NFR Controlling Spam

[cdnred]

I find myself going all over the internet for either shopping, articles or humor. I'm running Firefox for my browser, Yahoo for my email and Norton for security. For awhile now I've noticed that more and more websites are now requiring or forcing you to accept their cookies to continue to use their site. Some websites allow you to manage the cookie settings while other make you accept all cookies. Prior to this my Yahoo did a good job of directing Spam to the Spam folder. The last couple of months it seems I'm getting inundated with Spam going directly to my Inbox and sometimes I get 3 or 4 emails that are identical. It appears now that we have to accept receiving this Spam as time goes on. I don't mind cookies that help with the performance of the site but I feel that on some sites my info is being sold to advertisers and spammers which I'm against..

Have others noticed this pattern and any ideas to help reduce this unwanted Spam..? Maybe this is something I need to discuss with Norton to see if they have some suggestions..

 

[Jake Watrous]

I use a VPN (Surfshark), have private browsing mode turned on constantly, and (on my phone) have enabled Apple's Private Relay. I also have popups and ads blocked.

I get almost no spam, but what little I do is easily handled by Google and/or Apple's auto spam filter.

I highly recommend dumping Firefox, and using something like DuckDuck Go for your searches.

 

[RCF]

When I browse the internet I only use "Incognito Mode" in Chrome. They store cookies locally (only for that window session) and when the window closes, they are all removed. I know they work well because places I have been do not show up in 'tailored advertising' nor do I get any email spam.

When I order online, sign up to a news service, use Craigslist, eBay, etc. , I use a different email address than my personal email for all communication. I get 3-5 SPAM emails a week max in my personal email account. Gmail handles those just fine...

I have heard good things about DuckDuckGo and Brave but I have no personal experience.

Never have your personal email open in one of those private sessions. If I open my other email account, I only open it in the Incognito Mode window.

I only use the normal windows in Chrome for places I visit on purpose e.g. medical, investment, email, etc.

Edit: Just looked and FireFox has less than 4% of the market. They used to have a much larger share of the market. hmmmm....

 

[NukeLDO]

Yahoo is the worst.

 

[cdnred]

I've had Yahoo for the past 40 years and hate to get rid of as it's been my link of contact to the outside world. I run AdBlocker and Privacy Badger on Yahoo to eliminate popups. Yahoo used to be good at separating suspicious email address and sending them to the spam folder but they haven't been very good at that lately. I just found the "block senders" in Yahoo so I'll see how that develops..

I communicated with Norton to see if there's a way for them to tighten the screws but Norton has become useless for getting any help. I doubt that I'll be renewing with them once my year expires..

 

[Evan B]

Edit: Just looked and FireFox has less than 4% of the market. They used to have a much larger share of the market. hmmmm....

Eh, I'm pretty sure it's higher than that. When Chrome and Chrome-based browsers (Edge, Brave, and plenty more) come with most machines by default, that can skew the numbers. I view browsing data on a number of websites that I manage, and Firefox makes up a pretty significant chunk on average. That said, it's harder to get good data on the browsers that block trackers, which Firefox is.

Edit: Also, numbers are heavily moved by Mobile vs Desktop browsing these days, and it's hard to differentiate between them. Firefox is hardly used on Mobile, but heavily used on desktop. Since mobile makes up for the bulk of internet traffic these days, its numbers in the big picture seem smaller than they are when you consider just desktop.

I personally use Firefox as my primary and Vivaldi as my secondary browsers. I use DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine. Firefox and Vivaldi both are set up nicely for ad blocking and tracker blocking. Chrome browsers allow trackers and at some point here soon (if not already) will be disabling all ad-blockers (though I'm sure some crafty folks will find workarounds).

If you run an ad-blocker, run Ublock Origin. Norton, and god forbid... McAfee... are useless. Your built-in firewall/defender and smart browser usage are far, far more effective.

As much as I dislike Google overall, Gmail is very, very hard to beat for spam sorting. It is remarkably good it. But any more official/sensitive type email, I use Protonmail. It's an excellent, fully encrypted service. Just not as feature-rich as Gmail.

