How do I suppress google tracking when blocking javascript is not enough?

06
2014-04
  • king_julien

    For this case I'm referring specifically to the website: http://www.golem.de/

    I'm connecting to this website using Firefox with javascript disabled:
    about:config > javascript.enabled > no

    This should block scripts from "googlesyndication.com", which NoScript lists as the only google script on the website to load, but there are still connections made to google servers which I detect using lsof:
    sudo lsof -i -P -r | grep 1e1001

    Blocking JS does not hinter Google from tracking me here (neither Ghostery or NoScript help). Why is this and how would I suppress Google tracking in this case?

    __

    1 - about 1e100.net

    • Answers
  • hargobind

    A few answers have already been given in this post.

    Here's a more in-depth tutorial about the "hosts" file approach to blocking Google Analytics (or any other sites you want). This may be overkill since it blocks ALL google analytics tracking. And, if you are setting up Google Analytics on your own site, you'll need to remove (or comment out) the GA lines and restart your browser before the tracking code starts working for you.

  • king_julien

    NoScript's main goal is to block active content to improve security.

    If you block scripts from google-analytics.com, a request to connect to that domain can still be made if the data is not javascript. Another source for the observed connections can be (DNS-) prefetching.

    In turn this means that blocking scripts using NoScript or Ghostery does not fully hinder advertising companies to track a user.

    This is where Request Policy comes in. It enables the user to define rules for cross-domain requests on a per domain basis. While this does give the user a higher degree of privacy control, it can be cumbersome to configure in addition with NoScript.


    • Related Question

    firefox - How do I filter certain javascripts from running and not block them all on Drudge Report?
  • jay

    How do I block this particular "auto refresh" script on Drudge Report from running in my Firefox browser on Windows XP?

    var timer = setInterval("autoRefresh()", 1000 * 60 * 3); 
function autoRefresh(){self.location.reload(true);}

    I have NoScript and AdblockPlus plugins installed, but neither of them explain how to filter out a particular script and keep it from running and leave the rest alone. I don't want to stop all javascripts from running just the one listed below.

    Any help would be appreciated.


    • Related Answers
  • D-Money

    At first, I thought you could stop the interval from running, but this will only work if you can get to the context of the timer variable.

    /* your code in another file */
clearInterval(timer);

    My next idea is to redefine the autoRefresh function. It looks like that may be able to be done because the interval is referring to autoRefresh in a string instead of using a function, like

    setInterval(function(){ autoRefresh(); }, 1000 * 60 * 3);

    Anyway, you would have to redefine autoRefresh like this:

    autoRefresh() { }