How does HTTP Switchboard compares to Ghostery or Disconnect concerning privacy?

A whole lot of web sites pull resources from 3rd parties (examples: themes.googleusercontent.com, cloudfront.net) thus giving these 3rd parties log data telling them that one specific IP address has been visiting one specific website. If you are really concerned with privacy, you might not want that.

The results below are my findings, and they are published in the spirit of informed consent.

Methodology

• Ghostery

  • version 5.0.0
  • "Block all", and nothing whitelisted.

• Disconnect

  • version 5.10.2
  • Everything is green ("Green = blocked. Grey = not blocked"), and nothing whitelisted.

• HTTP Switchboard

  • version 0.6.6
  • Out of the box settings: images from everywhere except blacklisted hostnames allowed, all else blocked.
  • Domain of URL of web page whitelisted in the matrix.

• Steps:

  • Browser cache was cleared.
  • Target web page was force-refreshed.
  • Data was pulled from the developer console, ignoring domain and subdomains matching URL of web page.
  • Only {scheme}://{hostname} is listed below, often many requests to same hostnames, for various type of data (javascript, font, css, etc.)

Results

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A page on http://www.theguardian.com

Note: *.guim.co.uk not reported as a 3rd-party below, as key resources are pulled from this domain (stylesheets, etc.), which domain/subdomains required whitelisting in HTTPSB for the page to display properly (to meaningfully compare to Ghostery/Disconnect).

Hostname	Ghostery	Disconnect	HTTPSB
What is said to be blocked:	snapshot	snapshot	snapshot
3rd parties which were not blocked:
facebook-web-clients.appspot.com	✔	✔
guardian-notifications.appspot.com	✔	✔
related-info-hrd.appspot.com	✔	✔
static-serve.appspot.com	✔	✔	✔
cdnjs.cloudflare.com	✔	✔
www.google.com	✔
ajax.googleapis.com	✔	✔
discussion.guardianapis.com	✔	✔
s.ophan.co.uk	✔	✔
platform.twitter.com	✔

---

A page on http://www.wired.com/

Hostname	Ghostery	Disconnect	HTTPSB
What is said to be blocked:	snapshot	snapshot	snapshot
3rd parties which were not blocked:
www.adobetag.com		✔
dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net	✔	✔
dnkzzz1hlto79.cloudfront.net	✔	✔
condenastl3cdn.cust.footprint.net	✔	✔
api.cnevids.com	✔	✔
player.cnevids.com	✔	✔
fonts.condenast.com	✔	✔
contextlysiteimages.contextly.com	✔	✔
contextlysitescripts.contextly.com	✔	✔
rest.contextly.com	✔	✔
fonts.googleapis.com		✔
themes.googleusercontent.com	✔
a.mobify.com		✔
cdn.mxpnl.com		✔
714015.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com	✔
platform.twitter.com	✔
p.typekit.net		✔
www.webmonkey.com	✔	✔	✔

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A page on http://www.upworthy.com

Hostname	Ghostery	Disconnect	HTTPSB
What is said to be blocked:	snapshot	snapshot	snapshot
3rd parties which were not blocked:
d8rk54i4mohrb.cloudfront.net	✔	✔
upw-prod-images.global.ssl.fastly.net	✔	✔	✔
www.google.com	✔
fonts.googleapis.com	✔	✔
themes.googleusercontent.com	✔
cc.simplereach.com		✔
platform.twitter.com	✔