[Drachman]

I log in, and when I go to a comic strip, it tells me that to download I need to log in. So I log in again, with the same result. This is new for me - is anyone else having this problem?

[Drachman]

And of course you can see that I AM logged in, because I couldn't post without logging in.... Thanks for your helpl!

[The Australian Panther]

Drachman,

I get this problem occasionally when I access CB+ through Firefox Browser. Don't know why.
A quick solution is to close the browser and then reboot the computer.
I also use more than one browser. I don't have that problem with any other browser.
You can have as many browsers as you like, provided you select one as your default browser.
Right now I recommend Waterfox, which is a Firefox alternative, set up by an  Ex-Fkrefox team and a better browser in my opinion.
https://www.waterfox.net/
The problem is not with CB+
Happy downloading! 

[Drachman]

Thanks! Yes, I was using Firefox!

[paw broon]

This has happened to me a couple of times.  Although Firefox is an excellent, safe browser, I've been using Vivaldi or Brave recently. Both smooth, safe and secure. Team them with duckduckgo for spy free surfing.

[wahski]

My 2c worth.

Firefox have recently comprehensively updated their browser security in regard to session cookies, so some sites may not behave the same way as Firefox now handles first / third party cookies differently.
https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/02/23/total-cookie-protection/

But usually the issue with logging on / sites not working is caused by the browser cache.
It just needs cleaning out from time to time.

If have issue with Firefox/ CB+ in future, try this initially.
-If logged in anywhere, close those browser tabs down first.
-Click hamburger symbol at top right
-Choose Settings then Privacy and Security at left
-Scroll down to Cookies and Site data section, click clear data (make sure both boxes are ticked)
-Click Clear
or Click here to use Privacy shortcut url
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox


Waterfox (a fork of Firefox) - is now owned by a pay-per-click ad company called System1, who relies on data collection.  So not sure to what extent they still do 'snooping' or not.
https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox-has-joined-system1

Vivaldi (based on Google's chromium engine)
https://vivaldi.com/privacy/browser/
If you read through their Privacy Policy, I did find some they still do data collection and use unique IDs.
so if you are ok with this, can keep using browser. Although it does have less active development than Firefox.

"each installation profile is assigned a unique user ID that is stored on your computer. Vivaldi will send a message using HTTPS directly to our servers located in Iceland every 24 hours containing this ID, version, cpu architecture, screen resolution and time since last message. We anonymize the IP address of Vivaldi users by removing the last octet of the IP address from your Vivaldi client then we store the resolved approximate location after using a local geoip lookup. The purpose of this collection is to determine the total number of active users and their geographical distribution."

Brave is also a good browser, based on Google's chromium engine, they are working on their own search engine too (since they acquired company Tailcat early last year)


Firefox has telemetry on by default as well.
Can turn it off via steps as shown here.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/telemetry-clientid

So that sort of sums up a few of the browsers regarding privacy/snooping.

DuckDuckGo search engine replacement:
If not already setup as default search engine under Firefox.
-Click hamburger symbol at top right
-Choose Settings
-Choose Search on left
Under default search engine, switch it to DuckDuckGo.

Yes DuckDuckGo is great google replacement, instead of googling it - you can "quack it"   

[The Australian Panther]

Interesting information. Thanks.

1/

But usually the issue with logging on / sites not working is caused by the browser cache.
It just needs cleaning out from time to time.

Fact is tho, I delete all data, including cache, each time I close Firefox.
Still have the problem occasionally. 
2/ I usually put a number of privacy add-ons to stop data collection and unwanted ads.
However the site where the add-ons are stored is connected to Google Chrome.
I don't know how much Firefox is currently in bed with Chrome, but they are not pure in my opinion.
3/ The add-ons work, I think. The one everybody should have, and you can install in on all browsers, is NoScript. This is the only app I know that tells you exactly how many sites you are actually connected to.
https://noscript.net/ 
ComicBook plus, which is linked to Google anyway, like nearly every site, is simultaneously sending data to
google.com
googlesyndication.com
and
gstatic.com -which of course is google.
also through these sites,
googleanalytics.com -which collects data.
In other words, as soon as you connect with more than 90 percent of all sites, you are connected to the above and they collect your data.     
You need to configure Noscript the first time you install it and access every site.
Otherwise you can't access the site.
So put the icon for it somewhere accessible.
4/ I have much less trouble with Waterfox than I do with Firefox, I like it a lot.
5/ I read an article about DuckDuckGo using WOKE hiring practices. This disappointed me.
I have found an independent Search Engine that hails from Deutschland, and have defaulted it as search engine in most of the browsers I use.
Try https://metager.org/   

