this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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[EFF] New Privacy Badger Prevents Google From Mangling More of Your Links and Invading Your Privacy (www.eff.org)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Summary

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a new version of Privacy Badger that updates how it fights "link tracking" across a number of Google products. With this update, Privacy Badger removes tracking from links in Google Docs, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Images results. Privacy Badger now also removes tracking from links added after scrolling through Google Search results.

Link tracking is a technique that allows a company to follow you whenever you click on a link to leave its website. Google uses different techniques for link tracking in different browsers and products. One common approach is to surreptitiously redirect the outgoing request through the tracker's own servers.

The EFF says that there is virtually no benefit to you when this happens, and that the added complexity mostly just helps Google learn more about your browsing.

The new version of Privacy Badger works by blocking all Google link tracking requests at the network layer. This is a more reliable way to prevent tracking, but it is not compatible with Google's Manifest V3 (MV3) extension API.

The EFF says that it would like to see this important functionality gap resolved before MV3 becomes mandatory for all extensions.

Privacy Badger is a free and open-source browser extension that helps to protect your privacy online. It is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

More info and installation links: https://privacybadger.org/

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I didn't know EFF was behind privacy badger, I've seen the extension around but never looked into it

[–] 18_24_61_b_17_17_4 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've had the extension forever and had no idea either. Learn something new every day.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not trying to be rude here, but it does say "by EFF technologists" when installing the extension. Also their welcome page for the extension after installing it, states "" A project of the EFF".

I hope these things are read beforehand and just not skipped, ignored or just installed quickly before taking some time to look around / researched.

[–] 18_24_61_b_17_17_4 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Fair enough and great points. In my defense I've had it installed for ages and the memory (mine, not my computer's) isn't what it used to be.

EDIT: And to be clear I'm not the one who downvoted you.

[–] shotgun_crab 1 points 1 year ago

There's always that "funny" person downvoting every comment

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Same, I've been using it for a few months now. Trust level has definitely gone up now that I know.