Online tracking is considered by many to be the price you pay for access to free web services. But what if you don’t want to be tracked? Is it possible to browse the internet without providing information about yourself?
Here is why your information is valuable and what you can do if you’d like to keep your privacy.
Why Are You Being Tracked?
Online tracking is performed to optimize websites and to display targeted advertising.
Optimization
Website optimization is achieved by understanding enough about you to automatically align with your preferences. A website might want to know your location to provide relevant content in the language that you speak. By understanding the preferences of all website users as a whole, improvements can also be made to a site’s design.
Targeted Advertising
Tracking is used for advertising purposes because it makes ads more effective. As websites collect more information about you, they are able to display advertisements which are more relevant. This increases the rate at which you click on them and purchase products and services. The more information about you that websites have, the higher that they can charge for advertising.
Why Is Tracking Unpopular?
Regardless of what tracking information is used for, most people don’t like the idea of organizations collecting information about them. While seeing more relevant ads doesn’t really harm anyone, the idea that such advertisers understand their behavior and personality is something that makes many people uncomfortable.
There is also the issue of not knowing where this information ends up. The information collected is often sold to other parties, and even when it’s not, it can potentially be stolen.
How Are Advertisers Tracking You?
Advertising is the only thing that makes many online services profitable. Tracking makes advertising more effective and is therefore something that online services have become very good at.
There is now a wide range of different tracking techniques. Here are a few ways that you are being tracked as you browse the web.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of code that are added to your browser as you browse the internet. Cookies allow websites to understand what websites you have visited previously. They are used to keep you logged into online services, but they are also used to understand your behavior and so provide more relevant ads.
Cookies not only record what sites you visit but also the particular pages and how you interact with them. Cookies allow advertisers to know what products you’ve looked at and what terms you have used on a search engine like Google. This provides a lot of information that can be used to determine what interests and hobbies you have and then what products to show you.
Browser Fingerprinting
A browser fingerprint is made up of all the information that your browser provides about you. It includes your device details, such as operating system and screen resolution, and your browser details, such as its version and installed extensions. All of this information varies widely, and it’s therefore possible to track an internet user solely from their fingerprint.
URL Trackers
URL trackers are used to identify how you landed on a particular website. They are included in website links and direct you to specific pages. They are often used to measure the effectiveness of individual advertising campaigns. By dividing up users according to what ad campaign they clicked on, it’s possible to understand which campaigns are increasing sales.
How to Stop Advertisers From Tracking You
Most tracking techniques are easy to understand, so it’s possible to prevent tracking by changing how you browse the web.
Clear Your Cookies Regularly
All browsers allow you to delete your cookies. This prevents most tracking attempts, but it’s not always convenient. Cookies are used to keep you logged into your accounts and once deleted, you will have to log back in. To get around this, you should go through all of the cookies saved, and only delete those that you do not need.
Use a Browser That Blocks Some Cookies
Many browsers now include settings which allow you to decide what cookies are saved on your device. The most straightforward option is to disallow all third party cookies from being saved. This will automatically allow necessary cookies to be stored, and prevent all others. Depending on the browser, you may also be able to only allow cookies from particular websites.
Use a Browser Extension That Prevents Fingerprinting
Browser fingerprinting is an increasingly well known issue and there are now many browser extensions that aim to tackle it. Privacy Badger is ideal for this purpose and is available for most browsers.
Does a VPN Prevent Tracking?
VPNs are often associated with anonymity but are unable to prevent advertiser tracking.
VPNs are designed to encrypt your internet traffic and to hide your IP address. Encrypting your internet traffic hides your internet activity from your ISP and prevents Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. It does not prevent tracking by advertisers.
Hiding your IP address can prevent tracking in some instances. If somebody is trying to track you based on your IP, a VPN obviously prevents this. Advertisers, however, vary rarely use this method. Cookies are more effective and allows advertisers to track you regardless of where you are.
Overall, VPNs are a useful tool but not an effective way to hide from advertisers.
Online Tracking Is Powerful but Possible to Prevent
A small amount of tracking is necessary for websites to function as intended. Many websites, however, are collecting significantly more information than this. The purpose is not to make sites easier to use but to increase advertising profits at the cost of user privacy.
Targeted advertising isn’t necessarily harmful. If you’d like to browse the web without being tracked, however, the primary techniques are to delete cookies and to modify your browser fingerprint to the extent that you are no longer unique.
