Everyone wants your data. From the NSA to your local government to Google and everyone in between. Of course, not everyone is interested in tracking data. Not unless you tell them the government is looking at your dodgy photos. But there is more than one type of data tracking on the internet. Maybe something that isn’t epic but still invades your privacy.
We have written about 9 useful security extensions for Chrome. Today we’re going to talk specifically about who’s tracking you online, what kind of information they’re getting, and how you can try to stop them (and whether or not you should stop them). Specifically, let’s take a look at the extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
What do they want to do?
There are all sorts of website trackers out there. Most of them – and I’m not kidding – want to make your life easier. Sites like Twitter and Facebook install cookies on your machine so you don’t have to log in every time you want to share something. So does Gmail. But sometimes, tracking can get scary and a bit out of control, depending on your perspective on such matters.
A news site might be using a tracker that tracks where your cursor is on the page, what you clicked, how much you read, what you share, etc. Again, in theory, This data will help the website serve you better.
But trackers can also be used against you. For example, they may collect your personal data like your location, record your search history, etc.
How to see who is following you
To see all the trackers a website uses, we’ll need a browser extension. DisconnectMe and Ghostery are great for Chrome. On Firefox you can try Mozilla’s Own Lightbeam Add-on. In my personal testing, I found that Ghostery is the best tool for finding trackers and helping you manage them. So in this article, I will use Ghostery as an example.
After installing Ghostery (Chrome, Firefox), go through the setup process. Then visit any page and Ghostery will start doing its job. In the bottom right corner, you’ll see a pop-up that lists all the trackers the site has loaded. You will actually see them appear when the website loads them. To have fun with it, visit something like Mashable.com and watch as it pops up a list of 50 or more trackers that exceed the size of your browser window. And then wonder what exactly each of them does. Then ask Ghostery for the answer.
If you think the pop-up is too much, you can turn it off from Ghostery’s settings page.
To see all the trackers, click on the Ghostery extension button and you will see a drop-down menu. Scroll through the list. Click on the trackers to see the exact links they are inserting into the page.
Take a sensible approach to disabling trackers
Like it or not, trackers are an integral part of the modern web, so turning off important trackers can interfere with your experience. If you are not careful and decide to disable all trackers on the page, you may end up with no dynamic parts of the page or even disabled videos and links.
But there are trackers that you can disable without harming your browsing. For instance, get the Google Adsense tracker. Disable it and you will disable all Google ads on the page. This is similar to extensions like AdBlock.
Ghostery will tell you what kind of trackers you’re looking at. So it’s easy to determine if it’s an ad tracker, privacy tracker, social tracker, analytics tracker, etc.
Ghostery gives you two options to disable trackers. Once you flip the switch for a tracker, it will be blocked on every website you visit. But next to the switch you will see a circle. This will allow you to enable the tracker on the website you are visiting.
How should you use Ghostery?
Don’t disable everything at once. Start with the elements you can’t stand. Like Google Ads or Pop-ups or Taboola boxes. Blocking these elements will not break web pages.
Then gradually try to disable analytics, user tracking and marketing trackers. These also shouldn’t get in the way of how you use the web. Only the website will not receive your personal information. Task completed.
I’d say you should stay away from other types of trackers until you know what you’re doing. But feel free to explore and mess things up. If you break some websites, all you need to do is go to Ghostery and enable the tracker, that’s it.
Which trackers have you disabled?
Have you turned off ads or user activity trackers? How does it work for you? Share with us in the comments below.
P.S. Check out Ghostery’s page on how they make money. It tells you all about how Ghostery exists as a free product, what it does with the data it collects, etc.
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Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
