Privacy First http://localhost:4000/ <p>Google appears to be <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/google-updates-terms-in-plain-language-after-e-u-scrutiny">rolling out</a> some <a href="https://policies.google.com/terms/update">new terms of service</a> in order to meet E.U. regulators’ request for “plain language” TOS. These are set to go effective <code class="highlighter-rouge">March 31, 2020</code>.</p> <p>See the date?</p> <p><img src="../assets/images/google-new-tos.png" alt="Google New TOS" title="Google's New Terms of Service" /></p> <p>Interestingly, if you click <code class="highlighter-rouge">Download PDF</code>, you will be redirected to <a href="https://www.gstatic.com/policies/terms/pdf/20200331/ba461e2f/google_terms_of_service_en_us.pdf">this link</a>, which (at time of writing) will give you a classic <code class="highlighter-rouge">Error 404 (Not Found)!!1</code> (ah, I bet someone with a really Googley perseonality wrote that one).</p> <p><img src="../assets/images/tos-not-found.png" alt="Not found" title="Google's New Terms of Service 404 Error" /></p> <p>We won’t be dissecting the new TOS here. All we will say is that the PDF version of the new terms of service cannot be found.</p> <h1 id="thats-all-we-know">That’s all we know</h1> Sun, 23 Feb 2020 10:00:00 -0500 http://localhost:4000/google-new-tos/ http://localhost:4000/google-new-tos/ <h1 id="1-no-third-party-javascript">1. No third party javascript</h1> <p>Your users have trusted you enough to visit your site. Visiting your site is not an invitation to load arbitrary third party trackers or potentially malicious code.</p> <p><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/?src=search">Force enforcement with NoScript</a></p> <h1 id="2-no-tracking-cookies">2. No tracking cookies</h1> <p>Cookies have been maliciously re-appropriated for storage of a company’s unique identifier (AKA Fingerprint). We will not comply.</p> <p><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/forget_me_not/?src=search">Force enforcement with Forget Me Not</a></p> <h1 id="3-no-fingerprinting">3. No fingerprinting</h1> <p>Companies have begun tracking users via fingerprints composed of things like user-agent, screen resolution, window size, and other factors.</p> <p>Resist fingerprinting by enabling <code class="highlighter-rouge">privacy.resistFingerprinting</code> in your Firefox <code class="highlighter-rouge">about:config</code>.</p> <p>Resist fingerprinting by installing <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/canvasblocker/?src=search">CanvasBlocker</a></p> <p>Resist fingerprinting by installing <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-string-switcher/?src=search">User-Agent Switcher</a> and randomizing your user-agent.</p> <h1 id="4-https-with--tls-12">4. HTTPS with &gt;= TLS 1.2</h1> <p>Our data should not be easily intercepted and read by agencies that have unlawful access to Internet hubs.</p> <p>– Last updated 2/13/20</p> Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:00:00 -0500 http://localhost:4000/web-privacy-principles/ http://localhost:4000/web-privacy-principles/