Post by onlymark on Oct 24, 2011 20:07:45 GMT
The word 'trackers' has multiple meanings, as you know. One of them, as regards computers and the internet, means something that tracks your usage of the internet/web pages and sends that information away to be gathered for various purposes.
One purpose is to tailor advertisements to the particular person or computer users, hence it being more likely that you'll succumb to buying something. Obviously it's no use showing me adverts for magazines for women, I'm not going to buy one. But an advert for an new airline or a travel website and I'm more likely to click on it.
Another purpose is to monitor website usage to tailor searches more accurately or just plainly to gather as much information to then be sold on to marketing companies.
In any case, whatever the tracker is there for, it gathers information and tells someone about what you are doing.
This explanation is a bit oversimplified, but in essence - you are being watched.
Not all websites you go to have the same trackers. Some have none at all, some have a multiple amount. Some trackers aren't really interested in you as you don't fit the category of what is being looked for, but the information is gathered anyway.
So, as an exercise, I looked as to when I come on here, is anyone tracking me?
The answer is, yes.
Not one tracker, not two, not three - not even five trackers - but six.
Six different companies/organisations, I don't know what to call them, have registered that my computer is looking at Any Port in a Storm.
Who are they?
Maybe they are not really interested in me, but in any case, somewhere in their log file is my computer.
So, this is who they are -
www.gigya.com/
www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/index.html
netshelter.com/
www.rubiconproject.com/
www.tynt.com/
www.viglink.com/
Another example, the BBC news page has 4 trackers, but the weather and sports pages have five. The Thorn Tree has only four. Expedia has five, one site K2 visits, Govoyages, has three, Fodors has five, Trip Advisor has only two.
These are not all the same trackers. There is some overlap with Google who are tracking usage for adverts as well as Facebook so you can link to it on some sites. But in general there are many different trackers.
On Expedia.com, a well used site, as I said has currently five trackers - two Facebook variations, two 'Doubleclick' variations and one from someone called Baynote.
The blurb about Baynote states - "Baynote is a software company offering web search recommendation Software as a Service (SaaS) products. They use "Wisdom of Invisible Crowds" technology to serve a website's audience with products and content relevant to their preferences. Baynote aggregates data on users' behavior to guide like-minded visitors to the pages of the site that are most appropriate."
So, just so you know, you can't get away from anything.
Or can you?
Can you block these trackers?
Do you want to know the secret and how I know what trackers there are?
Note: I can be bought with cake and ice cream. Money means nothing to me.
By the way, never fall for a tennis player - love means nothing to them.
One purpose is to tailor advertisements to the particular person or computer users, hence it being more likely that you'll succumb to buying something. Obviously it's no use showing me adverts for magazines for women, I'm not going to buy one. But an advert for an new airline or a travel website and I'm more likely to click on it.
Another purpose is to monitor website usage to tailor searches more accurately or just plainly to gather as much information to then be sold on to marketing companies.
In any case, whatever the tracker is there for, it gathers information and tells someone about what you are doing.
This explanation is a bit oversimplified, but in essence - you are being watched.
Not all websites you go to have the same trackers. Some have none at all, some have a multiple amount. Some trackers aren't really interested in you as you don't fit the category of what is being looked for, but the information is gathered anyway.
So, as an exercise, I looked as to when I come on here, is anyone tracking me?
The answer is, yes.
Not one tracker, not two, not three - not even five trackers - but six.
Six different companies/organisations, I don't know what to call them, have registered that my computer is looking at Any Port in a Storm.
Who are they?
Maybe they are not really interested in me, but in any case, somewhere in their log file is my computer.
So, this is who they are -
www.gigya.com/
www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/index.html
netshelter.com/
www.rubiconproject.com/
www.tynt.com/
www.viglink.com/
Another example, the BBC news page has 4 trackers, but the weather and sports pages have five. The Thorn Tree has only four. Expedia has five, one site K2 visits, Govoyages, has three, Fodors has five, Trip Advisor has only two.
These are not all the same trackers. There is some overlap with Google who are tracking usage for adverts as well as Facebook so you can link to it on some sites. But in general there are many different trackers.
On Expedia.com, a well used site, as I said has currently five trackers - two Facebook variations, two 'Doubleclick' variations and one from someone called Baynote.
The blurb about Baynote states - "Baynote is a software company offering web search recommendation Software as a Service (SaaS) products. They use "Wisdom of Invisible Crowds" technology to serve a website's audience with products and content relevant to their preferences. Baynote aggregates data on users' behavior to guide like-minded visitors to the pages of the site that are most appropriate."
So, just so you know, you can't get away from anything.
Or can you?
Can you block these trackers?
Do you want to know the secret and how I know what trackers there are?
Note: I can be bought with cake and ice cream. Money means nothing to me.
By the way, never fall for a tennis player - love means nothing to them.
