Paranoid Web Browsing

Lately I've found myself explaining to several people how to set up their web browser for maximum safety. There are lots of ways to attack a web browser, and the days when you could hop online with Internet Explorer and be fine are long gone (if they ever existed to begin with). Here's what I do to crank up the paranoia level:

1) Use the Firefox web browser. It is not sponsored by a corporation that is interested in tracking your activities. It has a lot of third party plugins for augmenting your privacy and security. It is free to download and it runs on both kinds of operating systems: Windows XP and Windows 7.

2) When I install Firefox, I go to the options page and make a few changes. First, I set my home page to something that's neutral, like http://www.google.com/ . In the privacy tab, I select "Use Custom Settings" and check the box that says "Clear history when Firefox closes." Then I verify through the settings window that this means deleting Cookies, Active Logins and Cache, as well as the three kinds of history.

3) Then I install Firefox plugins using the Tools -> Add-ons window. In the Get Add-ons tab there is a search bar that helps you quickly locate extensions that are useful. The ones that I install are Adblock Plus (for blocking ads), NoScript (for blocking script execution except on sites that I whitelist), Flashblock (for not running flash animation by default), BetterPrivacy (for deleting flash cookies when Firefox exits) and PrivacyChoice Opt-out (for opting out of hundreds of tracking networks like Google and AOL). The most disruptive of those to my usual browsing experience is NoScript; after a fresh install I find that I am constantly having to whitelist my regular sites using the Options button at the lower right that NoScript makes available when a web site requires some type of scripting to behave properly. In the long run, though, NoScript might be the most important protection against attack, because the vast majority of attacks against web browsers involve some kind of scripting, and NoScript ensures that your browser does not run every single script by default, possibly helping me to avoid attacks that the anti-virus programs or browser makers aren't aware of yet.

4) Before logging in to a web site using a username and password, I exit from my web browser and open a new instance. Since I've configured Firefox as described above, this clears out all of the tracking cookies that my previous browsing may have accumulated. When I'm done using the web site that I'm logged in to, I close Firefox again. As a result, amazon.com doesn't know what my google user name is, and doubleclick.net doesn't get to track my interests across multiple web sites. Attacks that involve reading my browsing history are also minimized, because I've cleared my browsing history automatically.

That's about it. Is there anything I've overlooked?

Singularity

The Singularity is the idea that we are on the verge of technological advances so amazing that we cannot comprehend what is on the other side. In a nutshell, technology will allow humans to be so smart that we will be able to improve our intelligence exponentially. The linked talk by Vernor Vinge quotes I.J. Good:

"Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an "intelligence explosion," and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the _last_ invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. ... It is more probable than not that, within the twentieth century, an ultraintelligent machine will be built and that it will be the last invention that man need make."

The Singularity is exciting to think about, but I am unconvinced that it will actually happen. We know that Moore's Law has been true, more or less, for the past thirty years, but we don't know that that will continue into the future, and we have good reason to believe that it won't, at least without breakthroughs that open up new computing technologies. In other words, we don't have any guarantees, or even direct evidence, that it is possible for computing speed to exceed certain thresholds.

We also are not significantly closer to understanding the nature of consciousness, intelligence or sentience. We know little about how a brain functions. We do not know how to manipulate existing memories. Strictly speaking, none of those are required for the Singularity to occur, but they would help.

Don't get me wrong: the Singularity is possible. But likely? I don't think we have enough evidence to know, one way or the other. Inevitable? No.

Arora

This week I started using the Arora web browser. It's a lightweight, pre-1.0 quality browser that was started as a wrapper around QtWebkit, which is the Qt library's wrapper around Webkit, which is Apple's fork of KHTML, which is the HTML engine of Konqueror, which is KDE's default web browser. Next October, Kubuntu 9.10 might make Arora its default browser, and even though Konqueror will still be available I thought I'd try out the new kid on the block.

After two days of use it's not bad. It's crashed a couple times, but it's only existed for a few months so that's to be expected. It has a privacy mode that's useful in preventing web sites from building an advertising profile about you. It doesn't have much ad blocking capability, which is a huge step back in functionality from Firefox and Konqueror. It doesn't appear to have per-site script disabling functionality like Firefox with NoScript.

I'll consider making it my default browser when they get all of the Kubuntu 9.10 browser requirements implemented, but without NoScript I can't see myself using it exclusively.

Artificial Wombs

A Louisiana lawmaker has proposed a new law that will make it illegal to:

create or attempt to create a human-animal hybrid, . . . transfer or attempt to transfer a human embryo into a non-human womb . . . (or) transfer or attempt to transfer a non-human embryo into a human womb.

I understand how discomforting it can be to think of mommy as moommy, but consider the many benefits of artificial womb technology:

• People would still be people. You're not less human if you were a preemie and spent your first three months in a life support chamber.
• Abortion would almost disappear. People could put an unwanted baby up for adoption as soon as they learn they are pregnant. People who want to adopt a baby could ensure that it has the best prenatal care available.
• Women with medical conditions that require powerful drugs would not have to choose between their own lives and the lives of their unborn offspring.
• Artificial wombs would protect fetuses from the risks of everyday life, such as car accidents.
• High-risk pregnancies could be monitored by medical professionals 24/7.
• Premature births would have better outcomes if a baby could be transplanted into an artificial womb and provided with a normal gestation time.
• If for purely legitimate purposes we needed to raise a large army of clone warriors loyal only to me, we would be able to do so.
• Some fertility problems could be mitigated.
  
• Once the technology becomes safer than traditional pregnancy, it frees women from some of the negative side effects of pregnancy.
  

Artificial womb technology has many benefits and few drawbacks. Even if it were only used to save lives that would otherwise be lost, it would be worth it, but the long term potential is even greater.