Quick Question: About Neopets Tracking

[sighcoe]

Does Neopets track every link I press or just how many unique links I'm pressing. For example when I go to my shop then to my user look-up, does it show up on their computers that I clicked 'My shop' -> 'user lookup' OR that I visited 2 unique links. Want to make sure for transferring purposes.

____

April 13th Edit:

Ok so initially I was undergoing an experiment and it was compromising four accounts. Before I went through with my experiment, I decided to back off because I'm a wuss and started this thread. But for the greater good and hopefully in making an ULTIMATE account (or buy, check my trades thread ;)) I've decided to go through with my plans.

So this is what I did:
4 Accounts: one main, two semi mains, and a shell. I've been on and off of all three of these with completely separate IP addresses with a strong VPN program. For all three accounts, ALL I did was tombola, stock some items, and feed my pet. The exact same pattern. Not even a bot worthy thing to do.. The only thing I did differently was search the two semi mains with with the main account. THEN... I cheated with my main. Sent a sword of thare to my shell, then sold the thare for 8m (most likely reported because it was a 1 month old and had nothing on it). Then... guess what? I waited...

Three Day later...
Only the Shell and main was frozen but...
One more day later...
All accounts were frozen. Why the heck would the semi mains be frozen. Neopets is not going to look up the patterns of thousands of players (maybe hundreds :P) and say "HEY! those two accounts.. mhmm.. same guy." No... doubt it. They must have looked at my searches. Then investigated the two accounts afterwards and found it was weird that I was looking up two accounts every day (lol now that I write it, I'm such a loser). Then saw the patterns... boom frozen.

So... coming from the safety junkie... DON'T search your accounts with your main but have a shell with a separate IP address if you want to look up your semi-accounts/shells/other mains/etc. :) Trade safely guys!

[j03]

You'd have to ask their IT department for an accurate answer.

[sighcoe]

You're probably right... hahah
Just curious because I remember someone posting A LONG time ago about how accounts were being frozen by never logging into the accounts but searching very specific usernames that they owned. They used proxies/vpn everything too. But simply from one account looking up 3-4 accounts that they owned to see if they were frozen got all of them frozen. Can only see this happening if that person's vpn program was a dud lol

[Urbex]

You're probably right... hahah
Just curious because I remember someone posting A LONG time ago about how accounts were being frozen by never logging into the accounts but searching very specific usernames that they owned. They used proxies/vpn everything too. But simply from one account looking up 3-4 accounts that they owned to see if they were frozen got all of them frozen. Can only see this happening if that person's vpn program was a dud lol
I actually remember reading stuff like this a while ago. Not sure if it had any validity to it or if things have changed though

[vj87]

I would think they probably have logs of everything you click and such. But those logs will never/rarely be looked at. Maybe if they had reason to suspect you of something they could pull up the logs.

I know its not quite the same but I am part of the admin team on a large forum and we have logs of every click made to our site (and where it comes from, along with browser you are using, version of windows/whatever IP, and stuff) along with every link you click on there but they are only ever pulled up if there is a problem with a user and we are investigating something.

[Foxglove]

Wow, that must've actually been what happened to one of my old accounts that got frozen last month. Completely inactive for many years, completely legit for the entire time I played on the account, just looked it up to see how the account was doing and it got frozen. The account I used to look it up is completely fine, though. That's just crazy, so even just having someone look at your userlookup is a risk for getting frozen?

[Mama Bear]

Sorry to say that we can only speculate. As Joe said, we'll never really know for sure until we get an inside man. :P

[sighcoe]

Going to bump this. Edited some things here and wanted to give you guys an update

[Infiniti]

Thanks for the update, I had a feeling they did this but never gave it much thought. I think I'm going to make a list of random usernames (inactive and actives) and throw them in a file. Then whenever I'm doing illegitimate things I can pull usernames from my list and search for those along with the actual targeted accounts. I feel like this only works out well for them because we all try to avoid user lookups do to the captcha. You know if you've never search for usernames or clicked on random ones on boards, then suddenly you searched 5 unique names and those accounts become semi-active, it isn't hard to narrow down. If you're constantly on different look ups it should be harder to trace yk. If we all collectively did it we could end up saving each other's asses ;)

[Foxglove]

Thank you for the update! And for sacrificing your accounts in the name of knowledge :P

[|2eap]

Does Neopets track every link I press or just how many unique links I'm pressing. For example when I go to my shop then to my user look-up, does it show up on their computers that I clicked 'My shop' -> 'user lookup' OR that I visited 2 unique links. Want to make sure for transferring purposes.

