunches of Oats that had sound.

I never fill out those pop-up surveys. It's like being a lamb led to slaughter -- why make it easy? "Help us improve our site" - ha -- help you improve your advertising revenues.

I saw an interesting news story about the HIPAA privacy laws. A researcher has a theory that eating disorders are not caused by social pressure but is a genetic disorder. She wanted access to medical records from the 1700's. The hospital denied them to her citing HIPAA laws. I think that's carrying things too far.

Wow, Annie, I hope I never eat a microchip. Wouldn't that be funny? Someone would think they were tracking a chicken shopping at Bloomingdale's in the mall.

I do try to foil the trackers when I can, but I don;t get my undies in a twist about it.

Is the old census info in a searchable form? I wonder if I can find what my grandparents filled in. 72 years isn't long enough. People are still alive who answered those questions, like my 94 y.o. mother.

Pam, Ancestry.com has indexed the censuses by names. It's a pay site, but you can also go to public libraries or LDS family research centers or historical societies and search them for free. Searching microfilm is very tedious, but lots of places have CD's.
When the 1940 first comes out it you'll have to know the location to find anybody. Ancestry will index the 1940 by names, and it will be free through 2013.

The 1940 US Census will be released April 2, 2012.

"Providers have nothing to do with the tracking."

What I meant was that Comcast provides blocking software.

/tricia

And Twitter tracks you everywhere.
DoNotTrackPlus just told me this: "Twitter is one of several companies that tracks you at millions of websites you visit without telling you.
421
You blocked Twitter from tracking you on 421 other sites."

Looks like Abine and Ghostery are the top two, with Ghostery having more known trackers in their database, but reportedly slows things down a bit. Both are only as good as the trackers in their database, mainly all the public, known entites like ad networks, Facebook, etc.

What about the unknowns?

Also, neither clean out what's already on your computer, meaning you will need to clean out your cookies one by one, or just dump them all. But if you do that, none of your sites will remember you and if you keep things in wish lists, shopping carts, etc, they may be dumped.

Internet providers provide some malware blocking mechanisms, but none of them have the do-not-track feature provided by these Abine et al.

The largest players are the worst of course - Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Twitter, news and email sites...

I'm a bit testy myself lately. Must be the menopause support supplements!

Gina, tell me about the menopause support supplements, please. I'm already tired of hot and cold running Eileen and it just started this month! :( I have a bio-identical progesterone cream and black cohosh. I am not keen on prescription help. Whatcha got?

Thanks, CC. One day I will get serious about genealogy, although others already have in my family, at least on my mother's side. My dad's side is the great unknown. It would be fun to poke around in those databases.

Good luck with those power surges, Barnmom and Gina!

Thanks Gina for the info on Abine and Ghostery, that's what I was looking for. It's creepy, but websites aren't the only ones lurking, following and emailing (more amusing than anything, LOL)....too bad there isn't an add-on for that.

I am having trouble signing in. I can't sign in at the bottom of the page that lists the threads or at the bottom of a thread. I have to go to the member registration page and sign in from there.

I hear ya Jessie....if it's not ads it's stalkers! LOL!!

Can anyone guess why John Deere tractors appears on the left? Utility tractors they say! Wrong-o guys....don't want one don't need one, ain't going to buy one!

LindaC, they have you and me mixed up. I don't have John Deere tractors, I have Gevalia coffee and a recycling ad.

Suddenly it's changed, now it's Clorox, Hidden Valley Rance and Clinique.

Nope, changed again. Hefty Bags, The Lorax and Doubletree Suites.

I get a different ad every time I hit the preview button!

Annie

Okay, Linda and Annie, I have to ask. Why no Ad Block Plus?

Because I loaded it on my computer and it screws everything up, and makes the computer lock up, no matter if it's IE or Firefox. One more thing I'm blaming on Vista, just because I hate it.

Of course my AVG and Firefox is fighting all the time too, as is AVG and this site.

well, none of that happens here at Elery's with his Mac, only at home with my Dell.

Annie

Now it's blackout kitchen bags......says it hides the mess better than white bags.
Now!! Really!!....do you ever check out the mess inside your garbage bags?
Ad block doesn't block all for me....
Besides how else would I know about the wonders of Black Out Kitchen bags! LOL!!!!

Ad Block and Abine seem to be doing a good job for me on Chrome on my MacBookPro. I do find that Abine slows things down on my Yahoo email, though. And it sometimes wants to attach all of my files in an email. WTH! I think Ann had this problem too.

Linda, did you also add the AdBlock Easy List?