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Full Version: Internet privacy tools are confusing, ineffective for most people: report
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http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-inte...eople.html

Perhaps the most script dependent interface, the Proxomitron was not mentioned in this article.

With substantial distinction between user and developer channels, Tor & its browser bundles were not mentioned in this article either. https://blog.torproject.org/

However, with all the resources pouring into Tor / Vidalia user environments, and its international deployment to bypass State-sensorship firewalls, Tor's chosen filter engines are borrowed directly from "NoScript" and what appears to be a firefox ad-on called "Torbutton": http://www.torproject.org/torbutton/

While unsolicited logging of browsing activity is the focus of this article, why would Tor developers consider NoScript superior to all the ANTI-SPY scripts created by Proxomitron developers over the years?
Probably because they haven't heard of Proxo. It has become obscure since Scott's death. But I am guessing. I don't use Tor and can 't understand why anyone would use it. Too slow...crippling slow.

Proxo never gets mentioned. Sidki said we are down to less than 1000 users. It is sad as it is far better than all the other privacy tools users use but they are not interested in Proxo. I find this a great deal now in security forums ...just the last year or two. Most have never heard of Proxo and those who have hold all sorts of misconceptions about it. Sure NoScript is considered superior because Proxo is not understood. All that most who have even heard of it know is that it is "outdated" because its developer is no longer with us. It is not being currently developed, therefore, it is inferior to NoScript, etc. The ignorance is extremely widespread now. If I can convince someone to try Proxo with Sidki's fliters then usually I have them...they realize Proxo is a keeper. But just getting folks these days to try it is not easy.

Plus, even I use Ghostery as Proxo is NOT what it was years ago. (Maybe it is for those able to write their own filters but I can't do that). It doesn't block 10-15 trackers at a site that Ghostery gets. And that article was critical of users not customizing ghostery to each website? Why do that? I tell Ghostery to block everything at every site and I don't even want to see the list as it is very depressing how much it blocks that Proxo doesn't.
Perhaps Proxo has become an expert tool, best known for format filtering, and consumed by how frequently those filters are broken.

For me the latest filter set became less usable, after critical log-in's eventually broke, including PayPal, Yahoo mail, my kids online textbooks, and several others, including blog.torproject.org

Perhaps calling Proxo outdated is unfair, but it appears the privacy tools of developers past, and efforts by sophisticated users are overwhelmed by maintaining broken format scripts. I'll be looking into installing Ghostery to block everything at every site.

While the sacrifice of charity and determination has its merits, online security has always outweighed formatting for me. Scott's effort and his community empowered me in the online realm of corporate & criminal-ID thieves. And perhaps the Proxo community was a launching pad for JD, Paul, Sidki, & others who ultimately moved on.
Proxo has always been for the more geeky of web surfers...
something like Proxo, my MOST BELOVED of programs, will never, IMHO, go "mainstream"...

next time you're out grabbing a cup of joe or moeka mayko macho at a wi-fi hot spot, ask every user there if they have *ever* "viewed" a web page's "source code"...

prepare for their jaw to drop to the floor, "source what?"...


Proxo is for people that "know" what 'source code' is...
a very, very small percentage of people in general...

Proxo's not solely for "blocking ads" - it is much MUCH more "powerful"...
the general populous wanting nothing but to "block ads" (as all "mainstream" browsers will block "pop-ups") will not be using Proxo to block those ads, they want something that "runs in the background" and does the work FOR THEM, not something that they have to "configure" themselves...


it's not that it has "become" an 'expert' tool - it always has been...
the "experts" being the folks like sikdi3000, JD5000, altosax, et cetera...


just a couple of pennies... Big Teeth
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