Websites contacting you

If you disable cookies on your browser you will find that you can no longer log in to this website although you can still view it but not participate, don’t ask how I know.
Dave W

Interesting thing is that if I try to visit the site via Google and a VPN it comes up with "www.googleadservices.com refused to connect.".

This indicates it is all to do with the Google search engine as when searching using Firefox through a VPN I can get straight through to the website without any problem and no e-mail received.

Moral of the story - stop using Google and try Firefox or other search engine. It is claimed that DuckDuckGo is the safest search engine that does not store any personal analytics.

It has certainly got me thinking!!

Steve

Edited By Frances IoM on 09/03/2020 09:35:43

On a lighter note I see the internet domain name chickencoopsdirect.com is registered with NameCheap, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona. The company has a COO.

Can't be coincidence. Don't trust hens myself, the documentary 'Chicken Run' proved they're clever. ("This ain't no chick flick'.) And hens love grassy knolls. Why was that covered up by the CIA?

It's a conspiracy. I shall strike back by having eggs for breakfast.

Dave

That’s quite un œuf , Dave !!

MichaelG.

I use Firefox, and it is set to automatically delete on closure as much as is reasonably possible, including all cookies. It doesn't cause me much bother at all even though on some sites I have to re-enter personal data.

I also use DuckDuckGo and have found that there is a snag in that it appears to be American based and defaults to America. Yes it is possible to select UK on opening but it is a bit of a pain. Also, I find myself having to use Google at time since DDG doesn't seem to work as well as Google.

There is another search engine which has a permanent UK option - StartpageUK. I have tried it occasionally, but haven't persevered. Don't know why.

Peter G. Shaw

The way DuckduckGo manages regions isn't obvious! It's done at their end, not a Browser setting.

Try clicking on DuckDuckGo Settings

Region is the first choice, change it, then scroll down to the bottom of the page where there's a 'Save' button.

Agree DDG isn't quite as good as Google, though you may find it's better when the Region is 'United Kingdom'. I stay with DDG most of the time because it's much more private than google. When using google, I connect via a 'New Private Window' in hope of limiting privacy leaks. Private Windows don't save History or Cookies making it harder for Google to follow me. Slows 'em down rather than a perfect block, but it all helps!

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 09/03/2020 11:30:04

Ah ... I was actually referring to the email routing headers on the assumption that the email was showing up on peoples' local email clients (which is how I read email ... gmail incoming gets forwarded and added to other sources). Not sure how easy it is to look at the full headers from gmail online itself.

I did try exactly what Jason did but nothing showed up for me in either of the the gmail inboxes (2 accounts) - when checked online - even though I am logged into both. My browser is pretty strapped down security-wise though.

Looking at it further they are not e-mails but adverts carefully places at the top of the list and don't move down like normal e-mails or have any date, sender, etc.

This is todays, I looked at the printer a week or two ago and I do buy from Cutwel. Clicked on Cutwel and it comes up as an advert not in the usual e-mail format.

Would be interesting to know how it showed up on Bill's

But I would say they are more like targetted adverts than e-mails.

EDIT

Just clicked the exclamation marm next to the "ad" icon and all becomes clear

Edited By JasonB on 09/03/2020 17:49:12

Thanks, Jason - that might explain why I didn't get any ads when I tried what you did.

A while ago, I took the trouble to go through all the multiple Gmail configuration dialogues and turn off anything that was intrusive and didn't relate to the most basic tasks of sending and receiving mail. (It took nearly forever at the time - the convolutions are endless).

I just rechecked and, although Google obfuscates the wording, it seems I have the ads turned off.

Hello all,

I received from Firefox a message with this banner: "Keep Facebook off your trail".

For those concerned with abuse of the privacy of their data.
Firefox offers an extension that allows you to avoid spying in the context of their browser.
***HERE***
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/facebook-container/?src=external-email-facebookcontainer&utm_source=2020fxnews-en&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feb2020&utm_content=fbcontainer-en

greetings from
Dias Costa

Edited By dcosta on 10/03/2020 17:33:19

About a year ago I had a problem with my computer, which eventually led to me re-installing LinuxMint. Users will know that using the Linux Thunderbird email client can be a bit tricky unless you know the dodges - a new installation will lose all the previous emails, and your contacts etc. The trick is to copy the (normally hidden) default folder over from the old installation to the new installation, along with the older .ini files (or you can edit them) - I have done this successfully many times for new installations of Linux on various machines, or after software mishaps - you can also do this with Firefox - it saves having to go through complete setups after re-installation, and avoids losing emails you want to keep.

I have several email accounts, including a Googlemail account, all running under Thunderbird, so I copied over the files into Tbird, and all seemed OK - I could read the emails in Thunderbird.

Then I realised that some Googlemail e-mails were 'empty' - they appeared to exist, but had no text in them. In Thunderbird I had opted to save my emails on my computer, but I know that the original mails also remained on Googles server, so I opened my Gmail account directly so I could forward the missing emails to Thunderbird. I had done this procedure several times, and on other occasions only found relatively recent emails in Google - which I usually forward then delete - my Google mailbox is usually almost empty, because I hate leaving stuff in it. (I also empty the mail 'bin'.

Imagine my horror when I found EVERY email I had ever written or received in the Gmail account for many years - literally thousands of them - including ones I had deleted (directly) over the years from the Google account. (I am quite rigorous about this - all 'old', unwanted, unsolicited mails get deleted, I thought permanently - from the account - not in Thunderbird, but in Googlemail).

I immediately deleted the lot (I hope), but I have never received any explanation from Google, and since then, I have not seen the same phenomenon again - but I won't use my Googlemail account again - I don't trust anything they say or do - I don't really care what they claim they do in the interests of security, I simply do not believe them.

I think the moral is that even when you don't think your data is being copied, read and used - IT IS, all the time. Probably better to be paranoid than hacked and robbed, or your data stolen.

Edited By Frances IoM on 10/03/2020 21:20:59

Funny - the Internet seemed like a good idea at the time ....

.... or what I like to call "Totalitarianist Capitalism".