11 ms·

I Visited 49 Sites. Hundreds of Trackers Followed Me

• black-kettle 7y ago
  Really? And was NYT one of those 49 sites? You don't say!
• kareemm 7y ago
  Can’t wait for ad tracking to be regulated. The rising awareness about how tracked we are suggest the Wild West days are coming to an end.
  • 2T1Qka0rEiPr 7y ago
    You'd hope so, but I'm not quite so optimistic - given that the business model of the internet seems to rely entirely on ads, and a notion that the better you're understood, the better you can be targeted. The thing which really concerns me is the fingerprinting techniques, which really cannot be avoided, even if you are technically literate and privacy concerned.
  • vbezhenar 7y ago
    Yeah, you'll have to agree to one another popup. Probably I'll start looking soon for autogdpr+autocookie extension, I got so tired from those popups (especially when they have nothing with my country laws).
  • DoubleGlazing 7y ago
    Sadly, I can't see that happening anytime soon. The organizations who have a vested interest in all this are just too powerful and can afford to pay for better lobbyists. EDIT: If anything I can see publishers and advertisers trying to lobby for DMCA style laws that will make it an offence to circumvent tracking and profiling. They can spin such techniques as just an attempt to generate revenue and to circumvent them is as bad as music or software piracy.
    • criddell 7y ago
      All it would take is an extension to the laws protecting video rental records. With the right changes to how we talk about privacy, we could start treating it like a security issue. Make data sharing a flaw that needs to be corrected. Start to talk about ad-tech as malware and lump those that would work on these systems in with those that would write remote access trojans or ransomware.
      • kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
        Congress only did that to protect themselves. The data broker industry is too big and important in modern politics for them to take action against it.
  • IshKebab 7y ago
    It is regulated in the EU. In theory you should just be able to click "deny" on sites that track you. Unfortunately nobody in the EU seems to be interested in punishing sites that bend the law by making "deny" difficult to click or even blocking the content if you click deny.
    • majewsky 7y ago
      Data protection offices are interested, but investigations take a long time, esp. when your adversary is a fast-moving adtech giant like Google or Facebook.
  • rchaud 7y ago
    > Can’t wait for ad tracking to be regulated Might want to pack a lunch. You're talking about crippling the business model of two of the US' most profitable companies (Alphabet and Facebook), not to mention the lifeline of many digital startups whose business revolves around packaging and selling user data. And the people who would be in charge of putting forward such legislation would presumably be the same who depend on this level of tracking to hold their congressional/Senate seats the next time an election rolle around.
    • dredmorbius 7y ago
      It can't happen soon enough. And the legislation will also be developing outside the US, notably in Europe and Asia.
      • majewsky 7y ago
        Europe's digital legislation is controlled by the publishing lobby and the music industry (cf. Article 13). Publishers have zero interest in destroying their business model (ad-supported news sites).
        • dredmorbius 7y ago
          Giants don't battle on behalf of dwarves. But they do at least battle amongst giants. That's not ideal. It's a start.
  • twox2 7y ago
    Don't hold your breath. Ad tech is what keeps the internet free. You might be willing to pay for content to keep from getting tracked, but consider the billions of folks out there that can barely afford to get online in the first place.
    • AlanSE 7y ago
      What content do you feel like we will miss out on? Genuine question. Clearly, Wikipedia would keep operating. Universities would continue to operate web presence, but their highest quality content (academic papers) is already paywalled. As for news, there's a spectrum. There is news about global events, and then there is news about entertainment. Entertainment, itself, (Netflix, Hulu) is already paywalled.
    • dredmorbius 7y ago
      Fund publishing as a public good.
      • wutbrodo 7y ago
        Publishing of what? Public funding of publishing isn't a complete non-starter, and can work very well in narrow cases, but there are serious problems involved in the state spinning up an infrastructure where it decides what speech in general is worthy of state funding. It's disheartening to see how common it is to see people throw out a vague "make the gov't do it" without acknowledging or grappling with the deep fundamental questions about how this would be implemented.
