Tell HN: Use Your Hosts File to Blackhole EMail Trackers | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Use Your Hosts File to Blackhole EMail Trackers

2 pointsMichaelCrawford6 comments

Bananatag, Streak and Yesware each add web bugs - invisible one-pixel images - to HTML eMail so that the sender will know when you've opened their eMail. Bananatag also tracks clicks on links by using a redirect.

The following entries in your /etc/hosts file should put a lid on this gross privacy violation. Note that /etc/hosts is not accessible on iOS; I expect it can be on jailbroken phones but I don't really know. Some Android devices can be unlocked with a straightforward tool that comes with the Android source code.

Really it would be best to block these domains at your router, or with a DNS server, but that won't really work if, as I, you hang out at WiFi spots frequently.

Add the following to your existing /etc/hosts file - don't just replace it or your box won't work anymore:

    # = B =

    # Bananatag eMail Tracking
    #
    # Bananatag uses both web bugs as well as tracking redirects for links

    127.0.0.1   bl-1.com
    127.0.0.1   s.bl-1.com

    # = S =

    # Streak eMail Tracking

    127.0.0.1   streak.com
    127.0.0.1   www.streak.com

    # = Y =

    # Yesware eMail Tracking

    127.0.0.1   yesware.com
    127.0.0.1   app.yesware.com
    127.0.0.1   www.yesware.com

Note that DNS is not an API, it is a network protocol. While the convention is for name lookups to consult the hosts file, there is no particular requirement to actually do so.

Perhaps it's just because I'm old but I still prefer reading my e-mail using mutt in a terminal. Even when I use a graphical mail client (Thunderbird) I still read all mail in plain text.

Running Unbound (or something similar) locally would also work too (using, e.g., the "empty" zone) in your case (moving between networks often).

Clearly plain-text mail clients will prevent this kind of problem. I would use one - such as mutt - were it not for the fact that many of the people I do business with insist on formatted mail, and have no insight whatsoever into the reasons why plain-text email is to be preferred.

Understood (I likewise correspond with folks who will occasionally send an e-mail with something like "changes below in red", forcing me to log into my web mail and view the message there).

Plain-text mail 100% of the time certainly isn't/doesn't work for everyone.

You can block all sorts of known ad and malware sites this way. I use a hosts file from a windows-oriented site (search for "MVPS hosts file") but it works on linux/Mac OS/BSDs just as well. There are others floating around if you prefer another source.

I'm OK with advertising, but not with tracking. The problem for me is that most advertising is served from a host other than that of the publisher, so tracking can be done by the ad server.

That is, say HN were to publish AdSense. HN's webmaster would add a small snippet of Javascript, that fetches the ad itself from Google's server. That would enable Google to track me.

I am, for the most part, completely cool with ads that are served from the same IP address as the web page I'm looking at.

Let's say that became a reality, that most ads were served from the site of interest.

Wouldn't the site's back end just send data about the client viewing an ad back to the ad vendor? I would think it would be part of their contract.

I also have no problem with ads per se, but they aren't just ads anymore, ...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com