As usual, advertisers rely on assumptions about what they think users will or will not do. When users deviate from the assumed patterns, tracking fails. Three

As usual, advertisers rely on assumptions about what they think users will or will not do. When users deviate from the assumed patterns, tracking fails. Three ways to easily defeat this "cookieless tracking" come to mind: 1. Turn off automatic image loading. 2. Use your HOSTS file to block/redirect the domain name to which the tracking info is sent. 3. On devices that hide the HOSTS file, use your own localhost DNS server to block/redirect the domain name to which tracking info is sent. The common theme here is the user takes more control over what connections her computer may initiate. Under current usage patterns a user types a domain name in an address bar of a browser (usually a browser written by some entity that pays its developers through revenues from the sale of advertising) or she types something into a search bar/box and then selects a search result. The user thereby initiates a connection to some other computer addressed by a. the domain name she types (assuming she types the name correctly; otherwise she may end up at a page of sponsored search results) or b. the result she selects. This level of navigation is within the user's control. She intends to connect to a computer addressed by a domain name that she can type or select. Does she also intend to connect to other unspecified computers at the same time? Due to the way these browsers are configured, many more connections to other unspecified computers may be initiated without any input from the user. Increasingly, these are computers that serve the user no useful content. They are devoted to tracking. Go figure. Does the user want her computer to connect to other unspecified computers whose sole purpose is to track her? Under current assumptions, this is to be decided outside of the user's control (and awareness). By exercising more control over what browsers do and over domain name lookups, the user can retain more power to specifically choose the other computers to which her computer connects.