“Adobe Flash is required to display some elements on this page” - Just say NO !
A plea to the developers … Uninstall Adobe’s own brand of flash, and / or Pepperflash - And try to live without it for a few weeks.
For those of us wanting a Privacy respecting browser such as Comodo Dragon offers, it seems ironic (not to mention extreeeemely annoying), that the missing plugin scroll down banner acts like an incessant advertisement for the plugins you do not want installed.
Please please please with fluffy cuddles … Can we have an option to disable the blasted thing ?
I do not ever wish to have Adobe Spyware installed on my system.
Omniture partnered with Adobe, to replace Adobe Flash Actionscript, with Actionsource instead quite a few years ago :
( Link for following quote is broken, announcement removed from original Omniture page where they were bragging )
Omniture AutoTrack for [b]automatic Flash analytics[/b] - An industry first. Omniture ActionSource can "listen" for appropriate click activity and [b]automatically transmit[/b] appropriate information to Omniture for analysis.CLICKMAP for Flash - Omnitures visual overlay, Clickmap, is now integrated into Flash tracking through ActionSource. Depending on the state of the application, Clickmap can run and display an overlay of where users have clicked, and how much each click has contributed to other site activity.
Incredible performance - Flash does not have to channel through browser actions and page level scripting. This allows for immediate code execution and high-speed data transactions.
Transparent Analytics - Some javascript commands can cause the browser to render a “click” sound and/or hesitate animation playback. ActionSource executes independant of Javascript and is so efficient that TRACKING IS TRANSPARENT TO THE USER EXPERIENCE.
Portability - Using native Actionscript technology, Omniture tracking can accompany Flash applications wherever they are accessed, even across domains and devices.
Accurate Visitor metrics - Omniture ActionSource MAINTAINS UNIQUE visitor counts ACROSS TECHNOLOGIES, even though it is capturing and TRANSMITTING metrics data independant of Javascript.
If you thought it was just playing YouTube vids and free games, think again >:-D
Although the above quote page link is now lost, there is one that survives, have a read of the last couple of paragraphs here : http://www.omniture.com/offer/237
It also uses LSOs ( Locally Shared Objects, to store data about your activities for re-transmit and comparison the next time you are online ) - These are like super cookies, and are not so constricted in size as cookies are, so they can store lots more data about your activities.
VERY useful technical paper buried in the Adobe support website. Direct download link :
http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/flash/articles/flash_player_admin_guide/flash_player_10.0_admin_guide.pdf
Have a look at the section titled “Flash Player Environment” and “Network Protocols Used”
Aswell as doing all it does undetected by the user, it can establish secure encrypted communications with whoever the flash application ( game or whatever ) is programmed to communicate with.
It can also use FTP ( File Transfer Protocol ), so an App could upload / download whatever payload it wants with your machine - Love those free apps programmed by random individuals ???
It can also access your laptop built in webcam and microphone, very easily.
So once again a plea to Comodo - You are providing an excellent Security and Privacy respecting browser - But advertising one of the most lucrative spyware on the internet via the plugin missing nag banner …
We need a button to Disable the banner for these notifications, alongside the one that says Install Plugin
Or even just a setting to get rid of them would be nice. Thank you for listening.
There should be a law against such brainwashing techniques.
I guess a couple of the above questions could also be applied to Comodo Dragon