        • dredmorbius 7y ago
          Publishing of everything generally public. "To publish" is literally "to make public": https://www.etymonline.com/word/publish https://www.etymonline.com/word/publish I'm aware this is an uphill battle. It may well be a hill I choose to die on. For further thoughts / arguments: Many of the arguments for Sci-Hub generalise to all information. This piece also specifically invokes the arguments of the CUNY Graduate Center and Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel laureate economist) on information as a public good: "What the academic publishing industry calls "theft" the world calls "research": Why Sci-Hub is so popular" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4p2rwk/what_the_academic_publishing_industry_calls_theft/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4p2rwk/what_th... Generally: "Why Information Goods and Markets are a Poor Match" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2vm2da/why_information_goods_and_markets_are_a_poor_match/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2vm2da/why_inf... "The Medium Is the Message: how the technological and revenue environments shape content" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/278e2o/the_medium_is_the_message_how_the_technological/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/278e2o/the_med... "Forbes asks: Why do programmers hate advertising so much?" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/24107v/forbes_asks_why_do_programmers_hate_advertising/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/24107v/forbes_... "A Modest Proposal: Universal Online Media Payment Syndication" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1uotb3/a_modest_proposal_universal_online_media_payment/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1uotb3/a_modes... "Specifying a Universal Online Media Payment Syndication System" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2h0h81/specifying_a_universal_online_media_payment/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2h0h81/specify... "Richard Stallman's "Internet Sharing" content syndication proposal (2012)" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3p0bp6/richard_stallmans_internet_sharing_content/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3p0bp6/richard... https://stallman.org/articles/internet-sharing-license.en.html https://stallman.org/articles/internet-sharing-license.en.ht... A general problem of advertising, not otherwise addressed, is that it tends to produce shit content. Though this essay doesn't directly address that, it's very much a Tyranny of the Minimum Viable User dynamic: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyranny_of_the_minimum_viable_user/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyr... Another is that advertising tends strongly toward oppressive rather than liberating informational regimes: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6b32jo/what_makes_an_information_regime_oppressive_vs/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6b32jo/what_ma... And problems with other proposed payment alternatives, such as micropayments: "Repudiation as the micropayments killer feature (Not)" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4r683b/repudiation_as_the_micropayments_killer_feature/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4r683b/repudia... A general bibliography on publishing and media: "Media, Advertising, Sustainability, Externalities, and Impacts: A light reading list" https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/7k7l4m/media_advertising_sustainability_externalities/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/7k7l4m/media_a... TL;DR: I've been thinking about this for a while. Mind: getting to public goods payment is going to be difficult. I don't deny that in the least. Partial approaches may well be a viable path there. Sci-Hub, ZLibrary, Library Genesis, the Internet Archive, libraries (public, offline, online), file-sharing, samizdat press, #pdfme, and other measures are appropriate. And "how do authors/creators" get paid: UBI/GMI would be a good start. Performance/lectures are an option. Publishing-as-a-shingle (in the professional advertising sense) is an option. Patronage and grants are presently used and have a long and storied history. As discussed in the essays above, both technology and business model effect the forms and types of works created. Advertising has been tried and found wanting.
  • n_ary 7y ago
    The "awareness" is for a tiny fraction of people. Except in HN & some other super paranoid groups, most people doesn't really mind. My grandma is not worried about 20 trackers and leaked db as long as she can post her recipe article. :) My irl friends are more interested about "exposure" because it is "age of (social media) influencers/celebrities". The concept of tracker, adblock are alien to most folks. Those who knows a bit gave up because they reason that it is now integrated into the system and there is no escape, so why even try? :/
• heinrichhartman 7y ago
  So ironic that the NYTimes, where this article is published, is itself one of the worst offenders. The article clearly states this as well: > Among all the sites I visited, news sites, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, had the most tracking resources. So hat-tip for the self-awareness. Now how about "sweeping your doorstep" ?
  • dantondwa 7y ago
    This comes up every time there's a NYT article. However, note that the management and the journalists are different people and the fact that th website of the NYT itself is reported as having trackers is a proof of this.
    • MichaelApproved 7y ago
      > management and the journalists are different people That's clear and not being disputed. When people mention workers calling out management, it's sort of in a praising way. They're commending management for at least allowing workers to call them out. Many institutions would not allow that to happen, so it's good to point out the Times when they do.
      • so-impressed 7y ago
        And yet nothing changes, so to feign self awareness is the height of theater. They do it in the open. They say they do it. They tell you they know it's bad, this thing they do. And they do it anyway. It doesn't make them better than others to pay lip service and not change. If anything, they lead by example and it makes them worse for having done so. Shop lifting is a crime, but hey, everyone does it, so watch me pocket this candy bar. And some beer. And a TV. And maybe I'll just grab some money from the cash register. And yeah, I think I'll steal the assistant manager's car to get away. See? This is just how the world works!
        • qroshan 7y ago
          Pray tell me how exactly should a news publisher survive without targeted advertising. Public should pay for stuff or accept targeted advertising
• andrewaylett 7y ago
  EFF's Privacy Badger and Firefox's (experimental) first-party isolation go _some_ way to mitigating this bad behaviour. But taking special measures shouldn't be necessary.
  • moon2 7y ago
    I like the Brave Browser. It's based on chrome but it allows you to control which 3rd party scripts you want to load and other privacy related stuff.
  • NikolaNovak 7y ago
    Question - how do they compare to "Cookie Autodelete" extension? I recently reformatted, switched to Firefox, and installed Multi-Containers, Auto-Delete, and uBlock Origins; open to suggestions on what other robust, stable, mainstreams extensions I should try :) Thx!
    • nerdponx 7y ago
      You'll also want an addon to clear "local storage" and "session storage", which is basically a shadow database where trackers can store identifiers.
      • NikolaNovak 7y ago
        Thanks! Any particular ones to recommend? "Cookie AutoDelete" extension does have a "LocalStorage Cleanup" option, but it looks to be somewhat experimental and temperamental...
    • kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
      Decentraleyes to defeat CDN tracking. Random user agent to make fingerprinting harder.
  • jmngomes 7y ago
    uBlock Origin goes a long way to mitigating such behaviours: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/ https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/ But I agree that this level of privacy invasion should be illegal.
• kylecordes 7y ago
  I imagine an alternative history where browsers simply never had the feature of cookies and similar tracking mechanisms available to servers or domains other than the primary one in the URL bar. Or even more severely, where all assets and scripts had to be loaded from the same domain. That would have various downsides but would also have created a much less tracking prone web.
  • ianai 7y ago
    I wish there were a way to enforce this client side.
    • nerdponx 7y ago
      uBlock Origin and uBlock Matrix can both enforce it. But you won't be able to read the news or check the weather.
      • cik 7y ago
        That's why you use AdNauseum instead. I read news, check the weather, and generally live my life. Combine it with ExplodingCookies and life is better than it was.
        • nerdponx 7y ago
          In my understanding, it's trivially easy to identify and filter out those fake clicks. Also I don't want to screw with advertisers' perception of who I am. If anything, I really like how ads are actually relevant to me -- it's a lot better than the days of penis pill banners. I just want them to stop following me around so closely and putting my "anonymized" data at risk of exfiltration by hackers or governments.
      • buckminster 7y ago
        I block all Javascript, cookies and third party sites by default. I still get news and weather. Even nytimes.com works.
    • 7y ago
• DoubleGlazing 7y ago
  I just had a look at the article, Privacy Badger told me there was 14 trackers on the page.
  • nwsm 7y ago
    yeah that's covered in the article.
• bkloppenborg 7y ago
  Are there any reasonable, self-hosted alternatives that can provide me with information on how visitors use my website without submitting them to cross-site tracking?
  • lifty 7y ago
    Matomo (previously Piwik) is a decent alternative
    • LeonM 7y ago
      I particularly like Matomo as it offers the option to honor the browser DNT (Do Not Track) preference.
      • ignoramous 7y ago
        Curious: Is that what you use for mailhardener? How much does it cost to keep it running?
        • LeonM 7y ago
          Yes, Mailhardener uses Matomo to track basic statistics on our website. Mostly just visitor counts and mapping where traffic comes from. In terms of costs I'd say it's neglectable, it runs on a container in our existing infrastructure. Required resources and maintenance are minimal.
  • winterthedeep 7y ago
    Check out Matomo [1] (previously known as Piwik) or goaccess[2]. Matomo offer a web dashboard, while goaccess is terminal-based. [1] https://matomo.org/ https://matomo.org/ [2] https://goaccess.io/ https://goaccess.io/
    • katsura 7y ago
      Actually, GoAccess has web interface as well.
• throwaway343374 7y ago
  As a business owner, it bugs me to have Google and Facebook trackers in my code. But I feel like I need to buy ads, and then I also need to use these trackers to attribute purchases to ad installs. So using some sort of self-hosted tracker just doesn't seem like an option. Is there an answer to this dilemma that doesn't involve foregoing ad purchases, which seem pretty important to growth and revenue?
  • criddell 7y ago
    > I also need to use these trackers to attribute purchases to ad installs Why? What would happen if you didn't have that data?
    • michaelbuckbee 7y ago
      An aspect of the many "trackers" on the sites, etc is that much of the tracking isn't about tracking you (the person browsing around) it's about tracking the company doing the ads. Wrapping back around to your question: "What would happen if you didn't have that data?" The answer is that Facebook/Google/Any Given ad service could just make up numbers about how ads performed. The attribution data gives you two hard data points: 1. How much you paid for the ads 2. How many sales/leads you received Everything else like views, clicks, video views expanded with sound on in Guatemala, etc. are all prone to manipulation and mis-reporting.
• stinky613 7y ago
  It really is crazy. For example, CDW.com has so many tracking websites whitelisted in its header that our firewall blocks it: Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' *.cdw.com *.richrelevance.com *.bazaarvoice.com *.qualtrics.com *.optimizely.com *.hotjar.com cdw.needle.com nexus.ensighten.com api.bluecore.com bluecore.com px.spiceworks.com *.liadm.com scripts.demandbase.com triggeredmail.appspot.com connect.facebook.net d31y97ze264gaa.cloudfront.net *.bounceexchange.com www.googleadservices.com *.doubleclick.net *.google-analytics.com st1.dialogtech.com bat.bing.com *.googleapis.com nsg.symantec.com analytics.po.st px.ads.linkedin.com po.st *.cnetcontent.com selectors.cnetcontentsolutions.com *.akamaihd.net *.google.com *.twitter.com *.justuno.com *.liveclicker.net www.netapp.com dpm.demdex.net *.d41.co *.cxense.com static.ads-twitter.com vault.pactsafe.io pactsafe.io *.webcollage.net *.ziftsolutions.com *.simpli.fi pixel.mathtag.com *.googletagmanager.com *.googlesyndication.com googletagservices.com t.sellpoints.com a.sellpoint.net media.flixfacts.com www.youtube.com media.flixcar.com *.flix360.com *.easy2.com *.go-mpulse.net *.cdnwidget.com *.rlcdn.com *.flixsyndication.net *.adobe.com *.hotjar.io *.eloqua.com *.swogo.net *.swogo.com *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com *.gstatic.com; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' *.cdw.com *.bazaarvoice.com cdw.needle.com *.cnetcontent.com *.justuno.com *.webcollage.net *.ziftsolutions.com t.sellpoints.com a.sellpoint.net media.flixcar.com *.easy2.com *.amazonaws.com platform.twitter.com *.typekit.net *.adobe.com *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; img-src 'self' *.cdw.com *.bazaarvoice.com *.qualtrics.com cdw.needle.com nexus.ensighten.com px.spiceworks.com *.liadm.com *.bounceexchange.com www.googleadservices.com *.doubleclick.net *.google-analytics.com bat.bing.com nsg.symantec.com *.cnetcontent.com selectors.cnetcontentsolutions.com *.akamaihd.net *.google.com *.justuno.com www.netapp.com dpm.demdex.net *.cxense.com vault.pactsafe.io pactsafe.io *.webcollage.net *.ziftsolutions.com *.googletagmanager.com t.sellpoints.com a.sellpoint.net media.flixfacts.com media.flixcar.com *.flix360.com *.easy2.com *.amazonaws.com platform.twitter.com *.linkedin.com *.tribalfusion.com *.company-target.com www.facebook.com events.bouncex.net *.cdnwidget.com *.rlcdn.com *.cloudfront.net *.adobecqms.net *.turn.com st2.dialogtech.com secure.insightexpressai.com px.gumgum.com *.bluekai.com k.intellitxt.com *.everesttech.net *.adnxs.com sync.fastclick.net simage2.pubmatic.com us-u.openx.net ads.yahoo.com pixel.rubiconproject.com *.advertising.com magnetic.t.domdex.com *.rfihub.com *.mathtag.com *.mathtag.co *.amgdgt.com *.casalemedia.com www.bluecore.com *.prod.bidr.io cdn.optimizely.com syndication.twitter.com x.bidswitch.net pe.intentiq.com loadm.exelator.com insight.adsrvr.org um.simpli.fi acuityplatform.com data: *.dotomi.com *.flixsyndication.net liveintent.com cbssports.com maxpreps.com wogo ce.lijit.com soma.smaato.net cs.admanmedia.com eb2.3lift.com live.sekindo.com *.adobe.com *.sc.omtrdc.net df7xs8p1yjitw.cloudfront.net *.core.windows.net *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; frame-src 'self' *.cdw.com *.bazaarvoice.com *.qualtrics.com *.hotjar.com *.liadm.com *.bounceexchange.com *.doubleclick.net nsg.symantec.com selectors.cnetcontentsolutions.com *.google.com *.twitter.com *.liveclicker.net *.cxense.com *.webcollage.net *.ziftsolutions.com pixel.mathtag.com *.googletagmanager.com googletagservices.com a.sellpoint.net www.youtube.com media.flixcar.com *.easy2.com www.facebook.com *.rlcdn.com rs.gwallet.com *.liveclicker.com pages.cdwemail.com www.emjcd.com *.dotomi.com *.flixsyndication.net cdw.zuberance.com *.hotjar.io *.eloqua.com *.swcontentsyndication.com www.cisco.com *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; font-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' *.cdw.com cdw.needle.com *.googleapis.com *.cnetcontent.com *.webcollage.net a.sellpoint.net media.flixfacts.com media.flixcar.com *.easy2.com *.flixsyndication.net *.typekit.net *.adobe.com *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; connect-src 'self' *.cdw.com *.richrelevance.com *.bazaarvoice.com *.qualtrics.com *.optimizely.com *.hotjar.com cdw.needle.com nexus.ensighten.com api.bluecore.com px.spiceworks.com *.liadm.com scripts.demandbase.com triggeredmail.appspot.com d31y97ze264gaa.cloudfront.net *.bounceexchange.com www.googleadservices.com *.doubleclick.net bat.bing.com *.googleapis.com nsg.symantec.com *.cnetcontent.com *.akamaihd.net *.google.com *.justuno.com www.netapp.com *.d41.co vault.pactsafe.io pactsafe.io t.sellpoints.com a.sellpoint.net *.go-mpulse.net platform.twitter.com *.company-target.com www.facebook.com events.bouncex.net *.cdnwidget.com wss://*.hotjar.com p.po.st *.cdnbasket.net *.akstat.io data.g2.com data.g2crowd.com *.adobe.com *.hotjar.io *.swogo.net *.swogo.com *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; object-src 'self' a.sellpoint.net *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; worker-src 'self' blob: *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com; media-src 'self' *.cdw.com *.cnetcontent.com *.webcollage.net media.flixfacts.com www.youtube.com blob: *.flixsyndication.net *.nanovisor.io *.btttag.com;
• 11thEarlOfMar 7y ago
  Coming to you from my new install of the Tor browser... How much does it reduce tracking? Or at least make it not useful to the tracking firms?
  • penagwin 7y ago
    Depends on what you're doing. On some websites you actually stick out (all tor exit nodes are public and easily identifiable). Depending on how closely you stick to the recommend configuration (default window size and such) it'll at least minimize some of the tracking capability of most sites. The best methods to prevent tracking IMO are ublock origin + decentraleyes + HTTPSeverywhere (Http is leaky) in incognito mode, periodically you should destroy the session (restart your browser). Tor really only helps with the IP part, the rest are extensions + incognito mode.
  • asdff 7y ago
    Google is going to captcha you to death as punishment.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• yborg 7y ago
  It's much worse than this, this doesn't even discuss tracking by apps on mobile devices, which is an increasing percentage of overall Internet use.
• BubRoss 7y ago
  I think if regular people start to care about this the next step will be pi-hole or some other filtered dns in the router. It makes a massive difference. Sites load in half the time, use half the CPU and some sites like anandtech, techradar, and just about any other news site trying to get a wide audience actually becomes usable.
  • Digit-Al 7y ago
    That's great whilst you're at home but as soon as you go out and switch to your mobile network you're back to being tracked again surely. Is there any easy way around that?
    • ummonk 7y ago
      There should be a plug and play mobile app for that?
    • chimen 7y ago
      Have a look at dnsadblock.com. The mobile app is not so great but I'm getting there.
    • Natales 7y ago
      Create your own VPN and install the DNS blocker there. [Algo VPN](https://github.com/trailofbits/algo https://github.com/trailofbits/algo) is a great start. Furthermore, you could repave the VM daily or in any time interval. Using WireGuard as VPN protocol as opposed to OpenVPN and others will increase your browsing speed to the point of making it feel you are not even connected anywhere.
    • BubRoss 7y ago
      Not every piece of the puzzle is going to be a silver bullet. You can still run ad blocking extensions in web browsers.
    • Digit-Al 7y ago
      Thanks for the replies all. I do appreciate the time taken out of busy lives. However, I did specify "easy" and as soon as you start talking about creating your own VPN and the like you've lost about 99% of the people out there who are perfectly intelligent in there own right but when it comes to computers they barely know what a sub-directory is. Hell, I've been a software developer for years, and once built my own PC, but I balk at the idea of building a pi-hole. For a lot of people you may add well ask them to change the engine in their car. Until there is a plug and play solution to privacy I do believe it belongs to the digital 1%.
• jordanpg 7y ago
  And all in the service of vacuuming up tiny fractions of pennies in advertising revenue. What a silly, fragile business model whose days are numbered. It's amazing to consider how much revenue has been generated, predicated on completely unnecessary and (now) easily disabled browser features. I have to imagine that like the cigarette manufacturers of yore, companies whose lifeblood is based on this kind of nonsense are kept up at night wondering where the money will come from when this house of cards collapses.
  • Shaddox 7y ago
    Sorry to disappoint you my friend, but the ads and paid subscriptions are just a small fraction of their income. The real money maker is in tracking user behavior and selling that aggregated data. If worst comes to worse, they can just track your behavior on their website alone.
    • tiborsaas 7y ago
      I keep seeing this claim. Where to sell this data and how much for example 1 million unique visitora / month worth?
      • vertex-four 7y ago
        User data for a single website is probably not worth much. User data for every single website a user visits in a day? A bit more. Hence, advertising networks.
      • wolco 7y ago
        It helps determine the price of the ad they are showing. So first you need to join an ad network. Then you could be paid more for higher revenue visitors.
    • jordanpg 7y ago
      What else is the data being sold for besides advertising?
    • 7y ago
• gnu8 7y ago
  What we need is a way to jam these trackers with generated data to the point that they are useless. Something like https://trackthis.link https://trackthis.link, but running 24x7 on countless computers, phones, raspberry pi, hacked routers, and virtual machines.
  • 3pt14159 7y ago
    The way CORS and other cross domain tech works this is actually pretty easy to accomplish. Though many sites track IP, because IPv6 is out it's getting pretty tricky to filter without losing some data. Plus an IPv4 address costs less than a penny per hour to rent. But at the end of the day it doesn't really change much. They're going to detect signal somewhere or another. Where they detect it, they keep the data and source locations, where they don't they update their spam ML models. Unless you start going to the illegal side of the spectrum (DDOS, widespread fraudulent ad engagement, etc) you're not even going to piss them off, really. They won't even notice you.
    • DennisP 7y ago
      Is making a bot click on ads illegal, if you're not one of the parties financially benefiting?
      • ummonk 7y ago
        Probably against the terms of service of most websites.
        • DennisP 7y ago
          Ok but breaking a website's terms of service is not illegal, according to the Ninth Circuit: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/01/ninth-circuit-doubles-down-violating-websites-terms-service-not-crime https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/01/ninth-circuit-doubles-...
