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Bruce
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Bruce is offline
Wollongong, Australia
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 15,218
Bruce is male  Bruce has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
02-01-2018, 11:04 PM
1

Are you being watched?

For the paranoid among you

I have been running an ad blocker (AdBlock Plus) as an addon my default browser for years (makes YouTube watchable for example) and have my browser set to delete cookies whenever it is unloaded.

However just as an experiment I decided to add an anti tracker to my browser, there are several options but the one I decided on was Ghostery (for no particular reason other than I liked the name). Personally I am not that fussed about being tracked but it is interesting to see what sites track you and with what.

For example this site has two trackers Google Adsense and Google Analytics but I have seen up to seven trackers on some media sites. Below is a screen shot of the details for this site - normally all you get is a number and brief details pop up for a second or so - not the screen below.


By the way on this site Adblocker reports blocking four ads and Ghostery has blocked two trackers.

I shall probably leave it running as it claims to speed up page loading; certainly my browser is running no slower as far as I can see. It can be turned on or off on a site by site basis either permanently or temporarily - handy for some of the click bait sites.

Interesting eh?


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Bruce's Avatar
Bruce
Chatterbox
Bruce is offline
Wollongong, Australia
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 15,218
Bruce is male  Bruce has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
03-01-2018, 03:26 AM
2

Re: Are you being watched?

BTW I said I had seen up to seven trackers on Media sites... Well I visited Huffington Post today and Ghostery reported 15 trackers. Obviously media sites like to know a lot about who visited them but I am guessing that is also a function of all the Click Bait they have to pepper themselves with.

You know the, "Stars you Wouldn't Recognise Now" or "Facelifts that went Wrong" type of stuff.
Julie1962
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Julie1962 is offline
Surrey
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 42,846
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03-01-2018, 11:40 AM
3

Re: Are you being watched?

Careful Bruce we aren't allowed to admit we use ad lockers and the like. I can see azzs point he relies on the revenue.
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Judd
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Judd is offline
West Riding of Yorkshire
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 12,538
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03-01-2018, 06:45 PM
4

Re: Are you being watched?

I've been using Ghostery for quite a while now, I think it's invaluable for killing off trackers (especially Google's interference in every aspect of the internet).
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Tedc
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Tedc is offline
Berkshire, UK
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 4,872
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04-01-2018, 12:50 PM
5

Re: Are you being watched?

Ads are a fact of life.

They, probably, fund just about every site you go to.

Just as on the Telly, they are there because they pay for the sites and we don't have to.

Tracking what sites you go to is also a fact of life as the advertisers like to learn what turns you on and select the ads to fit with that.

In my opinion, it only gets bad either through over indulgence (number of ads coming your way) or through selling your info on.

I don't like that.
Julie1962
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Julie1962 is offline
Surrey
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 42,846
Julie1962 is female  Julie1962 has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
04-01-2018, 12:52 PM
6

Re: Are you being watched?

Only ones I object to are pop ups but I haven't had one of them since I got my iPad. Simple banner like at top of this site don't bother me they can be quite funny.
 

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