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HTMLHelp Forums _ Off Topic _ Forum aks for a Google indentification certificate

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 9 2012, 03:04 AM

Since yesterday, whenever I connect to the forum for the first time that day, I get the following indentification certificate (see attachment). It's in French, because of my OS. Here's what it says:

QUOTE
Safari does not manage to check the identity of the web site "google.com".

The certificate for this web site is invalid. Maybe you are connecting to a web site that pretends to be "google.com", which can compromise your confidential data. Do you wish to continue to this web site anyway?

If I dismiss it, I get this dialog on every page of the forum I visit.
Has anyone experienced this too?
What does Google have to do with it?
Does it have to do with Google's new privacy policy?

Whatever it is, it's annoying.
Thanks to anyone who can shine some light on this.

Attached Image

Posted by: pandy Feb 9 2012, 05:18 AM

Something must be up with their ads. I haven't gotten it here, but I got a similar notification at a couple of other sites that run AdSense.

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 9 2012, 09:01 AM

I just found this very interesting CNN article in my RSS reader: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/09/opinion/ghitis-google-privacy/

As much as I had dismissed the notice on Google sites (see the CNN note at the top of the article) to begin with, I once got curious and went to see what it was about.
Apparently, here in Europe, the European Commission is already on this kind of practice, which I hope they can stop, as I profoundly dislike Big Brother (whomever that may be) watching me.

I can only recommand everybody to read the article.

Posted by: pandy Feb 9 2012, 06:06 PM

The European Commission probably wants monopoly on spying and censorship. ninja.gif

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 10 2012, 02:20 AM

They'd probably wish, but they are not alone in that. With all the social networks around, it's a big political means to measure and control people. And I can know!

Anyway, yesterday I deleted all Google cookies in my browser and this morning the forum loaded as usual, w/o a dialog.

Posted by: pandy Feb 10 2012, 02:38 AM

How do you think the cookies caused this? I'm pretty confused when it comes to security certificates and how they work.

If you haven't already, consider signing the petition against ACTA. More than 2 million signatures so far. Sometimes the net still is pretty wonderful. wub.gif
http://avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 10 2012, 08:03 AM

QUOTE
How do you think the cookies caused this?

I haven't the faintest idea, but I must say, the list of google cookies was quite long.

QUOTE
I'm pretty confused when it comes to security certificates and how they work.

Me too.

QUOTE
If you haven't already, consider signing the petition against ACTA.

I finally just did.

Posted by: Christian J Feb 13 2012, 07:48 PM

Just noticed that Google search results link to jumper pages openly (in the HTML source) now. Previously, links in the HTML source pointed directly to the web sites in the search result (so that everything looked normal in your status bar when hovering over a link) and were only rewritten with javascript once you clicked on them. The actual redirect from the jumper page to the web site was so fast that I almost never saw it with my own eyes (maybe they dropped it because such fast performance became too expensive). Don't know what is worse --that Google tried to hide the practice before, or that I can't sabotage the snooping anymore by disabling javascript. glare.gif

Posted by: pandy Feb 14 2012, 02:34 AM

Jumper pages? Is that when they have a honey trap page with lot of juicy text for SEs that redirects to the real page?

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 14 2012, 10:04 AM

I don't understand either. Anyway, that's different from security certificates.

Posted by: Christian J Feb 14 2012, 10:24 AM

QUOTE(pandy @ Feb 14 2012, 08:34 AM) *

Jumper pages?

I mean when a Google search result page link that should go to say www.pandy.com first takes you to the jumper page http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.pandy.com/ and only from there redirects to www.pandy.com. That way Google not only knows what you are searching for, but also which of the search result links you are clicking on.

Posted by: Christian J Feb 14 2012, 10:28 AM

QUOTE(Frederiek @ Feb 14 2012, 04:04 PM) *

Anyway, that's different from security certificates.

Yes, it's more along the "Will Google 'do no evil'?" theme... tongue.gif

On topic: AFAIK you only get security certificate alerts for ther HTTPS protocol? Are Google ads linked that way?

Posted by: pandy Feb 14 2012, 11:52 AM

Ah, but they would know that one way or another anyway. Isn't that kind of expected?

You chose a sample site that's somewhat fishy with redirection pages of its own. And no, it's not mine. But I wouldn't mind the domain. laugh.gif

Posted by: Christian J Feb 14 2012, 02:30 PM

QUOTE(pandy @ Feb 14 2012, 05:52 PM) *

Ah, but they would know that one way or another anyway.

Not without a jumper page, then they'd only know the search terms for sure.

QUOTE
You chose a sample site that's somewhat fishy with redirection pages of its own. And no, it's not mine.

I actually know nothing about that site. Since I thought is was yours I didn't even dare visiting.

Posted by: pandy Feb 14 2012, 03:13 PM

mad.gif rolleyes.gif

I meant they don't need to use a HTML page and I don't know why they do. But who am I to question Google technology? sleep.gif

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 15 2012, 02:51 AM

QUOTE
On topic: AFAIK you only get security certificate alerts for ther HTTPS protocol? Are Google ads linked that way?

That's what I thought too, but it happened here on the forum, which is simple HTTP. Google ads have nothing to do with that.

Posted by: pandy Feb 15 2012, 04:40 AM

The sites I got the alert as weren't https either. But surely it must be the ads? How else would google come into it? huh.gif

Posted by: Christian J Feb 15 2012, 10:35 AM

Could it be https ad pages in iframes? I've disabled ads so I can't check. tongue.gif

Or could it be malware ads disguised as legitimate alerts? Can't say from the screen capture. unsure.gif

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 16 2012, 03:16 AM

The screenshot was made when the forum page opened, after having clicked its link from inside Safari's topsites, as I usually do. Then this dialog popped up. I only clicked to show the content of the certificate.

Does the forum have "https ad pages in iframes" or "malware ads"? I doubt that.
Anyway, it's gone now. I just wanted to see if others had the same (or similar issues.

BTW, how did you disable ads?
For Safari there must be some extension to do that. I'll have to wait until I have the time to install my new Mac Mini (yeah, I'm finally upgrading from Tiger smile.gif ).

Posted by: pandy Feb 16 2012, 05:28 AM

On windows you can use the hosts file. Don't know if Mac have something similar. Or of course some program that filters web content for you. There are browser extensions too, me thinks.

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 16 2012, 09:14 AM

A hosts file? What's that?

I used to have Safari Stand installed, but that wouldn't work anymore in the latest Safari on Tiger. There's a new version for Safari 5 /Leopard or Lion. Maybe it doesn't block all ads, but it has cool features.

For the moment, I have Flash content turned off, with a Simbl plugin, which is already a relief and which I can turn on on demand.

Posted by: Christian J Feb 16 2012, 09:18 AM

QUOTE(Frederiek @ Feb 16 2012, 09:16 AM) *

Does the forum have "https ad pages in iframes" or "malware ads"? I doubt that.

I recall Google creates iframes with JS to display ads in. Don't know if https is used. Edit: I guess images and third party cookies can be sent over https too.

Malware ads can apparently spread through exploited ad networks, and thus show up on all kinds of sites: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20000898-245.html

QUOTE
BTW, how did you disable ads?

In Opera you can disable iframes and Plugins (i.e. Flash), for individual sites if necessary. There's also a feature called Content Blocking, but that doesn't seem strictly necessary here.

Firefox has a number of extensions, such as Adblock Plus.

Posted by: pandy Feb 16 2012, 03:34 PM

'hosts' is a Windows file that maps domains to IP addresses. I suspect it's a remnant from the time these things took time. I once had a tool that speeded up surfing by caching IP addresses for selected sites, i.e. it was an interface to the hosts file. You can use it to map ad servers to 127.0.0.1 .

It's just a text file that looks like this when unedited.

CODE
# Copyright © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
#
127.0.0.1 localhost

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 17 2012, 03:21 AM

Thank you both.

I'll stick to Safari, which has always been my favorite browser.
That hosts file looks like some .ini file (Apache or PHP).

Posted by: pandy Feb 17 2012, 04:37 AM

Windows use inis too. Which is IMHO a much better option than the registry.

Posted by: jimlongo Feb 18 2012, 08:54 PM

There's a https://extensions.apple.com/ "Ad Block" which blocks all ads on all pages.

It's so effective, I forgot I had it installed. I was complaining to Adwords support that my ads weren't showing up, and (to my embarassment) he asked me if I had AdBlock installed.

Posted by: Frederiek Feb 19 2012, 04:20 AM

Thanks, Jim. But extensions don't work in Safari on Tiger.

I'm busy installing my new Mac mini, with Lion. So then I'll be able to add extensions to Safari.

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