 

[Evan B]

Also, a few more thoughts I forgot to add above:

Yahoo! is pretty behind the times on just about anything other than their Sports and news products. That's where their money is at these days. You will see few if any "computer" people ever using Yahoo! for their email or search these days. It's just an inferior service, simply put.

Private Browsing/Incognito Mode seem to be pretty misunderstood. Those modes aren't really protecting you from much that regular browsing isn't. Their primary purpose is to not save your browsing history.... These modes are often jokingly (but only partially) referred to as "porn mode." They're so the next person who uses your machine can't see where you've been surfing.

 

[RCF]

Yahoo had a couple of large data breaches in the middle of last decade exposing billions of user's data. Google had one with a lot fewer users impacted.

From what I understand Yahoo also complied with the initial government request for allowing them to access data. Google/Gmail fought that in court. Gmail also notifies you when you access it from a device that is not normally used.

I agree with @Evan B regarding his ProtonMail comment above. Since ProtonMail is hosted outside the US, it does not have to obey US laws and is therefore a lot more private and secure.

Some stats on browser usage:

Usage share of web browsers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Jake Watrous]

Also, a few more thoughts I forgot to add above:

Yahoo! is pretty behind the times on just about anything other than their Sports and news products. That's where their money is at these days. You will see few if any "computer" people ever using Yahoo! for their email or search these days. It's just an inferior service, simply put.

Private Browsing/Incognito Mode seem to be pretty misunderstood. Those modes aren't really protecting you from much that regular browsing isn't. Their primary purpose is to not save your browsing history.... These modes are often jokingly (but only partially) referred to as "porn mode." They're so the next person who uses your machine can't see where you've been surfing.

It blocks all marketing cookies—at least mine does.

 

[Evan B]

It blocks all marketing cookies—at least mine does.

Which, if you're running something like U-Block Origin on Firefox, would be done anyways. Marketing cookies also don't have anything to do with Spam, really. That has more to do with targeted ads.

 

[Jake Watrous]

Which, if you're running something like U-Block Origin on Firefox, would be done anyways. Marketing cookies also don't have anything to do with Spam, really. That has more to do with targeted ads.

Fair point. I just like to have any and everything locked down. Part of why I have no social media.

 

[Evan B]

Fair point. I just like to have any and everything locked down. Part of why I have no social media.

No social media except this one

 

[Jake Watrous]

Our school district, one of the largest and well-funded, has been without access to our email, internet, digital storage, student records, healtcare plans, attendance, curriculum, grades, etc, for 10 days and counting due to some malware and security penetration. Mine was the only computer at our school without any malware or issues, and we've supposedly got very strong protective software and protocols preventing the problems that caused this mess.

A pound of prevention...


OP, sorry for any drift or hijack.

 

[Evan B]

Our school district, one of the largest and well-funded, has been without access to our email, internet, digital storage, student records, healtcare plans, attendance, curriculum, grades, etc, for 10 days and counting due to some malware and security penetration. Mine was the only computer at our school without any malware or issues, and we've supposedly got very strong protective software and protocols preventing the problems that caused this mess.

A pound of prevention...


OP, sorry for any drift or hijack.

I've yet to ever have any issues myself. Wonder what their security is... I've seen far too many such places using McAfee or other such snake oil thinking they were protected.

 

[Jake Watrous]

I've yet to ever have any issues myself. Wonder what their security is... I've seen far too many such places using McAfee or other such snake oil thinking they were protected.

Not sure. Microsoft something, and a second-party one. But it’s only as secure as Doris or Phil clicking on some dumb email link or opening a wonky file. Or putting their passwords on post-its, giving them to students, etc.

 

[Evan B]

Not sure. Microsoft something, and a second-party one. But it’s only as secure as Doris or Phil clicking on some dumb email link or opening a wonky file. Or putting their passwords on post-its, giving them to students, etc.

