What every website knows about you

boing
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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/20/what-every-website-knows-about.html

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Sorry to post off-topic here, but does anyone know what the hell this stupid “Rune” icon is doing on the BB stories? I don’t see it anywhere else, so I don’t think I’ve been infected by something.

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Whoa. I tried the site on my phone and it was able to detect when I was holding it vs. laying it on the table.

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Whoa. Me too.

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I kicked over my PC tower and it didn’t detect that at all. Lame.

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Can they tell which hand I’m holding my phone in? This is important for, ah…reasons.

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Dunno, I just noticed it today too.

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Rune appears to be some sort of semi-indelible magical spray paint in a clog-proof javascript can. According to the FAQ:

[quote]A rune is a secret vanishing message that can be left on top of an article on a publisher site. Runes can be a highlight in the article, text, emoji or GIFs!

Runes are only visible to people who click on the unique link associated with the rune – which makes them a fun way for you to share your thoughts and opinions about anything on the web with only the people of your choice, whether they are friends, family, or other people in your social media.

Runes can be created by anyone visiting publisher sites where Rune is available, you do not need to be logged in.[/quote]

Looking at the number of exclamation points, "awesome"s, and admonishments to login in the FAQ, I’m guessing it’s a tool to separate 13-year olds from their personal data? I dunno.

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So it’s like the Genius web annotator stuff?

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yet another reason to use noscript.

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I’m getting it just by highlighting text. It’s obnoxious, Mr. Frauenfelder. Why is it here?

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That’s nice, but I would prefer an opt-out setting. When I highlight text to do a Google search, Rune is popping up instead.

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I have used noscript for years. Feelin’ pretty happy about that, about now.

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me too but I whitelist the bb frontpage

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[quote=“lloydcogliandro, post:2, topic:91508, full:true”]
Sorry to post off-topic here, but does anyone know what the hell this stupid “Rune” icon is doing on the BB stories? I don’t see it anywhere else, so I don’t think I’ve been infected by something.
[/quote] I came here to ask how the FUCK do I get rid of that “rune” icon? Extremely annoying.

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There’s an ongoing thread on it here:

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If Noscript is a little too crippling for you, just blacklist secretrune.com in your adblocker.

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[quote=“L_Mariachi, post:18, topic:91508, full:true”]
If Noscript is a little too crippling for you, just blacklist secretrune.com in your adblocker.
[/quote] Thank you.
Adding the secretrune.com to my filters in uBlock origin works like a charm.
I find those graphic elements that do not scroll with the page very distracting. And I did not want to block everything using YesScript on BoingBoing yet.

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Based primarily on this article, I’m considering switching back to Firefox with NoScript. I ditched firefox on my Mac pro a couple of years ago because annoying bugs.

Part 2 of the solution (based on the website’s recommendations) is to use a proxy service. I’ve been leery of that because it feels like paying some corporate entity (or schmoozing off volunteers, in the case of some public services) to be an intermediary for all of one’s web traffic. In effect it’s trusting everyone in that organization to have better internet hygene than we have at home.
On top of that, they’re always one NSL away from being backdoored.

Is proxying really more than just shifting the problem?