NSA bummed, over Twitter's attaining sainthood with Opt-Out feature to tracking users around the web

[UTUSN]

********QUOTE*********

http://lifehacker.com/twitter-wants-to-start-tracking-you-on-the-web-heres-661569459

[font size=5]Twitter Wants to Start Tracking You on the Web, Here's How to Opt-Out [/font]

In a blog post today, Twitter announced that they're "experimenting with new ways of targeting ads," which is their way of saying they're planning to track you around the web—even when you leave Twitter—and relay that information to advertisers to craft better ads. Here's how to opt out.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Twitter started experimenting with this kind of off-site tracking a year ago, only then it wasn't explicitly opt-out. Twitter already uses things like Follow buttons and social widgets on websites to see where its logged in users go after they leave Twitter itself, but now they're putting it in print, and that's actually a good thing.

To turn off Twitter's new tracking:

Log in to Twitter and visit your account settings page.
Uncheck the box that says "Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits."
Uncheck the box that says "Tailor ads based on information shared by ad partners."
Scroll down and click "Save Changes."
If you have Do Not Track enabled in your web browser, you'll see the checkbox like mine above that indicates it's enabled and neither of the boxes should be checked.

On the bright side, at least Twitter is being above board with its changes (unlike Facebook when they started doing the same thing)—they say that users won't see more ads on Twitter, just better ones, as a result of the tracking.

At the same time, it's one thing to use data collected while someone uses your service to improve your advertising—it's another to continue collecting data when someone leaves your service in order to improve your advertising. Still, opting out is easy, and we suggest you do it as soon as possible. For more tips on how to protect yourself from this kind of tracking, check out our guide to stopping everyone from tracking you on the web, and the best browser tools to protect your privacy.

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[postulater]

1. thanks.

[think]

2. With people like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal investing $300 million into Twitter

one might not put too much stock into that feature...

Twitter's Fit for a Prince

TECHNOLOGY
December 20, 2011


RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has made a $300 million investment in Twitter Inc., expanding his media empire into social-media sites and giving the Saudi billionaire a stake in an online forum that was widely used by activists in this year's Arab uprisings.

The investment was made several months ago when existing Twitter shareholders sold $400 million of shares, according to people familiar with the matter. At the time, Twitter also raised $400 million from a direct investment led by Russia-based DST Global, known for its investments in social media companies including Facebook Inc. The identities of other investors weren't disclosed.

In an emailed statement from Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Co., Prince Alwaleed stressed both the investment potential and growing clout of the short-messaging social network in announcing the purchase, which he said was part of a drive "to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact."


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577107733831343976.html

The Prince is also a major investor in Fox News's parent company News Corp notorious for the News of the World phone hacking in England which is still in the courts....

I'm not sure where Twitter is on privacy but it is nice to see other online media companies like Reddit, Mozilla, Word Press and others in protesting NSA surveillance today:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043510/civil-rights-groups-plan-july-4-protest-against-nsa-surveillance.html

[UTUSN]

4. Sometimes a tongue is just a tongue and a cheek is just a cheek. n/t

[think]

5. And sometimes Murdoch invests with the Prince in arab TV stations

Jon Stewart gleefully points out Murdoch’s ownership of anti-American network
By Eric W. Dolan
Friday, January 11, 2013 0:13 EDT

~Snip~

To see what all the fuss was about, Stewart played a clip of a Saudi cleric saying that Jews made matzos with human blood, among other absurdities.

~Snip~

“You know, if that were true you’d think matzos would be more flavorful, but its not,” he joked. “That’s just awful. To air that on Al Jazeera — oh, I’m sorry, that didn’t air on Al Jazeera, that aired on a network called Rotana. That’s my fault, that’s another television station in the Arab world. That one is owned not by Qatar, but by a Saudi prince named Al-Waleed bin Talal and also 20 percent of that is owned by a guy named Rupert Murdoch.”

Stewart noted Rotana had also aired a movie that portrayed American soldiers as “the bad guys,” who massacred Iraqi civilians and sold their organs to Jews.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/11/jon-stewart-gleefully-points-out-murdochs-ownership-of-anti-american-network/

[think]

6. Saudi Arabia loves freedom of speech

Saudi Arabia jails seven for inciting protests on Facebook

Activists sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years, according to Human Rights Watch


Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 June 2013 12.38 EDT


Saudi Arabia has sentenced seven activists from its restive Eastern province to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years for posting messages on Facebook calling for anti-government protests, according to Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based rights group urged the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and other European officials who were meeting with Gulf counterparts in Manama on Sunday to condemn the convictions.

~Snip~

But discontent lingers on with occasional protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, where at least 20 people have been killed by security forces since 2011. On Thursday thousands of Shias protested against the kingdom's ruling al-Saud family at the funeral of a wanted man shot dead by police, an incident that ended months of relative calm in the province.

Full article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/30/saudi-arabia-jails-seven-protests

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/30/saudi-arabia-jails-seven-protests

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Reminder: there is an app that erases all long term spy cookies

in your browser...I use it daily..
For Firefox and maybe other browsers: Better Privacy.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/?src=cb-dl-mostpopular

and to stop tracking widgets, the marvelous Ghostery.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/?src=cb-dl-mostpopular


Better Privacy shows you the long lasting tracking cookies, you erase them with one click

Remove or manage a new and uncommon kind of cookies, better known as LSO's.The BetterPrivacy safeguard offers various ways to handle Flash-cookies set by Google, YouTube, Ebay and others...

Ghostery shows you the spy widgets and blocks them automatically.

Ghostery sees the "invisible" web, detecting trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google Analytics, and over 1,000 other ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers - all companies interested in your activity.