- Whenever discussion starts about how to hide from the tracking code that follows users around the Web to serve them targeted ads, recommendations soon pile up for a browser add-on called Ghostery. It blocks tracking code, noticeably speeds up how quickly pages load as a result, and has roughly 19 million users. Yet few of those who advocate Ghostery as a way to escape the clutches of the online ad industry realize that the company behind it, Evidon, is in fact part of that selfsame industry.
Meh. I've been running Ghostery for years and will continue to do so. The option in question reads: " GhostRank sends anonymous statistical information about the beacons, ads, and other trackers that Ghostery encounters and the pages on which they're found. It does not make use of browser cookies or Flash cookies and stores no unique information about the user (not even an IP address). Ghostery uses this information to create panel data about the proliferation of these trackers and shares this data with the Ghostery community, companies interested in measuring their own activity and compliance with privacy standards across the web, and organizations dedicated to holding these companies accountable. GhostRank data is not used to target advertising and is never shared for that purpose. For more details on exactly what GhostRank collects, please visit our FAQ. By participating in GhostRank, you're agreeing to become part of this anonymous panel and you're helping to support Ghostery as you browse the web. Frankly, I give a shit if it's anonymous. If the company that gets Facebook off my back wants to turn around and sell Facebook anonymous data about why everyone wants Facebook off their back, more power to 'em.Help Support Ghostery by sending anonymous statistical data back to Ghostery HQ.
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It strikes me that this is still how most sites serve up advertisements. StJohn mentioned that arbitrarily changing some punctuation in a novel should offend a good author. I can't see how publishers on the web could think that their experience is agnostic to the ads being served up. Ad quality and placement is carefully considered in magazines, why should the web be any different?Although website owners control which ad networks can put content on their pages, those networks often draw on code from third parties, which itself may pull in further code.
I used ghostery up until I switched browsers recently. That said, I have no problem with this. The data is anonymized, and you're able to opt-out of the collection during installation or at any other time. It still suppresses the personal, targeted data collection that I want to avoid.