Re: [SLUG] spyware guard for Linux?

From: Derek Glidden (dglidden@illusionary.com)
Date: Wed Jul 02 2003 - 21:59:58 EDT


On Wed, 2003-07-02 at 20:54, Greg Schmidt wrote:

> Mainly just curious. The Windows executables aren't a problem with
> Linux. The registry entries aren't a problem. I suppose something more
> cross-platform like java might be, but seems a stretch. However,
> AdAware and Spybot identify browser cookies that are used by
> disreputable outfits and rip them out while leaving the cookies I want
> alone. A cookie from a place like nosy.evil.adtracking.com is of no use
> to me, and I'd rather not have it reporting my next arrival at some
> different page with the same company's ads. Spybot finds it and gets
> rid of it. In Mozilla on my Linux boxen I might have accidentally let a
> cookie like that get through while the "remember this decision" checkbox
> was on. Seems to me that there should be some easy tool for Linux that
> can purge the evil tracking snacks from my cookie jar, but I haven't
> found one.

I don't know of any, but I would highly recommend you do two things if
you're concerned about browser privacy:

1) Set up a squid proxy filtering through AdZap. (Forget the URL but a
google search for AdZap brings up the appropriate site right away.)
Point your browser to it.

2) Write a perl script that purges anything listed in the AdZap list
from your mozilla cookies file. AdZap filters are basically just perl
regular expressions, so it's not too difficult at all if you know any
perl.

I have been using AdZap for months, or maybe years now, and it's one of
my favorite tools in my arsenal of things that annoy advertisers.

Others include my TiVo (no TV commercials), my Empeg (several weeks of
mp3s in my car, no radio and no commercials), and Mozilla with its
pop-up blocking and cookie management.

I refuse to be treated like a consumer.

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