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Google and Facebook Top Biggest Web Tracker List

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-see-what-you-did-there dept.

itwbennett writes "A new report from Evidon, whose browser plug in Ghostery tracks Web trackers, makes it plain that 'if you want to worry about somebody tracking you across the Web, worry about Google,' writes blogger Dan Tynan. Google and Facebook, and their various services, occupy all of the top 5 slots on the Evidon Global Tracker Report's list of the most prolific trackers. 'And if you have any tracking anxiety left over, apply it to social networks like Facebook, G+, and Twitter,' adds Tynan."

10 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Collusion plugin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Check out the Collusion plugin from Mozilla if you want to see for yourself who is tracking you and the relationships between them. Has a nice graphical overview.

    http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/

  2. Ghostery by agoliveira · · Score: 4, Informative

    I suggest this Firefox extension. Works quite well for me.

    --
    Scientia est Potentia
  3. Food for thought by Missing.Matter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google derives 96% of its revenue from advertising. All those shiny "free" Google services you love to play with are the result of their ability to monetize information they gather about you. Without tracking, there is no Google. Just keep that in mind.

    1. Re:Food for thought by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      they should just focus adverts based on what I'm viewing right now and then. NOT by what I viewed a week ago. NOT by what someone else viewed from the same browser a week ago. I'm doing a search for "fucking inkjet cartridges" then fuck, advertise me some fucking inkjet cartridges and porno then. NOT FUCKING AFTER I'VE ALREADY BOUGHT BOTH AND AM ACTUALLY SEARCHING FOR A FUCKING GOOD BROWNIES RECIPE!!!!

      the tracking... IT DOES NOTHING, but billions spent on it regardless. how do they know the tracking is "working" in getting you the advertisements you want? well, because they're fucking tracking it so their tracking proves that the tracking experts should be paid lots and lots of money.

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    2. Re:Food for thought by Hatta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      All I use Google for is search. I'd gladly pay for a non ad infested version. Google serves too many masters to be a decent search engine anymore.

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    3. Re:Food for thought by Shihar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Eh. Who cares? Google trying to make really good ads for me rates pretty damn low on my list of concerns. Hell, if they actually manage to get me to click on a link, it means they found something that I actually care about. I call that a win. I will happily take a good book recommendation that I actually would like to know about over a dancing baby trying to sell me a better mortgage.

      Targeted advertising just isn't scary. It is good. Google having that kind of information doesn't scare me.

      Where Google and the like become scary is when our own government steps in. I don't care if Google tries to sell me stuff that I want. That is a service. I do care if the government can track down my various aliases and I run into trouble with the law because I vocally declare drug laws and the TSA dumb. Google isn't the problem, it is when my government forces Google to divulge information on me that we have a problem.

      Facebook is little worse than Google. Their targeted advertising is perfectly fine, but their constantly shifting privacy settings that desperately want to share private drunk pictures with my boss is fucking annoying.

  4. Re:Is anyone surprised? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Facebook might be the biggest enemy of privacy on the web right now.

    I don't think so.

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  5. Re:Is anyone surprised? by Hatta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do you think logging out really does you any good? Chances are you can be uniquely identified from your browser's user agent string. Google remembers your IP. Google remembers the searches you do from that IP. Google has a bug on just about every website out there.

    If you want to avoid Google, you need to use it only from a deidentified browser, behind an anonymizing proxy. You need to reject all scripts from Google, and reject all cookies. If you do all this, it will be a pain in the ass to get any work done, and I'm still not sure they won't be able to figure out who you are.

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  6. Re:Don't worry by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you were riding a bus, would you expect everyone to cover their ears?

    I expect them to "hear" but not deliberately "listen", certainly not to "record", and absolutely not to maintain a linked set of recordings they have made of me at different times I have been on the bus.

    This is the social contract most normal people live by.

     

  7. Perfect Brownies by improfane · · Score: 4, Informative

    I agree with you.

    Just thought I'd share my ultimate brownie recipe with you. Take a saucepan and start melting real butter (125g) and chocolate (185g) and melt on a low heat. Then add 50g flour, 40g Cocoa and 275g sugar. Stir into mixture and then add three eggs. Pour into a greased or papred tin and place in oven for about 25 minutes and they're delicious. They're not to dense or light and they are rich but not overpowering.

    You can also mix in chocolate chunks or nuts to make it even nicer.

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