[1stPickPCHelp] Re: Zonealarm pro
- From: "Ron Allen" <chizotz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: 1stpickpchelp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 00:43:57 -0600
Hello Donald,
>Thanks for the info. I'll try to refine my question a little better.
>
>There are some sites I visit that knows my ip address, what browser I
>using, certain programs on my pc, last site I visited, and so on. How can
>I stop this from happening?
You can *not* stop any site from knowing your IP address -- that is information
their server *must* have in order to serve you web pages. The Web couldn't work
without that piece of data being known. Other than that...
You can block some of these things by disabling cookies. As for the rest, in
many cases it will be either Java (or Javascript) or ActiveX components (or
VBScript, IE only) on the page you're visiting that is detecting that
information. You can get rid of most of those intrusions by turning cookies,
Java and ActiveX off in your browser. The problem is, a lot of web sites
require one or more of these items to be activated in order to work. After you
turn off Java, ActiveX, and cookies, the only way I can think of offhand to get
any data from your machine except the IP address would be for the site to
download and install a separate program to do it. There is another "feature" in
IE that allows this to happen, so you also need to turn Auto Downloading off.
It comes down to you needing to make a choice between what functionality you
desire enough to allow some invasion of your privacy. It's unfortunate and, I
feel, unethical and shameful that this is true, but there it is.
I'm not 100% certain, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the browser
type is also sent automatically to allow the server to customize pages for the
particular browser you're using. Again, I'm not sure if that is an existing
"feature" or one that was under discussion. I know that the browser type can be
detected using Java or ActiveX scripts.
I'm disturbed to hear about a web site detecting certain programs on your PC.
You mean other than your browser or email program, I take it? That's a really
invasive thing for a web site to do.
I too hate that the sites I visit immediately before and after any given site
can be tracked. That's also, in my opinion, an unreasonable and unnecessary
invasion of my privacy.
Sorry I can't be more helpful. If there is a better answer, I'd love to hear it
myself.
Ron
~*~*~*~*~
Was this forwarded to you? Want to subscribe? Send an email
to 1stpickpchelp-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe.
For a complete list of email commands for our list send an email
to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with a subject of "info 1stpickpchelp" without the
quotes.
If you wish to unsubscribe from our list send an email
to 1stpickpchelp-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe
To contact the list moderators send an email to
1stpickpchelp-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
~*~*~*~*~
Other related posts:
