Guide: How to Know If Someone is Tracking You Online
Everyone wants your data. From NSA to your local government to Google and everyone in between. Of course, not everyone cares about record keeping. Unless you tell them the government sees your cock photos. But there is more than one type of data tracking on the Internet. Maybe something that is not so grandiose, but still invades your right to privacy. We’ve already written about 9 useful security extensions for Chrome. Today we’re going to talk specifically about who follows you online, what kind of information they get, and How to try to stop them (and whether you should stop them). In particular, let’s take a look at the extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
What do they want?
There are all kinds of website trackers out there. Most of them – and I’m not kidding – want to make your life easier. Websites such as Twitter and Facebook install cookies on your computer, so you don’t have to log in every time you want to share something. It’s the same with Gmail. But sometimes the tracking can get creepy and a little out of control depending on where you stand with such issues.
A news website may use a tracker that keeps track of where your cursor is on the page, what you clicked, how much you read, what you shared, and more. Again, in theory, this data would help the website serve you better. But trackers can also be used against you. For example, they may collect your personal information such as your location, record your search history and more.
How to See Who You Follow
In order to see all trackers that a website uses, we need a browser extension. DisconnectMe and Ghostery are great for Chrome. In Firefox, you can try Mozilla’s own Lightbeam add-on. During my personal testing, I’ve found that Ghostery is the best at finding trackers and helping you manage them. So in this article I’ll be using Ghostery as an example. After installing Ghostery (Chrome, Firefox), go through the installation process. Then go to any page and Ghostery will start doing its thing. In the lower right corner you will see a pop-up with all trackers the site has loaded. You will actually see them fill as the website loads them. To have some fun with it, go to something like Mashable.com and see how it populates a list of 50 or more trackers that is larger than the size of your browser window. And then wonder what they all do exactly. Then ask Ghostery for the answer.
If you think the pop-up is too much, you can turn it off from the Ghostery settings page. Click on the Ghostery extension to see all trackers button and you will see a drop-down list. Scroll through the list. Click on a tracker to see the exact links they insert on the page.
Taking a sensible approach to disable trackers
Like it or not, trackers are an integral part of the modern web, so disabling crucial trackers can hinder your experience. If you’re not careful and decide to turn off all trackers on the page, you can just end up without dynamic parts of the page or even disabled videos and links.
But there to be trackers that you can turn off without harming your web browsing. Take the Google Adsense tracker for example. Turn it off and you’ll disable all Google ads on the page. This is comparable to extensions such as AdBlock. Ghostery will tell you what kind of tracker you are looking at. So it is easy to identify whether it is ad tracker, privacy tracker, social tracker, analytics tracker, etc. Ghostery gives you two options to disable trackers. When you flip the switch for a tracker, it will be blocked on every website you visit. But you can see a circle next to the switch. This allows you to enable the tracker on the website you are visiting.
How to Use Ghostery
Don’t turn everything off at once. Start with elements you can’t stand. Such as Google Ads or promotional pop-ups or Taboola boxes. Blocking these elements will not destroy sites.
Then gradually try to turn off analytics, user tracking, and marketing trackers. These, too, should not hinder your use of the internet. Only the websites do not receive your personal information. Mission accomplished. I would say you should stay away from other types of trackers until you know what you are doing. But feel free to explore and mess things around upWhen you end up breaking a website, all you have to do is go to Ghostery and turn on the tracker, that’s it.
Which trackers have you disabled?
Have you disabled ads or user activity trackers? How did it work out for you? Share with us in the comments below. PS Check out the Ghostery page on how they make money. It tells you all about how Ghostery survives as a free product, what it does with the data it collects, and more.
How to Know If Someone is Tracking You Online: benefits
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