Entries tagged "internet"

Here is the software I will not browse the web without:

• Waterfox, an ethical user-oriented upgrade of Mozilla Firefox, from Alex Kontos.
• Privacy Badger, to block tracking cookies, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
• uBlock Origin and uMatrix, content and request blockers from Raymond Hill.
• Decentraleyes, replacing CDN requests for common libraries, from Thomas Rientjes.

If I cannot use Waterfox (or equivalent hardened Firefox), with those extensions installed, I will not browse from that device.

Whilst there are Android versions of all of these, I do not browse the web on my mobile, and this does not have any negative effects on my life.

The above software are essential for reasons of privacy and security, but it is important to stress how they also provide considerably faster and smoother browsing, and would be worth installing for that benefit alone.

Most sensible people have known this for years, but here's yet another study proving what the RIAA & others refuse to comprehend...

Tim O'Reilly originally shared this post discussing an article by the American Assembly:

Online file sharers buy 30% more music than those who don't share. In other words, "pirates" are the music companies' best customers.

Article: Where do Music Collections Come From?

Here's an interesting TED talk by Malte Spitz on what kind of data phone companies are collecting.

Malte Spitz wasn't too worried when he asked his operator in Germany to share information stored about him. Multiple unanswered requests and a lawsuit later, Spitz received 35,830 lines of code — a detailed, nearly minute-by-minute account of half a year of his life.

TED Video: Malte Spitz: Your phone company is watching