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| "Ghostery allows zero-tolerance blocking of anything ad related, complete (visible) open communication with ad companies, or countless measures in between - determined by you, the informed web user." |
Imagine someone following you around all day spying on everything you do and recording all of your habits. Bad news is, it's happening already and it's called Targeted Behavioral Advertising (or "Online Behavioral Advertising", aka "OBA"). Even worse is, by the time most malware/adware security apps scan and (if they) detect the presence of such files, it's already too late. What can you do about it? Stop it at the source with this browser plugin.
Commercial privacy thieves and their cohorts beware; I've been using Ghostery now for over a month, and the amount of advertiser data pilfering it blocks is simply amazing.
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| Ghostery at work in your browser. An invaluable plugin. |
So, how is it possible to tell if your privacy has already been compromised?
Ever wonder how websites are able to track and tailor ads to your "interests"? That's only the half of it. What's even more creepy is that most files of this nature that wind up stored on your system when you surf are unlike normal browser cookies, in that they have no lease or expiration--- endlessly tracking your surfing habits.
While some of these web sites, companies and their third-party affiliates use collective data to track what is called "non-personally identifiable information"for web traffic analysis and research methods that are used to enrich the overall browsing experience, it is totally up to the company to define what's personal and not personal, and this arbitrary decision is not left up to the end user. There are other viable ways of tracking user habits on the server side by using transactional analysis to observe user input that is inherently non-personally identifiable for statistical purposes (i.e. - tracking popular keywords in searches, links and pages visited). Instead these sites take this "non-personally identifiable data" from your user profile information on membership websites, keywords from within the depths of someone's e-mail, and even worse---arbitrarily installing browser-based files on the client's computer to snoop through their browsing history and other saved information without their total informed consent and a way to "opt out" without having to opt completely out of just browsing a site and or total use of their member services (i.e. - social networks).
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| For a BBB "Trusted Site" this service AboutAds.Info advocates user choice over privacy of shared information; However if you look to the right, the purple box shows a list of Ad services so long, it wasn't fully displayable on the page. The final number showed 52 ad companies by Ghostery--- most of which are not included on their opt-out list of the other 78 they offer to "help you block". As such, this service is both misleading and unethical. |
While a growing list of 78 companies have a way through AboutAds.info to opt-out of their services by storing even more information in your browser via one of these non-expiring internet files, it's only as effective as asking a company or national roll to place you on their "do not call" list that you personally have to carry around "in your back pocket" so to speak on your own computer and does not block them from less ethical methods of tracking data anyway. Not to mention, AboutAds seem not to include most of these "blockable" companies in their very own list of 52 other ones which they unethically subscribe to for tracking your life online. Furthermore, a service such as this does not provide visibility to the end user on even what supposed "blocked companies" are actively attempting to track their data, and it doesn't display exactly what else is being placed in another non-expiring browser file.
In short, it's only a matter of taking back a bit of your privacy with personal choice over what and how you share. Actions on part of end-users the world over are limiting ways sites are allowed to use our data---and that is already making a difference.
Check out Ghostery and find out how web sites are watching you,
Or go directly to the download link for your brower:
http://www.ghostery.com/download
Just a footnote - Like most all free services, I don't have total control over the content on this page. This blog site is powered by Google and likely uses a feature called 'Google Analytics" and "Google Ad Words". Additionally, I subscribe to Amazon and allow products to be displayed on the side of my block through their affiliate program. I do personally not use any of the information collected and used by Google, Amazon and their internal or third-party affiliates. See any other ad services reported by Ghostery or a similar tool on this blog site? Leave me a note in the comments section!
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