____

April 13th Edit:

Ok so initially I was undergoing an experiment and it was compromising four accounts. Before I went through with my experiment, I decided to back off because I'm a wuss and started this thread. But for the greater good and hopefully in making an ULTIMATE account (or buy, check my trades thread ;)) I've decided to go through with my plans.

So this is what I did:
4 Accounts: one main, two semi mains, and a shell. I've been on and off of all three of these with completely separate IP addresses with a strong VPN program. For all three accounts, ALL I did was tombola, stock some items, and feed my pet. The exact same pattern. Not even a bot worthy thing to do.. The only thing I did differently was search the two semi mains with with the main account. THEN... I cheated with my main. Sent a sword of thare to my shell, then sold the thare for 8m (most likely reported because it was a 1 month old and had nothing on it). Then... guess what? I waited...

Three Day later...
Only the Shell and main was frozen but...
One more day later...
All accounts were frozen. Why the heck would the semi mains be frozen. Neopets is not going to look up the patterns of thousands of players (maybe hundreds :P) and say "HEY! those two accounts.. mhmm.. same guy." No... doubt it. They must have looked at my searches. Then investigated the two accounts afterwards and found it was weird that I was looking up two accounts every day (lol now that I write it, I'm such a loser). Then saw the patterns... boom frozen.

So... coming from the safety junkie... DON'T search your accounts with your main but have a shell with a separate IP address if you want to look up your semi-accounts/shells/other mains/etc. :) Trade safely guys!


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from neopets head. granted its purpose is for advertising tracking but who says they cant use it for both

[|2eap]

They also have a get browser function that returns what your browser is. So they are tracking you IP, OS, and Browser.

It's important to note all this, and why its very important to clear your cache and cookies, as they obviously keep a cookie logged for each account you've been in for the past 180 days. (check your headers next time you visit a page on neo) it'll be like np_username:someid

[Stocking Anarchy]

They also have a get browser function that returns what your browser is. So they are tracking you IP, OS, and Browser.

It's important to note all this, and why its very important to clear your cache and cookies, as they obviously keep a cookie logged for each account you've been in for the past 180 days. (check your headers next time you visit a page on neo) it'll be like np_username:someid


I'm curious, I am using a firefox addons Request Policy [Only registered and activated users can see links] and No Script [Only registered and activated users can see links] and I have google-analytics.com blocked in both addons.

I have two accounts I am using as mains on the same IP and I send items back and forth to each other every now and again but its usually just stuff I pick up that would match their gallery wishlist. They each have their own priorities in the game but they do play some similar games as dailies. Both pretty much play at the same time though in the same browser, one as incognito. Basically one is my main and the other is a starting over account in case the main ever get reclaimed by the original owner. In your opinion, what do you think the odds are of getting chain frozen are?

[|2eap]

I'm curious, I am using a firefox addons Request Policy [Only registered and activated users can see links] and No Script [Only registered and activated users can see links] and I have google-analytics.com blocked in both addons.

I have two accounts I am using as mains on the same IP and I send items back and forth to each other every now and again but its usually just stuff I pick up that would match their gallery wishlist. They each have their own priorities in the game but they do play some similar games as dailies. Both pretty much play at the same time though in the same browser, one as incognito. Basically one is my main and the other is a starting over account in case the main ever get reclaimed by the original owner. In your opinion, what do you think the odds are of getting chain frozen are?


If your signing on one in incognito, then its automaticaly clearing your cache and cookies upon exit so no worries there.
As far as browsers, its mostly so they show you the correct layout dimensions etc. However, they probably use it when looking into suspicious activity is all.

[Stocking Anarchy]

Does Neopets track every link I press or just how many unique links I'm pressing. For example when I go to my shop then to my user look-up, does it show up on their computers that I clicked 'My shop' -> 'user lookup' OR that I visited 2 unique links. Want to make sure for transferring purposes.

____




you could just bookmark the account links to avoid userlookup captcha stuff. If I am understanding this correctly you are going to your UL to click on the links to get to shop and trades etc?
IDK if it would still trigger anything or not but here are the search links

Tradingpost
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
Shop
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
Auctions
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
Neomail
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
Gallery
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Raposa]

This is really fascinating! Thank you for this post.