Do Not Track Plus Makes Sure You Are Not Tracked On The Web

If you read tech blogs and technology oriented sites regularly you notice that privacy is a hot topic on those sites. Most readers who visit those sites cherish their privacy, while the majority of Internet users are likely unaware of how their privacy may be compromised on the Internet.

Tracking is directly related to a user’s privacy online. Tracking happens in a number of ways, but they all have in common that they track the user globally and not only on a single domain or website.

This is done with a number of technological tricks, cookies for instance, unique identifiers or even a user’s IP address if it is not dynamic.

User profiles are generated that are either sold to other companies, or used to display targeted ads to that user.

Do Not Track Plus is an extension for the Chrome browser that informs users about tracking on websites and at the same time blocks those scrips from being executed.

When you visit a website you will see the extension’s address bar icon indicate the number of tracking related scripts that run on the site. All tracking related scripts are sorted into the three categories social buttons, ad networks and companies.

You can click on an entry to see a detailed listing of the scripts that run on the site.

Social buttons are blocked from sending out information. They remain active though which means that you can still like, tweet or +1 posts when you click on them. If you do, the functionality is activated again by Do Not Track Plus.

Ad networks display the scripts that track your activities on the current site. The extension links to opt-out information to prevent those sites from tracking you automatically (for as long as the cookie stays on your system, that is).

The third and final group is a list of all scripts that are tracking you on the site. You can unblock specific companies here. Keep in mind that this is a site-specific setting. If you disable the blocking of Adsense here on Ghacks, you will still have it blocked on all other sites by default.

Why would you want to unblock ads on some sites? To support the webmaster and site operators of course.

The extension furthermore computes an overall score of tracking related scripts that it blocked for you. You can turn off the extension on particular sites with a click on the On button in the top left corner of the screen. One of the issues that you will experience if you turn it off completely or on a per-script basis is that you need to reload the page manually before the changes become visible.

A click on Settings displays all companies that the extension recognizes on the web. Here you can unblock a specific company globally.

Watch the video below for more information:

The core issue that I personally have with the program is that it is not available in the Chrome web store, but only on the developer’s website.

Chrome users can download Do Not Track Plus from that website.

Update: The add-on is also available in a version for the Firefox and Opera web browser.

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Track Changes to Website Policies with TOSBack About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday January 29, 2012 -
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Keep Track Of Multiple Timers With WatchMe

There are a lot of programs out there that let you time one or multiple activities on a computer. Cherry Tomato does that for instance automatically by gathering information about the windows that are in the front of the screen. Other programs like Chronometask, Free Light Timer or Time ComX offer timing functionality as well.

Most however do not allow you to keep track of multiple timers the way WatchMe does. The program allows you to create multiple timers to keep track of your day to day activities. The main program window displays all timers, controls to start, stop and reset their time, individual times for each timer and the total time of all timers.

You can start, stop and reset each timer individually. New timers can be added easily from the Timers menu. The program even supports tabs to group timers, for instance by day of the week or type of work.

Besides the ability to name each timer individually, it is possible to add notes to timers, which can be useful to document processes or keep track of things that have been done in the time. Timer alerts can be configured to notify you when a set period of time has elapsed.

You can further configure the program in the Options. Here you can change the default time format from the default hours:minutes:second to another one, e.g. minutes or $ per hour, change colors, enable the stay focused option or enable warnings.

There are also options to export data as csv or xml files to import them into other applications like Microsoft Excel or other timer applications.

WatchMe can be a very useful application for users and businesses alike. This can be used to keep track of different work related tasks. Tech support for instance could use timers to keep track of the time they spend on the phone, replying to emails, using remote desktop sessions, communicate with employees in person or walk around in the building to get things fixed.

Windows users can download the latest version of WatchMe from the developer website. The program is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system (starting with Windows XP). It also requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to run. (via Lifehacker)

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Track Folder Changes Monitors Directories On Your Computer About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 19, 2012 -
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