Intro first;
I'm recently retired, just one year ago. I use LMDE as my current full time desktop. I tend to change distros about about every 5 to 7 years. My privacy and security are, of course, to me, prime.
I recently volunteered with an international aid agency. It's training time for me of course. They use MS Teams and SkillSoft. I use browser settings plus addons to block, deny, erase and prevent third party cookies, tracking, and to erase primary cookies when I exit a domain. I also use the hosts file to block ads and weird domains. That is where the problem is. With several domains hogtied with my settings, MS Teams won't allow me to view any desktop shares, presentations or even participant videos. I can hear all audio just fine, I can't see diddly crap. I went to the Teams troubleshooting page and found that I'm expected to whitelist about half a dozen domains that are loaded with third party cookies, trackers and a couple of them even have keystroke and mouse action eavesdropping. The sites claim it's for building better customer rapport(!) They post other training material on SkillSoft and that's another one I have hogtied. SkillSoft won't let me access the material until I whitelist them. I'd really like to participate, but I refuse to allow such intrusions to my privacy and security.
One of the tools I use to check out domains is https://themarkup.org/blacklight They show all sorts of interesting stuff about web sites and what they're doing in the background.
Just to get Teams on browser to run with full access, I'd have to whitelist these domains;
microsoft.com 13 ad trackers, 34 third party cookies & could be monitoring keystrokes. Keylogging is a security risk I will not allow on my computer.
microsoftonline.com So heavily layered or so full of redirects that Blacklight's results can't be returned. I don't trust it for obvious reasons.
teams.skype.com 1 ad tracker & 4 third party cookies
teams.microsoft.com 7 third party cookies through login redirect
sfbassets.com This site cannot be reached by Blacklight or by browser. Why? According to the Whois registry this site does exist, although it can't be accessed. I don't trust it, again, for obvious reasons. What are they hiding that could be worse than ad trackers, cookies and keylogging?? (https://wa-com.com/sfbassets.com)
skypeforbusiness.com 16 ad trackers, 48 third party cookies, could be monitoring keystrokes and communicates with Facebook, LinkedIn and several other sites.
That's a total of at least 30 ad trackers, 96 third party cookies and at least 2 keyloggers plus whatever else they've kept hidden on two inaccessible domains. And then there's SkillSoft ...
I'm really reevaluating my offer to volunteer. Am I going overboard with this?
I'm recently retired, just one year ago. I use LMDE as my current full time desktop. I tend to change distros about about every 5 to 7 years. My privacy and security are, of course, to me, prime.
I recently volunteered with an international aid agency. It's training time for me of course. They use MS Teams and SkillSoft. I use browser settings plus addons to block, deny, erase and prevent third party cookies, tracking, and to erase primary cookies when I exit a domain. I also use the hosts file to block ads and weird domains. That is where the problem is. With several domains hogtied with my settings, MS Teams won't allow me to view any desktop shares, presentations or even participant videos. I can hear all audio just fine, I can't see diddly crap. I went to the Teams troubleshooting page and found that I'm expected to whitelist about half a dozen domains that are loaded with third party cookies, trackers and a couple of them even have keystroke and mouse action eavesdropping. The sites claim it's for building better customer rapport(!) They post other training material on SkillSoft and that's another one I have hogtied. SkillSoft won't let me access the material until I whitelist them. I'd really like to participate, but I refuse to allow such intrusions to my privacy and security.
One of the tools I use to check out domains is https://themarkup.org/blacklight They show all sorts of interesting stuff about web sites and what they're doing in the background.
Just to get Teams on browser to run with full access, I'd have to whitelist these domains;
microsoft.com 13 ad trackers, 34 third party cookies & could be monitoring keystrokes. Keylogging is a security risk I will not allow on my computer.
microsoftonline.com So heavily layered or so full of redirects that Blacklight's results can't be returned. I don't trust it for obvious reasons.
teams.skype.com 1 ad tracker & 4 third party cookies
teams.microsoft.com 7 third party cookies through login redirect
sfbassets.com This site cannot be reached by Blacklight or by browser. Why? According to the Whois registry this site does exist, although it can't be accessed. I don't trust it, again, for obvious reasons. What are they hiding that could be worse than ad trackers, cookies and keylogging?? (https://wa-com.com/sfbassets.com)
skypeforbusiness.com 16 ad trackers, 48 third party cookies, could be monitoring keystrokes and communicates with Facebook, LinkedIn and several other sites.
That's a total of at least 30 ad trackers, 96 third party cookies and at least 2 keyloggers plus whatever else they've kept hidden on two inaccessible domains. And then there's SkillSoft ...
I'm really reevaluating my offer to volunteer. Am I going overboard with this?