How to Stop Companies From Tracking You Online
On April 24, President Joe Biden signed a bill that could ban TikTok in the United States unless it transfers its U.S. operations to a U.S.-owned company. Among the reasons for this: data privacy. Like any social media app, TikTok collects a treasure trove of data and personal information, and since the company is owned by China, there are concerns that it could be forced to share this data with the Chinese government.
“I don’t have a TikTok account,” you might be thinking. “I’m fine.” But the modern Internet is more complicated. Through advertising and deals, data brokers can hide cookies, scripts and “tracking pixels” on completely unrelated sites and even in emails, which they can then use to find out your purchase history and other valuable data. And it’s not just TikTok that’s the culprit. Meta is perhaps the most famous of these: it goes so far as to publish information about how it collects your data . This means you could be vulnerable to tracking by services like TikTok and Facebook, even if you’ve never done so. used them . Luckily, there are tools that can tell you when you are being tracked and who is doing it.
How do companies track me?
There are currently two main methods of tracking data on the Internet: the first, cookies, are about to disappear, but pixel trackers are a little more complicated.
You’ve probably heard the term “cookie” before. These are small packets of information that allow websites to store information such as your password so you don’t have to log in every time you visit a website. But in addition to these “necessary” cookies, there are also third-party cookies that can track your browsing session and can later be sold to data companies.
This is probably the most obvious way you can be tracked online. If you have recently visited a website operating in the EU (or certain states), you may have noticed a form asking you to consent to the use of cookies. That’s what these forms say, and while clicking through them may cause momentary irritation, they go a long way toward making cookies less sneaky and much easier to block.
Add to this Google’s oft-delayed but planned attempt to eliminate cookies entirely , and data brokers are going to have to get smarter.
Enter your tracking pixel. They function similarly to cookies, but use images rather than text. Essentially, companies can hide transparent or otherwise invisible pixels on your screen and receive a ping when your browser loads them, allowing them to track which parts of a website you access and when.
This is a real question of the letter and spirit of the law, since while the principle remains the same, there is little legislation on pixel tracking, meaning that users who have become accustomed to government crackdowns on cookies must now go back to square one when this happens. to data vigilance. Today, some site elements even come with their own scripts that can go further than cookies.
How do I know if I’m being followed?
There’s an advantage to the way tracking pixels and scripts integrate directly with website code: With enough effort, you can know when you’re being watched.
When tracking pixels are loaded onto a site, you can see their tags in that site’s code. Once you know what to look for, simply right-click and select “Inspect” from the drop-down menu to begin your investigation. This will work in Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge, although Safari requires a little more effort .
However, you generally don’t want to do this manually. There are tools that automate this process and also give context to what you’re looking at.
The most recent and reliable is Feroot PageScanner , a free Chrome extension developed by some of those who testified on TikTok for Congress .
Feroot PageScanner has perhaps the fastest interface for informing you when your data is being tracked. While it won’t block trackers, it does place real-time notifications on your screen that let you know when your data is being tracked and by whom. Its menu also gives you a detailed list of active trackers, who they are managed by and what purpose they serve. Plus, you’ll be able to sort any scripts running on the webpage you’re visiting without having to go to the Inspect menu.
It is intended for enterprise clients performing security analysis on their sites, especially those who want to ensure PCI compliance . But it’s a great starting point for anyone, as it provides an in-depth, if somewhat scary, look at the scale of the problem. “TikTok is certainly not the biggest problem,” said Feroot CEO Ivan Tsarenny, who previously testified about TikTok before Congress.
How to block online trackers
Once you know the extent of the problem, there are many tools available to help you take control of your online privacy.
Ghostery works like PageScanner, except it can go even further and actually limit trackers. The downside is that its information isn’t as deep as PageScanner’s, so while it will tell you where trackers come from and what purpose they serve, you won’t get those pop-up notifications or be able to sort through scripts. According to Tsarinny, Ghostery also has conflicts with PageScanner, so it’s best used to combat threats once you’ve already identified them.
Ghostery is available both as an extension for most browsers , and as a standalone browser with built-in functionality. It also uses a privacy-focused search engine , which is also available as a browser extension or as its own website. If you’d rather not install anything, you can also see which trackers are active where by going to Ghostery whotracks.me .
But while Ghostery is open source, it has come under fire in recent years for selling user data and replacing ad blockers with its own . Its user interface is slick and easy to use, but those who care most about privacy should consider uBlock Origin instead.
uBlock Origin is another open-source ad blocker, and while it’s a little more difficult to understand and use than Ghostery, there’s no doubt that it’s the most powerful of your options. It can block virtually any element on any site with laser precision, and while it has built-in block lists, you can also create and import your own. The downside is that it gives you less information about how and when you are being tracked compared to PageScanner or Ghostery, since it simply prints out blocked tags and ads and expects you to know how to analyze them. It is available as an extension for Chromium and Firefox browsers.
Privacy Badger has similar features and interface to uBlock Origin, but is more focused on trackers than advertising. Also open source, its interface doesn’t provide detailed information about how you’re being tracked, and there’s no ad blocking if ads aren’t tracking you. Privacy Badger learns to block trackers over time. Here you have two options. First, Privacy Badger developers constantly test tags and scripts for invasive methods and regularly update the extension with new blocking trackers. Secondly, disabled by default, is local learning. Local learning allows Privacy Badger to learn from your own browsing habits, and while it can make you more recognizable to trackers, it can be useful if you regularly visit unpopular websites. Privacy Badger is available in Chromium and Firefox browsers. Local learning can be turned on or off from the Settings page.
Finally, in addition to extensions and websites that block tracking, there are VPNs. A VPN essentially hides your browsing data by filtering it through other sources, hiding your IP address. The best VPNs are paid services, but some will encrypt your data for free. Don’t trust every free VPN you come across, but names like Proton Pass and Tunnelbear have the same reputation as the big guys, albeit less reliable.
Please note that tracking pixels may also appear in emails. To protect yourself from this, follow our guide on how to prevent email images from loading by default .