  • archie2 7y ago
    You can install the AdNauseam browser extension - it's a fork of uBlock Origin that can automatically click links for you. The idea is that you click on every single ad link while you browse the web, and completely muck up all of the data that trackers have on you. https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/
• jgalt212 7y ago
  Silly Question: If online advertising is a near duopoly, why are there so many trackers?
  • ummonk 7y ago
    Ad analytics and optimization goes far beyond Facebook and Google, although most of the resulting ads are run on their ad networks. Numerous established companies and startups in the space.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• acd 7y ago
  How ever ad locking and do not track extensions does not block ip tracking. Say that you can read browser window size + ip that is unique enough to track you.
• codezero 7y ago
  Heya. I work for Heap (mentioned in the article). If anyone has questions for me. Let me know. Heap doesn’t sell or share data to third parties, we don’t do any cross site identifiers, or fingerprinting. We aren’t in the ad business, that’s Google and FB. In other threads folks have said “but you can’t control what might be done with Heap data in the future” that’s right. I’m happy and pretty secure, and will fall on a sword if Heap ever becomes an unethical company. (I’m commuting for the next hour but will get back to reply soon)
  • saagarjha 7y ago
    > In other threads folks have said “but you can’t control what might be done with Heap data in the future” that’s right. I’m happy and pretty secure, and will fall on a sword if Heap ever becomes an unethical company. This doesn't help me one bit, though :/
    • codezero 7y ago
      What would?
      • jahlove 7y ago
        not being tracked.
        • saagarjha 7y ago
          Or, specifically, my data not being stored in a place that I have no control over.
          • codezero 7y ago
            Makes sense. I think that individuals are much more empowered to block tracking on the web than in other places (usually). Banks and credit card companies are massive sellers of personal and behavioral data, and the FCC rolled back consumer protections which prevented ISPs from selling your data - which is much more broad than just what sites you visit (think applications, DNS, TV watching behavior). Add the pervasive CCTV, mobile phone location selling by carriers, private companies recording license plates and selling the data about your physical whereabouts and patterns, and I agree we have a problem, and it’s less about whether you clicked a call to action and more about the normalization of pervasive surveillance. In the US we’re especially screwed because ISPs have largely blocked off competition that could offer privacy. Most analytics tools that aren’t coupled with ad networks aren’t trying to get around ad blocking extensions, even though it’s pretty easy to do. Like, surprisingly easy. Unethical companies are doing that and more - see the aggressive stance Apple has taken with ITP. They’re not reacting to general cookie sharing, but to companies that are attacking the browser’s storage mechanisms to expose data from other sites. Long story short, vote for privacy forward leaders if you live somewhere that allows you to. Laws like GDPR and the CCPA are moves in the right direction. Heap is already compliant with both and I hope more protections continue to make their way to the public. Edit: I know we are GDPR compliant and intend to be CCPA compliant but I’m not sure we are yet since it isn’t yet in effect.
• simplecomplex 7y ago
  So? What’s the problem? If I go in public someone might photograph me or see me. If I visit a website, it might log information about my visit (to show me ads). Sounds fine to me. I like reading free news articles, paid for with ads. If I don’t like it I can stop reading them.
  • majewsky 7y ago
    A single photograph of you in public is usually not a problem. But if I were to follow you around and take a picture every 10 seconds as you go through your day (including at home and in the bathroom), would you like that?
    • simplecomplex 7y ago
      Advertisers don't follow us around and take photos of us, so that's not something we need to worry about. But CCTVs do have photos of us being taken every 10 seconds in public in major cities. It's not an issue. Nobody is publishing CCTV photos of me. Similarly, advertisers aren't telling your spouse what websites you visited. They just want to show you ads that are relevant to your interests. My point is that the expectation of privacy is unreasonable in every situation. For example, it's unreasonable in public or when doing business with others.
      • majewsky 7y ago
        It's only unreasonable insofar as "they totally could do that". Whether they do do that is a matter of regulation.
• penguin_booze 7y ago
  I find it ironic that NYT objects to my reading articles in private mode, but publishes pro-privacy articles.
• tempodox 7y ago
  I fully expect future historians to call this era the Surveillance Economy.