Yup, it's almost always something like that. If they were smart, they'd disable the ability to download anything but photos or PDFs from emails network-wide.

 

[DimeBrite]

I find myself going all over the internet for either shopping, articles or humor. I'm running Firefox for my browser, Yahoo for my email and Norton for security. For awhile now I've noticed that more and more websites are now requiring or forcing you to accept their cookies to continue to use their site. Some websites allow you to manage the cookie settings while other make you accept all cookies. Prior to this my Yahoo did a good job of directing Spam to the Spam folder. The last couple of months it seems I'm getting inundated with Spam going directly to my Inbox and sometimes I get 3 or 4 emails that are identical. It appears now that we have to accept receiving this Spam as time goes on. I don't mind cookies that help with the performance of the site but I feel that on some sites my info is being sold to advertisers and spammers which I'm against..

Have others noticed this pattern and any ideas to help reduce this unwanted Spam..? Maybe this is something I need to discuss with Norton to see if they have some suggestions..

It's time for you to destroy your older e-mail accounts (> 5 years old). Migrate the old Yahoo mail into a new Proton Mail account. Pay a low annual fee to gain more storage room and Proton Mail addresses, it is worth the added privacy and security. DO NOT use your real name in your new e-mail addresses. Delete those old e-mail accounts and your life will improve. Protect with whom you will share your new e-mail addresses. Quarantine e-mail accounts by their functions: financial, professional, social media, friends & family, burner accounts.

BRAVE browser is a much more private alternative to Chrome. Making the switch is easy. Your browsing speed will increase, because your phone/PC is not getting bogged down by tracking software. Key set up features are automatic on install.

Sign up for 2 years of DeleteMe privacy service to scrub yourself off the internet. There is an exploding number of people tracker websites who buy your data from companies who are selling it. Spammers use this publicly available information to call you, text you, e-mail you, etc.

 

[Evan B]

It's time for you to destroy your older e-mail accounts (> 5 years old). Migrate the old Yahoo mail into a new Proton Mail account. Pay a low annual fee to gain more storage room and Proton Mail addresses, it is worth the added privacy and security. DO NOT use your real name in your new e-mail addresses. Delete those old e-mail accounts and your life will improve. Protect with whom you will share your new e-mail addresses. Quarantine e-mail accounts by their functions: financial, professional, social media, friends & family, burner accounts.

BRAVE browser is a much more private alternative to Chrome. Making the switch is easy. Your browsing speed will increase, because your phone/PC is not getting bogged down by tracking software. Key set up features are automatic on install.

Sign up for 2 years of DeleteMe privacy service to scrub yourself off the internet. There is an exploding number of people tracker websites who buy your data from companies who are selling it. Spammers use this publicly available information to call you, text you, e-mail you, etc.

I was once a Brave advocate, but it's been replaced by Vivaldi for me for my 2nd (below Firefox). Brave will lose ad-blocking functionality when all Chrome-based browsers (which Brave is) lose it. Plus its built-in ads are irritating.

 

[DimeBrite]

I was once a Brave advocate, but it's been replaced by Vivaldi for me for my 2nd (below Firefox). Brave will lose ad-blocking functionality when all Chrome-based browsers (which Brave is) lose it. Plus its built-in ads are irritating.

I'll check out Vivaldi, thanks.

 

[cdnred]

I was once a vivaldi browser advocate, but it's been replaced by Vivaldi for me for my 2nd (below Firefox). Brave will lose ad-blocking functionality when all Chrome-based browsers (which Brave is) lose it. Plus its built-in ads are irritating.

Reading the info on Brave's website it appears to have many great features. It states Invasive ads blocked but you mentioned they operate with built-in ads (not invasive..?) that become irritating. Brave mentions there is no tracking but would they use tracking with their built-in ads..? I don't mind a few ads so long as they don't become over powering and irritating..

I looked at Vivaldi's website but it appears to be similar to Brave's. Vivaldi mentions providing a increase in speed but I didn't see mention of that on Brave's website. What are the major differences between the two or which would be the preferred browser..?