   
   

[wahski]

Firefox
The majority of Mozilla's revenue comes from search deals, they also let go 250 roles about 5 months ago in cost cutting.   About 18 months ago Mozilla renewed its contract with Google, ensuring that Google remained Firefox's default search-engine provider until 2023 (which you can change if you want). According to ZDNet, the deal is worth somewhere $400-$450 million per year.  That's the only arrangement with them that I'm aware of.

Re: the Duck Woke hiring, can see one post on lulz.com about this and there is no way to tell if it's true or not. Unfortunately cannot collaborate a single random anonymous post as a verified fact, also cannot find any other occurrences, they (reddit/4chan/youtube) all quote the same details of an anonymous post somewhere (off 4Chan?).
https://lulz.com/community/thread/social-experiment-duckduckgo-hiring-racial-discrimination/ (Sep 2021)

Not saying this did/does not happen, as I experienced a similar thing applying for a role recently with a hospital, but there is just no way I can verify the veracity in this instance.

As Abraham Lincoln once said "Don't believe everything you read on the internet"  


https://metager.org does look interesting. Most private search engines are technically metasearch engines. While a search engine crawls the internet and gathers its own results, a metasearch engine pulls its search results from other search engines, eg Google, Bing or Yandex.

I guess it is a personal thing a search engine and browser, each have their own preferences, whatever works best for the individual is the way to go.

If using firefox (in windows/linux) I would really recommend using Ublock Origin add-on.
(Not sure if it works with other browsers?)
It shows you all the sites connected to where you are browsing, and blocks ads / data slurpers.
Can add custom sites to block/allow connections.
Can disable java script per site, remote fonts, block popups or even 'zap' individual elements of a web page.
Below - ones in green are not currently blocked (by default), ones in red are blocked. Has multiple Ad blocking lists.


https://ublockorigin.com/

[The Australian Panther]

Good stuff and well explained. You seem to know your stuff.

Re: the Duck Woke hiring, can see one post on lulz.com about this and there is no way to tell if it's true or not. Unfortunately cannot collaborate a single random anonymous post as a verified fact, also cannot find any other occurrences, they (reddit/4chan/youtube) all quote the same details of an anonymous post somewhere (off 4Chan?). 

Absolutely agree. Nonetheless if the post is fraudulent, what would the motive be?
Certainly, as a browser, DuckDuckGo does what it says on the tin.

https://metager.org does look interesting. Most private search engines are technically metasearch engines. While a search engine crawls the internet and gathers its own results, a metasearch engine pulls its search results from other search engines, eg Google, Bing or Yandex.

I understand that, they would have to be metasearch engines.
The issue is, does the search engine optimise the searchers privacy?
Some say they do, but how do you really know?
Thanks for your posts. Really useful and informative.
Cheers!

   

[MarkWarner]

When it comes to ad blocking I would like people to realise that the reason why the vast majority of the web is free (including this site) is the revenue generated by ads.

Donations CERTAINLY help keep us afloat, but we'd be dead in the water if it was not for the advertising. I'd hate (and think we would certainly fail) using a subscription model.

The adblocker makers do not tell this side of things. Just my two cents' worth ...

[Captain Audio]

Only times I use an add blocker is when a site is just eat up with popups that make it impossible to enjoy the content.
Intrusive popups can kill a site.

A site can be whitelisted if necessary.

[MarkWarner]

I dislike popups and also the "vignette ads". They are the ones a bit like a popup with a window in the middle and blurred content around it. I have disabled both those types. Anything too intrusive is a no-no in my book