We are living in an age where we can say that the opposite of privacy is the internet. Let us explain. One of Google’s strongest rivals that happens to be an ambassador of online privacy DuckDuckGo recently conducted a study that showed Google is keeping tabs on website visitors on nearly 4 out of 5 (85.6% to be precise) of the top 50,000 websites in the world.
Even Facebook comes up short against Google in this regard by more than nearly 50% (means Facebook-owned trackers are on over 36% of the top 50K sites).
Moreover, DuckDuckGo is rolling out its own Tracker Radar. It will be basically a dataset of trackers that drives DuckDuckGo’s privacy-oriented browser extensions as well as mobile applications. Moreover, it can be easily incorporated into any vendor’s privacy toolset.
As of this moment, the said dataset consists of more than 5,300 different units with trackers.
Apart from Google and Facebook, companies like Adobe and Amazon also track your online activities on roughly 22% of the top websites. Even Oracle and TowerData are among the companies fond of your online interests.
At this point, it shouldn’t even be surprising to anyone. The moment you sign up for an internet connection and start browsing it, you should know what’s about to follow. Every single click and even movement of your mouse from your end notifies ad networks about your interests and requirements and this leads to such networks presenting you with relevant ads.
The issue with all of this is that at such a massive scale, you end up having hundreds of thousands of virtual personas and avatars of yourself created in various systems that you can’t control. These avatars are basically profiles that resemble you in terms of age, interests, locations, etc.
While there are times when advertisers can bid on users without ever having to access their personal information, there are also cases where data collectors just sell your profile to the advertisers.
Moreover, tracker blocking isn’t too common either since only 19% of the people use it in some capacity, according to DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo also issued a statement in which it said that many people have given up on expecting privacy on the internet. However, the company in question aims to establish a new and unrivaled level of trust online.
Read next: Popular iOS Apps Might Be Spying on Your Clipboard
Even Facebook comes up short against Google in this regard by more than nearly 50% (means Facebook-owned trackers are on over 36% of the top 50K sites).
Moreover, DuckDuckGo is rolling out its own Tracker Radar. It will be basically a dataset of trackers that drives DuckDuckGo’s privacy-oriented browser extensions as well as mobile applications. Moreover, it can be easily incorporated into any vendor’s privacy toolset.
As of this moment, the said dataset consists of more than 5,300 different units with trackers.
Apart from Google and Facebook, companies like Adobe and Amazon also track your online activities on roughly 22% of the top websites. Even Oracle and TowerData are among the companies fond of your online interests.
At this point, it shouldn’t even be surprising to anyone. The moment you sign up for an internet connection and start browsing it, you should know what’s about to follow. Every single click and even movement of your mouse from your end notifies ad networks about your interests and requirements and this leads to such networks presenting you with relevant ads.
The issue with all of this is that at such a massive scale, you end up having hundreds of thousands of virtual personas and avatars of yourself created in various systems that you can’t control. These avatars are basically profiles that resemble you in terms of age, interests, locations, etc.
While there are times when advertisers can bid on users without ever having to access their personal information, there are also cases where data collectors just sell your profile to the advertisers.
Moreover, tracker blocking isn’t too common either since only 19% of the people use it in some capacity, according to DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo also issued a statement in which it said that many people have given up on expecting privacy on the internet. However, the company in question aims to establish a new and unrivaled level of trust online.
Read next: Popular iOS Apps Might Be Spying on Your Clipboard
