Internet privacy is out of scope of security providers, but not attackers. Individuals are tracked, surveilled, and hyper-targeted with advanced privacy threats that can directly lead to security breaches, ransom, blackmail, and liability.
Disconnect blocks unwanted tracking across your entire device, including browsers, apps, and emails. We also offer the ability to encrypt your traffic to secure it from unwanted surveillance and mask your IP address when you use public Wi-Fi, travel, or want to keep your online activity more private.
Disconnect blocks unwanted tracking across your entire device, including browsers, apps, and emails. We also offer the ability to encrypt your traffic to secure it from unwanted surveillance and mask your IP address when you use public Wi-Fi, travel, or want to keep your online activity more private.
Accessing and controlling your personal data is big business for criminal hackers, data brokers, and adverse nation-states. Trackers profiting from the collection and sharing of personal information are embedded in 90% of apps, 90% of websites and 70% of emails. These tracker domains are capable of serving malicious ads, content, and malware. All this unwanted traffic presents significant privacy and security threats and also slows you down.
Accessing and controlling your personal data is big business for criminal hackers, data brokers, and adverse nation-states. Trackers profiting from the collection and sharing of personal information are embedded in 90% of apps, 90% of websites and 70% of emails. These tracker domains are capable of serving malicious ads, content, and malware. All this unwanted traffic presents significant privacy and security threats and also slows you down.
Third party tracking allows companies to identify users and track their behaviour across multiple digital services. This paper presents an empirical study of the prevalence of third-party trackers on 959,000 apps from the US and UK Google Play stores...90.4% of apps included at least one [tracker], and 17.9% more than twenty.
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The use of trackers on websites is very common. Unfortunately trackers can delay the completion of page loads while the browser waits for tracking scripts to respond . . . On average, Firefox Quantum’s Private Browsing loads pages 2.4x faster than Chrome in Incognito mode. Comparing the average load times for Chrome also shows that Incognito mode alone does not bring any speed improvements. It is the Tracking Protection that makes the difference.
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RECOMMENDATION: Organizations which have already implemented a comprehensive and rapid patching regimes can further address malvertising by blocking potentially malicious, internet-based advertisements. While both network and host based solutions are outlined below, network-based solutions provide a similar level of protection to host solutions without introducing additional risk.
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Web browsers [including those integrated into mobile apps] are the primary mechanism for user interaction with the internet. As such, their security is a constant concern due to the ease of exploitation and the ability of adversaries to interact directly with users. Common vulnerabilities associated with browsers include unsecure configurations, exposure to malicious websites and applications, and unsecure browsing habits due to poorly trained or unaware users.
Read the reportWe stop the start of the attack chain so that threats never have a chance to take advantage of human error or technical limitations. Network requests are blocked completely so ads or content that serves malware, phishing attempts, social engineering, or crypto scams never loads in websites, apps, or email.
Data brokers track your online activity including websites visited, apps used, videos watched, purchases, location, and more. This data is connected back to real names and identity. We prevent trackers from collecting sensitive data and connecting online activity back to you through cookies, pixels, IPs, emails, fingerprint data, and other surveillance technologies.
Most apps and websites are cluttered with third-party requests that slow down load times and put you at risk. Our protection can more than double the speed of page and app loads, declutter the internet, and increase efficiency.
At Disconnect, we’ve been focused solely on protecting privacy for more than a decade. Our pioneering technology and solutions are proven and trusted by partners like Microsoft and Mozilla as well as millions of users. While security and privacy are not the same, privacy vulnerabilities absolutely impact your security posture.
“In a single week, I encountered over 5,400 trackers, mostly in apps . . . According to privacy firm Disconnect, which helped test my iPhone, those unwanted trackers would have spewed out 1.5 gigabytes of data over the span of a month. 'This is your data. Why should it even leave your phone? Why should it be collected by someone when you don’t know what they’re going to do with it?' says Patrick Jackson, a former National Security Agency researcher who is chief technology officer for Disconnect. “I know the value of data, and I don’t want mine in any hands where it doesn’t need to be,' he told me. In a world of data brokers, Jackson is the data breaker. He developed an app called Privacy Pro that identifies and blocks many trackers. If you’re a little bit techie, I recommend trying the free iOS version to glimpse the secret life of your iPhone.”
