OptMeowt is a Chrome extension that allows Web users to exercise their rights to limit the sale and sharing of their personal information, in accordance with privacy regulations such as the CCPA and GDPR. It automates the process of sending opt out signals indicating the users' preferences upon visiting a website, without collecting any user data or sharing it with third parties.
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With the introduction of privacy regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Web users have a right to limit the sale and sharing of their personal information. OptMeowt automates the process of sending opt out signals indicating the users' preferences upon visiting a website.
Note: We do not collect any data from you. Third parties will also not receive your data. The permissions OptMeowt is using are required for opting you out. You can learn more and view the source code at https://github.com/privacy-tech-lab/gpc-optmeowt.
User reviews
Seems to work well in general, but there are a couple of annoyances!
First, when OptMeowt is enabled on Chrome's Extensions page (even if I use its "Disable" option -- the pause button icon in its menu), I can't enter my bank's web site (hosted by fiservapps.com). After login, I immediately get a dialog box with a message from the site: "For security reasons, your session has ended. Log in again." (I sent an email to an OptMeowt developer a couple of months ago about this, but received no response; I now see I can report an issue on GitHub, so I am trying that -- https://github.com/privacy-tech-lab/gpc-optmeowt/issues/441.)
Second, when I am in a Google Meet meeting, Meet displays a warning banner saying that I have a Chrome extension that might cause meeting quality problems (linking to https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10550593?hl=en#meet_extension). I narrowed it down to OptMeowt -- when I disable it and refresh the Meet tab, the warning goes away. I haven't actually noticed any quality difference either way, but the banner sure is intrusive, and OptMeowt isn't even intended to be a Meet extension, as far as I know. I assume it must be doing something to trigger Meet's warning. (https://github.com/privacy-tech-lab/gpc-optmeowt/issues/442)
As a result, I've had to stop using OptMeowt on some of my computers, and have substituted Privacy Badger, which seems to be decent, with no annoyances so far.
Extension malicieuse! Prétend protéger la sécurité de l'utilisateur en envoyant aux sites une demande ne pas suivre alors quelle suit son activité en permanence. Extension malhonnête!
OptMeowt v2.0.1 is a simple extension which sends Do Not Track signals to sites you visit. It does this by sending:
* The GPC header.
* The DNT header.
and setting:
* Navigator.globalPrivacyControl
* First party cookies of ad networks participating in the IAB CCPA Compliance Framework for Publishers & Technology Companies.
* Third party cookies of ad networks participating in the DAA's CCPA Opt Out Tool for the Web.
=> https://github.com/privacy-tech-lab/gpc-optmeowt/blob/226d225e4543adfbbaa431c18be66904f8878229/README.md README (v2.0.1 Permalink) | OptMeowt | GitHub
=> https://global-privacy-control.glitch.me/ Interacting with Global Privacy Control
For these purposes it works well. This approach has the advantage of working within the system. And it limits the side effects of actively blocking trackers/advertising.
The two most off-putting elements of OptMeowt are:
* The opt-out cookies which appear in the browser's standard cookie controls.
* The automatically generated Domain List within OptMeowt.
These give the impression that you are being tracked by generating hundreds of cookies which cannot be permanently deleted and by creating an unofficial browser history which you might not be aware of. While annoying and not explained well, these are harmless. And they are required for the normal functioning of the extension.