Tag: tools

Tool in the spotlight: Random Agent Spoofer

Tool in the Spotlight: Random Agent Spoofer, a Firefox extension that gives you control over how your browser identifies to sites you visit.

Many sites create a fingerprint of you when you visit them. Usually, this information contains the ‘User Agent’ string, which (oversimplified) is a combination of the name of your browser, its version together with the name of your operating system with its version (this is much oversimplified, check out the wikipedia page for more info). This is useful information for those operating the sites you visit because it enables them to send you content that is specific to your browser. Specifically, if the site detects that you are visiting them using a mobile browser/device, it will send the mobile version of the site; if it sees a desktop browser or device, it sends the desktop version of the site.

However, with HTML5 and CSS3 in specific, websites no longer need to have multiple versions for different browsers, they can use “media selectors” to have the site render correctly instead.

The remaining use of the user agent string is being reduced to just fingerprinting you so that you can be uniquely identified based on what your browser tells the site it is and is capable of using a technique called browser fingerprinting. So even though you aren’t logged into the site, it knows it is you before you told it that it is you. Obviously, we are not a fan of this kind of thing. No-one should be forced to identify or legitimize themselves unless out of their own volition.

Enter Random Agent Spoofer, a tool that is part of the solution by changing the way your browser identifies to sites. It makes it super easy to select a particular browser and version you want to impersonate or you can set it up to change how it identifies every so often by itself. Once configured, there’s nothing you need to do.

Obviously, and similarly to other tools we highlight, this tool is not the one, single tool to use which will solve all your problems, but it adds to making it harder for sites to identify you as you visit them.
On top of that, Random Agent Spoofer gives you control over script injection, cookie behavior, headers sent to the site when you request it, etc… all making it harder for the site to figure out who you are (and make their efforts to do so, more frustrating and less accurate).

Check out the tool here. This tool is an open source tool currently hosted on GitHub, which means that you can look at the source code and figure out what exactly it is that it does, and how it does it – if that’s your thing (it is for us).

NOTE: we are entirely unaffiliated with whoever produces this tool, we receive no compensation whatsoever from them.

Web-of-Trust add-on caught selling out its users

The Web-of-Trust (WoT) add-on for Firefox and/or Chrome has been removed from the add-on repositories for Firefox and Chrome. Some excellent sleuthing(*) by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk revealed that the WoT add-on was selling data which can uniquely identify its users to other parties, without ever asking for consent for this, let alone in a clear and proper way.

On top of this, WoT made claims about anonymizing the data but, as is almost always the case, the data was either not anonymized at all or the anonymization is useless and individual users can be deduced from the data. If the article is correct, then it appears that the latter is the case, that these claims appear to be unsubstantiated and grossly misleading, and that WoT is no different from other privacy-invaders.

This is just another example of the kind of limitations that you face when you try to enhance your privacy through browser add-ons or extensions: they see everything you see and it only takes a single, rogue add-on to compromise you, your privacy and your security. And while most of these tools are valuable and useful, you need a more comprehensive tool to secure you, your on-line safety and your privacy.

This is where IvyDNS comes in: it prevents connections to undesirable domains and it does it on a deeper, more fundamental networking level than browser add-ons. IvyDNS’ Artificial Intelligence contains comprehensive information about the purpose of domains and blocks access to those that are undesirable, whether that is because the domain is used in tracking you, serves malware, serves advertising, invades your privacy, etc.

IvyDNS is also built so that it does not ever receive the kind information that WoT is reselling. This is because IvyDNS receives only DNS requests: ‘What is the IP address for domain X’. It never receives information about which page you are requesting, or even which protocol you will be using to talk to that server. You could be asking for the IP address of a domain because you want to check your e-mail, you want to visit a web page on it, or there’s an app that pulls data from there, etc… IvyDNS does not ever see or receive the purpose of requests (nor requests made to non-IvyDNS servers).

The reason for this is simple. It is none of our business, and it would be wrong to pull ‘stunts’ as described in the linked articles. We built IvyDNS with these considerations in mind. It offers deep protection from top to bottom and it keeps you secure, undisturbed and as private as it can, while you are on-line!

You can read the original article on NDR.de (in German) about WoT selling out its users, and read about it over at The Register.

Tool in the spotlight: Decentraleyes

Tool in the Spotlight: Decentraleyes, a Firefox extension which performs local emulation of Content Delivery Networks (CDN): Websites have increasingly begun to rely much more on large third-parties for content delivery. Canceling requests for ads or trackers is usually without issue, however blocking actual content, not unexpectedly, breaks pages. The aim of this add-on is to cut-out the middleman by providing lightning speed delivery of local (bundled) files to improve online privacy.

Check out the tool here.

NOTE: we are entirely unaffiliated with whoever produces this tool, we receive no compensation whatsoever from them.

Tool in the spotlight: HTTPS Everywhere

Tool in the Spotlight: HTTPS Everywhere, a Firefox extension by the good folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure. It checks whether websites you visit offer encrypted browsing and if they do, automatically switches you to the encrypted version of the website.

Check out the tool’s website for download instructions.

NOTE: we are entirely unaffiliated with whoever produces this tool, we receive no compensation whatsoever from them.

Tool in the spotlight: Click&Clean

Tool in the Spotlight: Click&Clean, a Firefox extension that eliminates data related to your current browser session and which can be set up so that it automatically clears out any residual browsing data when you terminate your browser. This way, every time you start your browser, you start with a clean slate.

NOTE: we are entirely unaffiliated with whoever produces this tool, we receive no compensation whatsoever from them.