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Casey Oppenheim, co-founder and CEO of Disconnect, noted, “People using these apps have no reason to expect that when they send money, there are tracking companies they’ve never heard of collecting super-personal data, like their home address (exact GPS location) and the names of their associates.” For example, you may trust PayPal to handle your data, but when it shares that data with a third party you’ve never heard of and have no direct relationship with, you don’t get much of a say in the matter—if you even realize that’s happening at all. To fully understand the scale of where and how your data is shared, you’d have to look through the third party’s terms of use and privacy policy. “And there is a daisy chain to this invisible tracking,” Oppenheim added. “Each tracking company that collects your info may be able to retain, use, and share that data according to their policies without your knowledge or consent.”
Read the articleIn the end, we picked Disconnect as our favorite tool because it was the easiest to understand. It organizes the types of tracking requests it is blocking into different categories: advertising, analytics, social media and content. Mr. Grossman of WhiteHat Security also tested tracking blockers and chose Disconnect for similar reasons.
February 18, 2016
Read the articleFor those who would prefer not to block ads, there are tracker blockers as well — my favorite is Disconnect.
April 5, 2017
Read the articleMy favorite tracker blocker for desktop and mobile systems is Disconnect.me.
August 15, 2018
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We also used Disconnect’s Privacy Pro SmartVPN app to analyze traffic on 150 of the 250 apps, and we found that they shared data across 44 different third-party services that Disconnect defines as trackers, averaging between two and three third-party services per app.
One app does not list anything on its Data Used to Track You label but appears to communicate with two potential trackers which can be configured to fit Apple’s definition of not tracking. [The App's] developer didn’t respond to our request for comment or an explanation of how it uses those tools. Overall, we found that 18 weather apps shared data with an average of four third-party companies listed as trackers by Disconnect.
Read the articleI asked Patrick Jackson, chief technology officer of privacy software company Disconnect, to test for signs of fingerprinting on the 500 most popular websites used by Americans. He revealed what these sites hide in their code and do on our computers that we don’t get to see on our screens. “Fingerprinting is designed to be user-hostile,” said Jackson. “It even takes the fact that you don’t want to be tracked as a parameter to make your fingerprint more unique. Data collected today can be used against us today, tomorrow or even 10 years from now,” says Jackson, who used to work for the National Security Agency. “Your browsing history, the apps you use and the data you give companies can lead to voter manipulation, targeted behavior modification, and further aids the mass surveillance of our activities on and offline.”
Read the articleFiguring out privacy on the internet can be complicated. Our products aim to simplify online privacy and offer solutions for everyone. We strive to offer strong protection without hassles, slowdown, or breakage.
For 2020 as a whole, we detected serious security or quality issues with 1 in every 260 impressions. With COVID-19 leaving many users stuck at home, threat actors shifted back to desktop as a primary target. Security violation rates for desktop exceeded those for mobile web and app. Threat actors are employing more sophisticated cloaking techniques in an escalating battle with ad-quality scanners.
Read the reportINTRUSION ATTEMPTS RISE, ATTACK PATTERNS CHANGE: The number of intrusion attempts in 2020 was 20% higher than in 2019, but year-over-year attacks in Europe nearly quadrupled. Meanwhile, changes in attack types and patterns evolved over the year. The effects of a global pandemic, combined with record highs in the price of cryptocurrency, drove ransomware to a staggering 62% increase over 2019. [The reality that organizations should operate under a threat model that assumes at some point they will be breached] highlights the necessity and real-world applicability of zero-trust networking principles.
Read the reportKey points of our infrastructure such as the electric grid and telecommunications are also highly susceptible to the threat of an attack. With a click of a button, an entire country could be sent to the stone age from thousands of miles away.
Read the reportAbout 50% of popular domains adopted tracking in their emails. In total, we extracted 3.9 million unique image URLs and 1.2 million of them (31.5%) are identified as tracking links. These tracking links are embedded in 573K emails (24.6%). Out of the 210K email sender domains, we find that 11.6K of them (5.5%) have embedded the tracking pixels in their emails.
Read the reportTrackers that collect data on internet users’ online behavior are present on at least 79 percent of websites (unique domains) globally. Web tracking has become so pervasive that approximately ten percent of websites send the data they’ve collected to ten or more different companies (unique tracker domains). In terms of web traffic, 15 percent of all page loads on the internet are monitored by ten or more trackers.
Read the report[Targeted advertising] is primarily enabled through ‘third-party’ trackers, which track users via ‘first-party’ mobile applications, whose developers embed their technology into application sourcecode. Such networks link activity across multiple apps to a single user, and also link to their activities on other devices or mediums like the web. This enables construction of detailed profiles about individuals, which could include inferences about shopping habits, socio-economic class or likely political opinions. These profiles can then be used for a variety of purposes from targeted advertising to credit scoring and targeted political campaign messages. Various comparisons have shown that web and mobile tracking are different, both in terms of the companies that operate on each environment, and the specific kinds of personal information that are shared by web and mobile versions of the same service.
