Thursday, March 21, 2013

Who's Trackin' You?



See Who is Tracking You!!
There are a few programs out there that will allow you to see who is tracking you and set your privacy settings accordingly:
·         Privacychoice.org- allows you to set/adjust your privacy settings on all social networking sites and more
·         Collusion- allows you to visually see third parties tracking you
·         Ghostery.com- allows you to see who is grabbing data from you when you visit different sites

I decided to download Ghostery (IT’S FREE) because I am interested in what kinds of sites are “grabbing” my information. Right now, I am on Facebook, school e-mail, Google, and Bass Pro Shop’s website. With Ghostery, there is a little ghost icon at the end of your URL bar. When trackers start grabbing information it will alert you by displaying a number on the ghost. While on Facebook, I have a 3 displayed, none on my school email, none on Google, but I have an outstanding 28 on Bass Pro Shop’s site. I wanted to know more. I clicked on the number 28 and it tells me all the sites getting information. I clicked on a random one; Ghostery provides me with the name and how it operates. This particular one that I clicked on was Adobe Digital Marketing and operates by Omniture! It even gives a synopses of what they do and why. This is a cool tool, and just gives you an idea of what is going on.



Sources:
http://privacychoice.org/
http://www.ghostery.com/
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=ghostery+symbol&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43287494,d.eWU&biw=1280&bih=687&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=ZYc3UZ3dJpSI9gSwq4DADA#imgrc=dbF2sBett4iiJM%3A%3BZc4iyieID49uAM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fslodive.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F09%252Fchrome-extensions%252Fghostery.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fslodive.com%252Fweb-development%252Fchrome-extensions%252F%3B600%3B300

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5 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 26, 2013 at 4:56 PM

    WOW! I had no idea about the ghost icon! That is something that I will now look for when I am browsing different sites. I wonder if there is anyway that one can block people from being able to access their searches?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 26, 2013 at 5:22 PM

    Meggie-
    I believe there is a website/company that will do that for you, but there is a fee.
    Also, on Ghostery there are some privacy settings you can play around with to your likings!
    Heather Roberson

    ReplyDelete
  3. Danielle and Laura (team 6)April 6, 2013 at 6:32 AM

    Wow! I did not know their were programs out there to our aid. That is definitely interesting. Out of the sites you were on, I though being on Facebook there would be the most companies collecting information from you. I plan on downloading one of those choices to see what is being taken from me as well. I agree with Meggie on how I hope I can find a setting to block them from being able to retrieve information in the future

    Laura Mayhew

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brad HaymoreApril 9, 2013 at 8:13 AM

    The Ghostery website is a cool idea. I had no clue that that service was even an option. I want to download it and check it out. I also like that it is free. I have an internet security that will scan my computer and list the tracking sites that are following me, but I pay for that and free always sounds better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. .April 11, 2013 at 10:08 PM

    Ghostery is kind of a scary thing, knowing that websites and companies can see what you are looking at and maybe even purchasing online. I think to some extent that these would be ok. Such as, personalizing maybe adds given to you and things of that nature but when it comes to storing data about what you have been doing on the internet, I personally believe that it gets into an invasion of privacy. (jcapatin@uncc.edu)

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