# POSTS to yandex.ru (in Russia) when mousing over happy hour links?



## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

Earlier today, I was noticing my browser was stalling on loading content from yandex.ru while trying to load pages here at TCF.. Hmm...

It's not doing that now but I noticed that in Firefox, if I got to Tools > Web Developer > Network, I'm seeing POSTs to yandex.ru. Screenshot attached. It seems like whenever I mouse over a link in happy hour, it POSTs to Yandex.

Anyone else hitting this? Know why there might be content making TCF want our browsers to hit servers in Russia?

My Firefox installation has no extensions installed. The only 2 plug-ins installed are OpenH264 provided by Cisco and Widevine Content Decryption from Google.


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## keithg1964 (Feb 2, 2006)

Not seeing anything here with my install of firefox.


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

is it possible ff uses yanex for an in-browser search feature?


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

NorthAlabama said:


> is it possible ff uses yanex for an in-browser search feature?


I dunno.

I'm also seeing hitting exactly what I described on my Win 10 machine running Firefox.

On the first machine, it seemed like I could block/mitigate it by changing enhanced tracking protection via

```
about:preferences#privacy
```
 to Strict instead of the default Standard. But, that also seemed to block the ads besides this forum's software prodding me to not block them.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

keithg1964 said:


> Not seeing anything here with my install of firefox.


Did you to go Tools > Web Developer > Network after the page is loaded then mouse over links in https://www.tivocommunity.com/community/index.php?forums/happy-hour-general-chit-chat.5/ ?


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

Heck, I fired up my virtual machine (via Hyper-V Manager) with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS that I almost never use and logged into TCF using Firefox in Ubuntu and am seeing the same thing via Firefox's network UI.

I did get asked about whether or not I wanted to sell my data. My answers was no.


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## keithg1964 (Feb 2, 2006)

cwerdna said:


> Did you to go Tools > Web Developer > Network after the page is loaded then mouse over links in https://www.tivocommunity.com/community/index.php?forums/happy-hour-general-chit-chat.5/ ?


I did not before, but just did and did not see anything. Any links I should mouse over to see this issue?


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

Something is definitely going on. If I go to tivocommunity.com in a fresh, clean browser without logging in and go to any of the publicly-visible forums, there's a Yandex.Metrika analytics counter called from Javascript, and it triggers on element activations (while nominally tracking 'clicks', that also triggers on the auto-popups that I despise).

I don't see that myself if logged in, but I'm also a TCF Club member.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

keithg1964 said:


> I did not before, but just did and did not see anything. Any links I should mouse over to see this issue?


It didn't matter which ones I moused over.

Are you using an ad blocker and/or have your enhanced tracking protection set to strict or higher?

The Ubuntu VM I fired up probably hadn't been launched since before May 2020 given LTS | Ubuntu and that I got a dialog to upgrade to 20.04 LTS in which the upgrade button doesn't work.


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

There's not really any technical mystery here, right in the page source is:


```
<!-- Yandex.Metrika counter -->
<script type="text/javascript" >
(function(m,e,t,r,i,k,a){m[i]=m[i]||function(){(m[i].a=m[i].a||[]).push(arguments)};
m[i].l=1*new Date();k=e.createElement(t),a=e.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],k.async=1,k.src=r,a.parentNode.insertBefore(k,a)})
(window, document, "script", "https://mc.yandex.ru/metrika/tag.js", "ym");
ym(67434910, "init", {
clickmap:true,
trackLinks:true,
accurateTrackBounce:true,
webvisor:true
});
</script>
<noscript><div><img src="https://mc.yandex.ru/watch/67434910" style="position:absolute; left:-9999px;" alt="" /></div></noscript>
<!-- /Yandex.Metrika counter -->
```
Which is straight out of the "how to install yandex" support pages. (Tag initialization - Yandex.Metrica. Reference)

Everything else being seen flows from that. It's blocked by uBlock origin, or tweaking the available privacy settings in your browser.

If you don't block it at the browser level - then when not logged in, you'll always see it. A logged in, paid TCF user will not see it. A logged in, non-paid TCF member, can't test at the moment, but based on the posts I see here I can assume it's active in that case - and just comes along with the other tracking and advertizing bundles.


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## Mike Lang (Nov 17, 1999)

Analytics - Yandex.Metrica - free All-Round Web Analytics: session replay, heat maps and form analytics combined with advanced reporting tools



> Yandex is a technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. Our goal is to help consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, we have delivered world-class, locally relevant search and information services. Additionally, we have developed market-leading on-demand transportation services, navigation products, and other mobile applications for millions of consumers across the globe. Yandex, which has 30 offices worldwide, has been listed on the NASDAQ since 2011.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

Yes, I know about Yandex as a search engine and for their self-driving vehicle efforts.

Thanks, kdmorse! Duh... I should've looked at the source.

So, from Mike's response, sounds the POSTs I'm seeing to mc.yandex.ru are likely expected due to them knowingly installing Yandex.Metrica?


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