Monday, June 4, 2012

Public Service Announcement

Thanks to Dear Miss Mermaid, I can tell you about something good. It's Do Not Track Plus, and it's free.

After installing, surfing is fast again. I'm not waiting for data suckers to download now. Please wait while we extract your shoe size ... one moment as we jot down your underwear preference ... pardon the delay while we notice you shop for discount embolism stockings ... sorry for the pause as we snicker at your recent purchase of "Fifty Shades of Grey - bluing at home like Granny did it."


Even if you don't have any ads or widgets on your blog, you still have tracking going on. Hope you don't mind that I'm blocking that now. And, when you go to your trusted sites - CNN, NYT, TMZ, The Good Luck Duck - you are getting slammed with tracking cookies. And, you wonder why you can't lose weight.

Google Friend Connect tracks you, too. You might decide you don't mind that so much, and so DNT+ lets you say "okay" to individual tracking sites.

If you end up not wanting it, you can delete it from your extensions, add-ons, plug-ins, or whatever your favorite browser calls them. But, I think you'll want it.

Do Not Track Plus.




30 comments:

The Odd Essay said...

I passed this info on to my computer guru who is sitting across the table from me (probably tracking what all I look at on my own laptop).... Since I don't know squat about this stuff, I rely on folks like you and Rick and Donna K to keep me in line and out of trouble ;-)

Andra Watkins said...

Thanks for this helpful info, Roxanne. I could definitely lose some weight..... :)

squawmama said...

Good info!

Kimbopolo said...

I enjoy questions about my underwear preference but balk at being asked about my shoe size. On the other hand, I don't mind divulging my shoe preference but have to draw the line at underwear size. It's complicated.

However, I relish useful information that comes to me duck-wise. Thanks!

Sherry said...

Anything good enough for the ducks is good enough for me. Have you told Rick? I did it and I can even type this response faster. Cool Beans as someone we know would say. TANKS!

The Good Luck Duck said...

Sherry, I imagine if I know about it, Rick has known about it so long he's forgotten it. This is some powerful program, though, if it increased your typing speed!

Kim, why can life never be simple? If only they would ask us the right questions.

Hope you use it well, Donna!

Sharon, I don't belong in the same category as Rick and Donna K., but even a blind duck gets a cookie sometimes.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Andra, I am pretty loaded with cookie-weight myself. You're welcome!

Brenda A. said...

Just downloaded it and am already having way too much fun watching my total blocks number go up, up and up! :) And it's showing TEN blocked alone on this blog! Wowsers......

Travels with Emma said...

Cool beans!, I think???

The Good Luck Duck said...

I know! I think I am especially tracker-heavy because of BlogHer's sponsorship (thanks a lot, BlogHer)

Spotted Dog Ranch: said...

I prefer to do my own tracking - coyotes are fun, walked right up behind one once on the trail and scared the bejeebers out of it. :)

The Good Luck Duck said...

Hahahaha! Then he dropped a cookie and ran.

Gaelyn said...

Good tip. I Hate advertising. Going to check it out.

Rubye Jack said...

This is so cool! Thank you! I never even knew there was a program to block trackers before now.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Gaelyn, this will block some ads while it blocks tracking. If you want even more thorough ad scrubbing, I can recommend Ad Block Plus. It's designed specifically to remove most ads.

You're welcome, RJ. I'm glad Miss Mermaid posted it so I could pass it along.

Donna K said...

Haven't tried that software but sounds good. If someone is going to drop a cookie on me, I want it to be chocolate chip or peanut butter.

Got a kick our of Sharon's (Odd Essay) comment - I know NOTHING!! But thanks for the compliment, Sharon!

The Good Luck Duck said...

Try it! You'll like it! You'll be surprised how much faster pages load.

Bob said...

I think I'm gonna do this. Depending on the time of day here in Wienerland, getting a site to load can involved at least one trip to the bathroom, and possibly enough time to bake a cake. Not in the same place or time, mind you.
*shudder*
Good tip. Here's a tip. Market's down. Time to buy those dividend producers you couldn't afford earlier.

Bob said...

I liked the little video with the pulsating blue man too. We'll see how this goes over the next few days. So now I think I'll click on one of those "newsy" sites, just for fun.

Page said...

I installed it yesterday, right after reading Miss Mermaid - it is now on my work and home computers. The blocked peepers are adding up!!

Tesaje said...

Thank you. I said this last night but it didn't go. Are you blocking thanks? I wasn't even rude. (sob) I'm for anything that speeds up my 'puter and deletes garbage slowing it down.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Blocking thanks - *SNORT* Yeah, it's those dadgum thanks that really get my discount embolism stockings in a twist! Actually, I think you might have said "thank you" on a previous post, because I did see it somewhere. You're welcome!

Does your browsing seem faster now, Page?

Thanks for the tip, Bob. So, you're saying "Buy low"? Someone wise once said "The man who cooks carrots and pees in the same pot is unsanitary."

Contessa said...

Is this a guaranteed weight loss program?

The Good Luck Duck said...

Well, yes, guaranteed in that, if it doesn't eat the cookies on your behalf, your purchase price will be refunded twice.

Angie Mizzell said...

I just added it. It will be fun to watch the numbers go up on my browser (and the number on the scale drop?)

The Good Luck Duck said...

Yes. Let's say that. Definitely, all numbers will do what we want them to.

Craig said...

When I first put DNT+ on our computers a while back, it made all of Merikay's followers' images on her blog disappear. Had to exempt her blog from blocking by DNT+ to get them back. I was feeling public-spirited that day, so I sent DNT+ and Blogger emails about it. DNT+ took it seriously and made it into an actual tracked bug. Maybe they've fixed the problem by now. Good of you to tell people about it.

The Good Luck Duck said...

You're right, Craig; it still blocks Google Friend Connect. I can allow it individually on my blog so that I see them, but still won't see followers on other people's blogs.

Craig said...

That's tricky. One would like to allow tracking (disable DNT+) for all blogspot blogs. But if one just enters "blogspot.com" in the address/location box of a browser, their site changes it to "www.blogger.com/home". I sent an email to Abine (DNT+ maker). If they answer and we find a workaround, I'll post it here.

The Good Luck Duck said...

It is tricky. This blog, for example, would still have nine tracking sources, even if you allowed Google Friend Connect. I think we all have different tolerances for these things. I'm pretty sure Amazon has at least one company, and BlogHer has a handful. It would be useful if we could allow one constant feature amongst Blogspot blogs, rather than having to choose site by site.