Computer privacy setting - learned something

[timothy42b]

Here's a warning for us old timers - most of you younger folk know about this kind of thing.

I checked a website today that sometimes had some interesting conversation on current events, but I haven't looked at for months.

It was full of irritating popup ads that made it hard to read, so I gave up in disgust. But later I started getting notifications. Must be a way to block them, google is my friend, hmm privacy settings, and...........

They had permission to access most of my laptop including the camera, and they had stored 26 cookies worth 5 Mb of data. At least, according to the chrome settings. It was easy enough to delete and block. But it wouldn't have occurred to me without getting that notification. (whatever that is)

[Matt K]

Major browsers have a “hook” that while it’s running, Asites can push information to it even if the site isn’t running. A common *desired* use case might be someone who uses gmail who wants a notification on their desktop when they get an email.

But now every site uses them to advertise. In some cases people want that… most cases not so much. But they have to ask permission and a lot of people just click accept because they’re annoyed at having content blocked until they respond to the question.