Friday, January 27, 2006

The Strongest Hair Jel

Privacy in Firefox

von Percy Cabello

Diesmal wird es etwas technisch:

Wenn Sie auf ein Suchergebnis bei Google klicken, kontaktiert Ihr Browser, ohne dass Sie es mitbekommen, einen Google-Server, der Ihrem Browser telling where you will find the content that you are looking for. Then access this named server. This mechanism is called redirection (diversion), and is used because Google wants to know what the result for your search criteria was the best. So the next time someone searches for the same information that you clicked on search result appears on a higher position because it is more likely to provide answers, according to which that other person looks.

This process and the collection of data takes place for each search with Google. The same goes for Yahoo, MSN, Vivisimo, most likely for each available Search engine and the largest media sites. Whether this is a breach of data protection or not, whether we should inform the user about having or not, decide on the concerns and the knowledge of the individual.

fact is that this diversion is not a very efficient way through the back and forth between browser and server to follow the link through the user.

WhatWG (Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group) has developed a mechanism in which (called Ping ) the Site Operator a new day can attach to certain links. When a user clicks on a these so-marked links, he is led to the page while the browser gleichzeichtig contacted the original server. The user must then waiting for the round-Hersenden the data in order to reach the desired page.

Last Tuesday announced Darin Fisher, a developer at Mozilla to that this function in development versions of Firefox is implemented. Some articles have been concerns about the commitment of Mozilla for a safer, better, more respectful of the privacy of Internet surfing, loud.

First, one should aware of the possibilities and limitations of this function be aware of. As described, does this ping day nothing happened anyway Other than today. He makes it only more efficient, and the view of users as the website operator. This is a change in Gecko, the Render component of Firefox, and therefore affects Firefox, Thunderbird (although there is disabled by default), Camino, SeaMonkey, and other applications. It is limited to the browser, so it can not install spyware, viruses, or adware on a PC.

is still not implemented the function and when it happens, there will be an opportunity in the settings to turn them off when the user wants. In addition, some proposals already diskutiert, wie etwa, den Anwender zu benachrichtigen, wenn ein geklickter Link einen Ping verschickt, die Zahl der Seiten, die einen Ping erhalten, zu begrenzen, oder Pings nur für den Server, der den Aufruf initiiert hat, zu erlauben.

Wir wussten von Anfang an, dass diese Funktion Kritik hervorrufen würde, doch die möglichen Vorteile als Alternative zum Redirecting oder anderen ineffizienten Methoden sollten es den Mozillaentwicklern wert sein.

Ich selbst bin davon überzeugt, dass Mozilla bisher deutlich gemacht hat, dass sehr viel Wert auf Datenschutz und das Vertrauen der Anwender gelegt wird, und dass diese Funktion das Surfen im Netz verbessern wird, während das Risiko für a breach of privacy is at least not increased.

To learn more about both positions in the debate, look at slashdot.org , mozillaZine after and Darin's blog post .

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