DEV Community: Thai Thien

Quick look at Mozilla Rally

Thai Thien — Thu, 27 May 2021 16:41:12 +0000

Homepage:

https://rally.mozilla.org/

What is it ?

An Firefox extension let you to share your personal data to help Firefox conduct their research.

One of on-going research: Your Time Online and "Doomscrolling"

What data is being collect:

In short

It is already said on their study page Your Time Online and "Doomscrolling".

The data is:

Your answer to the survey
Your browsing activity

Long

I want to know actually what is being collect, the actually data.

There are two part of the data: The automate collected data, and survey data.

Auto Collect data

First, I make an issue on Github

I follow the instruction:

Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
We click the "inspect" of Mozilla Rally extension.
Switch to tab console.
Then Try to browsing some news outlet, like https://www.theguardian.com
Check "Console" tab for some log (check gist

There are many eventType. However, it is difficult to track all event in the console log where most of the line is error. And it spiting out fast. Here is the json contain my activity on TheGuardian page:

{
  "pageId": "49bc224e482815248b8eaa5f3b51e5b5",
  "origin": "https://www.theguardian.com",
  "referrerOrigin": "https://www.theguardian.com",
  "pageVisitStartTime": 1622132572402,
  "pageVisitStopTime": 1622132578956,
  "duration": 6434,
  "maxRelativeScrollDepth": 0.8231418571134446,
  "maxPixelScrollDepth": 4406,
  "scrollHeight": 5500,
  "eventTerminationReason": "page-visit-stop",
  "title": "Astronomers create largest map of the universe’s dark matter  | Astronomy | The Guardian",
  "ogType": "article",
  "description": "International team reveal vast cosmic voids over the Earth’s skies that could challenge Einstein",
  "eventStartTime": 1622132572522,
  "eventStopTime": 1622132578956,
  "eventType": "attention"
}

The data record your URL, page title with description. It is very well show what you are reading. And how you interact (scrollHeight, eventStartTime, pageVisitStartTime, ...)

Survey data

You did submit the survey at the beginning of the event. Now you wonder where is it ?

It is in the "storage" tab, check "Extension Storage". See the screenshot here:

The key 'demographicsData' seem to be your survey result. Everything else is auto-generated.
Mine is

{
  "age": "25_34",
  "gender": "male",
  "hispanicLatinxSpanishOrigin": "other",
  "race": [
    "vietnamese"
  ],
  "school": "graduate_degree",
  "income": "25000_49999",
  "zipcode": "70000"
}

Simple online privacy guide

Thai Thien — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 07:42:47 +0000

1. Situation

You need to read about the world every day to know stuff. Sometimes, newspaper in 'paper' don't available at the moment. So, you need to read online.

News outlet, big-tech (Google, Facebook), Government (ISP, government-backed new outlet) want to gather as much data about you.

2. The risk

can ranging from You can be shown with 'best ads for you, bank rate your 'credit score' based on browsing history, or government rate you as 'not reliable' because you keep reading gossip news rather than science article.

So, you need to prevent that before real consequence hit you.

3. My guide on anti-track

I have sort in order from riskiest (DNS).

3.1 Set Domain Name System (DNS) with 1.1.1.1

Risk DNS help your PC convert domain name (example: facebook.com) to ip address (like 69.171.250.35). By default, DNS traffic over internet is not encrypted, anyone who see the traffic can read the content. Now your Internet Service Provider (ISP) know that you are browsing Facebook. Government-backed ISP may rate you as 'lazy, unreliable' because you are browsing Facebook all day instead of working. It will be worst if they know to get into some anti-government websites, not serious to get you jailed, but serious enough to prevent you from get into important government jobs, should you apply in the future.

Solution: Install 1.1.1.1. Yes the address is 1.1.1.1. Install and it just works, as simple as turn on the switch. No config need on Windows/Mac/Android/iOS.

3.2 Dedicate browser for reading/browsing news

Chrome is on with built-in spyware. Use Firefox, Vivaldi, Brave

Do not login anything, no Gmail, Facebook in this dedicate browser so you do not associate your reading habit (in case browser failed to prevent tracking) to your profile.

Factory reset the browser after each reading session. If you are not lazy, reset every you change to new outlet (after read NYTime, reset, then read The Guardian).

3.3 Anti-tracking plugin

Install anti-tracking plugin. This is my choice uBlock, Ghostery, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

3.4 Privacy search engine

If you use Google, and also login Google, you can access your search history in your Google Account. History also show up in your Android Phone. Quite convenient until someone else have it.

I suggest DuckDuckGo, they are a new search engine by themselves. I like DuckDuckGo a lot. They are as fast as Google. Results are good enough for my developing need.

If you still want power of Google, use Startpage. StartPage outsource result from Google. They have servers in US/EU, so you may experience slow load speed from Asia.

Ecosia outsource result from Bing.

3.5 VPN

VPN help you hide all your activity from your ISP. It is costly ... as much as < 10$ per month. Do not use free VPN. Always choice VPN provider that do not have Free Plan.

I suggest Mullvad (I put no referee URL here, use DuckDuckGo for URL please).

You don't need VPN unless you are reading sensitive news (politic, human right ...). If you are not sure, then use VPN.

Hello world

Thai Thien — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 06:44:36 +0000

This is my first blog. I came here from https://coil.com/explore

I wonder how this new world different from facebook.