BitTorrent released a new torrent client, but, unlike what you’re already used to from the company (hint: uTorrent), this is integrated straight into the web browser, Google Chrome, that is.

It is a simple extension, currently in alpha, called BitTorrent Surf, which is already available for download from Chrome Web Store.

The core functionality of a torrent downloader is deeply rooted into this extension, so you won’t have trouble connecting to peers or downloading the files. What is more important, though, is searching for the stuff you want to download.

With BitTorrent Surf you can employ multiple websites to find what you’re looking for. The result is a super search function that looks into multiple sources to retrieve results.

BitTorrent Surf displays the estimated torrent health together with the number of people sharing and downloading the file as well as the total downloads to date.

Google has taken two steps to prevent its Chrome browser becoming an attack vector for malware that runs as extensions to the browser.

Like many other browsers, Chrome allows users to install “extensions”, apps that add functionality. Google even runs the “Chrome Web Store” to promote extensions.

Security outfit Webroot recently pointed out that some of the extensions in the store are illegitimate, data-sucking privacy invaders that trick users with offers to do things like change the colour of Facebook and then suck out all their data.

Google has responded in two ways, one of which is a new service “To help keep you safe on the web” that will see the company “analyzing every extension that is uploaded to the Web Store and take down those we recognize to be malicious.”

Changes are also coming in the forthcoming version 25 of the browser, which will no longer allow extensions to install without users’ knowledge. That’s currently possible because Chrome, when running on Windows, can is designed to allow unseen installs “to allow users to opt-in to adding a useful extension to Chrome as a part of the installation of another application.”

“Unfortunately,” Google now says in a blog post, “this feature has been widely abused by third parties to silently install extensions into Chrome without proper acknowledgement from users.”

Chrome 25 will therefore remove the auto-install feature, replacing it with a new system that presents the Windows Vista-esque screen below when extensions try to ingratiate themselves with the browser.


As ever, Google’s blog posts and support notice on the changes position them as responsible enhancements that show, yet again, Google is doing the world a favour.

A more critical analysis could consider the announcements in light of malware found in Google Play and take Google’s decision to more aggressively curate the Chrome Web Store as an admission it needs to devote more attention to this stuff, lest Chrome and other Google products become malware-ridden quagmires that users don’t trust.

Much has been made of Google's new privacy policy, which takes effect March 1. If you're concerned about Google misusing your personal information or sharing too much of it with advertisers and others, there are plenty of ways to avoid Web trackers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers the Panopticlick service that rates the anonymity of your browser. The test shows you the identifiable information provided by your browser and generates a numerical rating that indicates how easy it would be to identify you based solely on your browser's fingerprint.

According the the entropy theory explained by Peter Eckersley on the EFF's DeepLinks blog, 33 bits of entropy are sufficient to identify a person. According to Eckersley, knowing a person's birth date and month (not year) and ZIP code gives you 32 bits of entropy. Also knowing the person's gender (50-50, so one bit of entropy) gets you to the identifiable threshold of 33 bits.

In some ways, Google's explanation of personalized ads is more informative than the company's privacy policy. Of course it's in Google's best interest to keep you in the personalized-ads fold, but the company does its best to present personalization as a boon to users. It certainly does help pay for the "free" services we've come to rely on.


Use Google's own tools to opt out of ad networks

Prominent in the Google privacy policy are links to services that let you view and manage the information you share with Google. Some of this personal data you volunteer, and some of it is collected by Google as you search, browse, and use other services.

To view everything (almost) Google knows about you, open the Google Dashboard. Here you can access all the services associated with your Google account: Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, Picasa, Blogger, AdSense, and every other Google property. The dashboard also lets you manage your contacts, calendar, Google Groups, Web history, Google Voice account, and other services.



More importantly, you can view and edit the personal information stored by each Google service, or delete the service altogether. To see which other services have access to the account's information, click "Websites authorized to access the account" at the top of the Dashboard. To block an authorized service from accessing the account, click Revoke Access next to the service name.


The Google Ads Preferences Manager lets you block specific advertisers or opt out of all targeted advertising. Click the "Ads on the web" link in the left column and then choose "add or edit" under "Your categories and demographics" to select the categories of ads you want to be served or to opt out of personalized ads.


Another option is to use Google's Keep My Opt-Outs extension for Chrome. Google also participates in the Network Advertising Initiative's opt-out program. Select some or all of the dozens of online advertisers from the NAI program and then click Submit to place a cookie in your browser instructing the ad networks not to serve personalized ads.

Free add-on for Firefox and Google Chrome targets tracking cookies

Several free browser extensions help you identify and block the companies that are tracking you on the Web. For example, Ghostery (available in versions for Firefox and Chrome) adds an icon to your browser toolbar showing the number of trackers on the current page. Click the icon to see a list of the trackers and view options for blocking or white-listing specific ones.

The free Disconnect extension (also available for Facebook and Chrome) takes a more direct approach to wiping your Web tracks. Disconnect blocks tracking by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Digg. It also has an option for depersonalizing searches.

As with Ghostery, Disconnect places an icon in the browser toolbar that shows the number of elements it has blocked on the current page. Click the icon to open a window showing the number of trackers blocked for each service. To unblock tracking for one of the services, click its entry. (Note that I tested Disconnect only with Google; also, blocking of international Google domains is not yet available, according to Disconnect's developers.)

When I tested Disconnect, I had to sign into Gmail, Google Docs, and other Google services every time I returned to or refreshed one of those pages, which is understandable considering that blocking the cookie prevents Google from keeping you signed in. Otherwise I was able to use Google services without a problem, including search, viewing and sending Gmail, and accessing, creating, uploading, and downloading Google Docs files.

While people are rightly concerned about who is watching and recording their Web activities, at least Google makes it possible to use the company's services without being too forthcoming with your personal information. ISPs and other Web services do as much tracking as Google--or more--but garner far fewer headlines. For a detailed look at the state of privacy in the digital world, read about the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Surveillance Self-Defense project.

After all, the true threat to privacy is from the trackers we don't know about, and who aren't household names.