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On the Web, Children Face Intensive Tracking

Posted by timothy on from the sniffing-out-the-jailbait dept.

theodp writes "In the latest installment of their online privacy investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports that children face intensive tracking on the web, finding that popular children's websites install more tracking technologies on personal computers than do the top websites aimed at adults. In an analysis of 50 sites popular with US teens and children, the WSJ found that Google — whose execs recently lectured parents on online child safety — placed the most tracking files overall."

10 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Advertising? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering what sort of advertisements you see on "children's" TV stations, is this any surprise? Children are targets for marketing firms, since they can whine and nag their parents in ways that the firms cannot.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  2. I have no problem with sites using Cookies by HockeyGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its foolish to say cookies are harmful they are a technology that is required by many online applications and if the end user wants to they can always turn them off or block specific sites from placing a cookie in your cache.

    They are not the same as malware.

    Cookies are not Malware they can not enter your Operating System and send data to anyone.

    What some people are paranoid about is Opening Google Webmail and then browsing porn sites or other not so nice sites....

    Hey idiots WEB SERVERS HAVE ACCESS LOGS the sites you visit already know every file you touch on their site ...

    Not to mention routers and Squid servers used by your ISP can track all of your actions... and that has nothing to do with cookies.

    WAKE UP!

    1. Re:I have no problem with sites using Cookies by mccrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hey idiots WEB SERVERS HAVE ACCESS LOGS the sites you visit already know every file you touch on their site ...

      Idiots? Really?

      Did you read the article? Of course a single site can track whatever you do on that single site. Welcome to 1996.

      The issue here is that third parties know what you do on EACH and EVERY site, and even if they claim to collect anonymous data, they are able to create scarily accurate profiles of individual users.

      --
      Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
    2. Re:I have no problem with sites using Cookies by Nursie · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not so much the individual sites.

      It's the fact that everyone includes and image or a small from from quantserve, google analytics and/or doubleclick and various advertising tracking services.

      That, I don't like. Fine, keep track of what I do on your site, but don't surreptitiously have my browser tell all sorts of third parties where it's going too.

      I know the ISP can and probably does record everywhere I go. But they are bound to keep the information a secret without explicit permission to share it, IIRC (EU law). Othe sites gaining that information in an underhanded way, information of monetary value that I have not given my permission to have them collect, let alone have them share and sell on, well screw that.

      I now block pretty much any third party analytics, images or scripts as a matter of course. Cookies are whitelist-only.

    3. Re:I have no problem with sites using Cookies by Nursie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My habits, my data, my profile are worth money.

      If you want that data to use for your profile, to sell on, to profit from in whatever form, you ask my permission at the very least. And whilst some paranoia of government is irritating, I find that helping an industry (advertising) that long ago made the transition from just annoying to actually abusive is against my politics.

  3. What the? by cheater512 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This seems to be great for grabbing headlines, but what exactly does Google track that others dont and how does Google know who is a kid and who isnt?

    1. Re:What the? by angiasaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ah, good point there! As far as I can guess, the only way google can "guess" at the childishness of the user is by tracking the sites visited and drawing conclusions from that.

      This, as you suggest, is merely a headline hook. After all, no self-respecting human being ought to be staking their lives on the Wall Street Journal. Goodness knows how much flack they've already taken on other reports, and how much more of it they can and will take. :)

      Back to the point though, any site that gives up a cookie does so for tracking reasons. If most people on the planet use one google service or another, it's highly likely that most machines would be eating a lot of google cookies. Pure common sense there!

      I really don't see the how storing a cookie on a kids computer would be any more (if at all) dangerous than storing cookies on adults computer. :|

      Just sensational media hype this.. Ah, there's my grain of salt! :)

      --
      Geekism is your _only_ God!
  4. When I was a kid, I had an appetite for "bad" ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People that want to "protect" their kids are willing to destroy the freedom of everyone around them just so they can prevent their kids of expressing the same curiosities as they did when they were young.

    When I was at the park, I always hid behind the wall watching the two highschoolers "make out." When I wasn't watching the kissing, I was pooring a bottle of my piss down the ant hill that was "out of bounds" as the teacher punnished me for wandering beyond. When the entire school was on recess at the park, I was the first to run to the benches to see if some "weirdo" left his magazine of unsual Hindu "connect-the-dot" porno.

    Now that the internet is here, I can now get back to dreaming about sheep instead of titties. Why do people want to take that away from me then, and then expect me to do the same to my kids if I had any? I would want them to burn theirselves out as soon as possible as I did just so it would be easier to concentrate on a career or something. I sure know that when I was 13 years old, I would pull fixtures or mountings of certain appliences to see if they were fuckable or rubbable, and as soon as I was done with the FAP-worthy material, then I could get back to homework or some constructive activity for 5 or 10 hours without thinking of the ladies again.

    Oh God-damn all of you for trying to take this from me. To 4Chan I goooooooo! !O_o!

  5. Re:And who is surprised by this? by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is an element of frog boiling to it, but honestly if the people involved actually respected others as human beings instead of seeing them as marks it would be clearly apparent that they had gone too far.

    We may be in the process of finding out how long a society can hold together when it's based on mutual dis-respect.

  6. Re:When I was a kid, I had an appetite for "bad" . by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People that want to "protect" their kids are willing to destroy the freedom of everyone around them just so they can prevent their kids of expressing the same curiosities as they did when they were young.

    Sir, I am in awe! However do you manage to pack so much fail into a single sentence?

    I know several people who want to protect their kids, and no, they are not willing to destroy the freedom of everyone else around them. Also, they want to protect their kids because, well, that's what parents are hard-wired to do! They see dangers, they want to protect their children from it. Is that really so difficult to comprehend?

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.