Read the reportUsing a search engine, I found apps claiming they’re completely clean. After testing them with [Disconnect's] Privacy Pro, I asked Patrick Jackson, Disconnect’s chief technology officer and a former National Security Agency researcher, to run a deeper analysis on some of the suspect apps...Apple’s definition of privacy is curiously narrow in other ways, too. For example, the privacy labels appear to consider “tracking” to be limited to targeted advertising, ad measurement and data brokers. “It leaves the door open to a lot of behaviors that meet any reasonable definition of tracking,” Disconnect’s CEO Casey Oppenheim told me, including sharing data with governments.
Read the articleInterested in doing more to keep your location to yourself? Try the [Disconnect] Privacy Pro SmartVPN app, which allows users to monitor apps and block them from additional forms of data sharing.
Read the articleThe apps on your phone can access your number, email address and even your precise location. But what happens when that data goes beyond the apps you signed up for to third party companies? NBC’s Vicky Nguyen investigates and shares ways to protect yourself.
Read the articleMany Americans use dating apps as a way to meet other people, but a lot of those services share users’ data with outside companies. Security experts recommend not giving these apps more information than they need and to delete them if you aren’t using them.
Read the articlePrivacy advocates say fingerprinting is abusive because in contrast to cookies, which people can see and delete, you generally cannot tell it is happening and cannot opt out of it. “It’s really a black box,” said Casey Oppenheim, the chief executive of Disconnect, a company that develops tracker blocking tools.
Read the article“Oracle is not a consumer company, but it has a massive amount of consumer data,” said Casey Oppenheim, chief executive of the privacy company Disconnect, which develops apps and other technology to protect customers from unwanted data collection. Trump has raised concerns that TikTok is a national security threat because of its Chinese ownership, which under Chinese national security laws could be directed to share U.S. customer information with the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied that it poses such a threat. But if Oracle is allowed to weave information about TikTok users into its data brokerage business, it could lead to new privacy concerns, Oppenheim said. “While this deal may prevent TikTok’s U.S. users from having their data shared with China, the data could supplement the data Oracle is already compiling on users,” Oppenheim said.
Read the articleThe Technology 202 Network includes members of Congress, a Presidential administration, former U.S. tech regulators, venture capitalists, leading academics and senior leaders at top tech companies and telecoms, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, Cloudflare, Slack, TikTok and more. Their responses will be featured in The Technology 202 newsletter and elsewhere in The Post.
Read the articleI recruited Patrick Jackson, chief technology officer of privacy company Disconnect, to help peer under the hood at what data the TikTok app actually gathers. (He’s helped me conduct past studies of snooping iPhone apps and websites.) Jackson, from Disconnect, said the app sends an “abnormal” amount of information from devices to its computers. When he opened TikTok, he found approximately 210 network requests in the first nine seconds, totaling over 500 kilobytes of data sent from the app to the Internet. (That’s equivalent to half a megabyte, or 125 pages of typed data.) Much of it was information about the phone (like screen resolution and the Apple advertising identifier) that could be used to “fingerprint” your device even when you’re not logged in.
Read the articlePatrick Jackson, the technology chief of the privacy-software company Disconnect and a former researcher for the National Security Agency, who alerted The Post to the exposed data, said Zoom could do a better job at cautioning people to protect their videos. Zoom could also help by implementing design tweaks, such as naming videos in an unpredictable way to make them harder to find.
Read the article“Without protection like ours, thousands of trackers collect information about our online activity when we simply use our phones or computers,” says Casey Oppenheim, the company’s co-founder. “Most of these trackers are companies we’ve never interacted with directly, yet they collect detailed profiles including our location data, browsing history and more.”
Read the articleDigital data is like a genie in a bottle: Once it’s out there, it’s hard to get it back, says Casey Oppenheim, co-founder and CEO of the cybersecurity app Disconnect.
Read the articleWe’ve partnered with Disconnect to provide this protection. Disconnect maintains a list of companies that participate in cross-site tracking, as well a list as those that fingerprint users. Firefox blocks all parties that meet both criteria. We’ve adapted measurement techniques from past academic research to help Disconnect discover new fingerprinting domains. Disconnect performs a rigorous, public evaluation of each potential fingerprinting domain before adding it to the blocklist.
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