Why is your activity tracked on the Internet?

Websites use online trackers to optimize and display targeted ads.

Optimization

To optimize, websites need to understand more about their visitors to automatically recognize and adapt to their desired preferences. A website may ask you to share your location information with it to provide content relevant to where you live. Thus, websites improve their design and services by understanding the general preferences of all users.

Targeted advertising

Online tracking is also used for advertising purposes. Websites can show them more relevant ads by collecting information about their visitors. The more information websites collect from you, the more money they get for serving targeted ads. This action ultimately increases the click rate of users on advertisements as a result of buying products or services.

Why is online tracking not popular?

Regardless of what purposes the tracked information is used for, most people do not like the idea of ​​data collection by companies and organizations. Suppose it doesn’t hurt anyone to see ads relevant to users’ needs and tastes. In that case, the idea of ​​ad platforms understanding your behavior and personality is something that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

In addition, it is unclear what will happen to the information online tracking systems collect from users. Collected user data is sold to other companies in most cases, and even if this scenario does not happen, hackers and attackers can steal it.

How do advertising platforms track you?

Advertising is one of the most important sources of income for many online services and websites. Using user activity tracking systems will provide more effective advertising, which will help increase the revenue of online services.

Currently, there are many techniques for tracking users online, and we will mention below some of the most critical methods.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of code that are added to your browser when browsing the Internet. Cookies allow websites to access a list of other sites you have previously visited. These small pieces of code are also used for logging into your user accounts in online services. Still, they are also used to understand people’s online behavior and provide more relevant advertising.

In addition to the sites you have visited, cookies also record specific pages and how you interact. This tool allows advertisers to understand what products they have looked at and what terms they have used in search engines like Google. This data provides excellent insight into sites that can be used to determine users’ interests and hobbies and even predict their favorite products.

Browser fingerprint

Browser fingerprint consists of all the information provided by your web browser. This means data such as device specifications, operating system, screen resolution, browser type and version, and even the plugins you have installed. Since this information is so extensive, it will be possible to trace a specific user only through his browser fingerprint.

URL trackers

URL trackers are used to identifying how you entered a particular website. These tools are placed in website links and direct you to other pages.

URL trackers are often used to measure the effectiveness of individual advertising campaigns. By segmenting users based on the ad campaigns they clicked on, you can see which ads have had the most impact on increasing sales.

How do block ad trackers?

Understanding how online tracking techniques work is straightforward, so you can prevent online trackers by changing how you browse the web.

Clear your browser cookies regularly

All web browsers allow you to delete your cookies. This will prevent a lot of online tracking. Of course, deleting cookies is not always easy because, as mentioned, many websites use this tool to log users into their accounts, and after deleting, you have to log back into your account. To avoid this problem, you can delete all cookies except for the sites where you are logged into your account.

Using a browser that blocks some cookies

Many of today’s browsers offer settings that you can use to determine which cookies are stored on your device. The simplest option is not to keep all third-party cookies on the system. This will automatically save essential cookies and block other cookies. Depending on the type of your browser, you may be able to allow only the cookies of certain websites.

Use browser fingerprint-blocking plugins

Browser fingerprint is one of the information online trackers can use to distinguish users from each other. Currently, many plugins are designed to prevent sites and advertising platforms from accessing the browser’s fingerprint. One such extension is Privacy Badger, which you can install on most web browsers.

Does a VPN prevent online tracking?

Many people use VPN to remain anonymous on the Internet, but you should know that this tool cannot prevent you from being tracked online.

The main job of a VPN is to encrypt your internet traffic and hide your original IP address. Encrypting your Internet traffic hides your online activities from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and prevents Man in the Middle (MitM) attacks, but it cannot prevent online trackers.

Hiding your IP address can prevent you from being tracked in some scenarios. If someone tries to track you based on your IP address, using a VPN will prevent them from doing so. However, advertising platforms rarely use IP-based tracking because cookies are more effective and allow advertisers to record your activity data regardless of where you are.

Finally, we must mention that using a VPN can be helpful but will not prevent online tracking of your internet activities.

Online tracking is ubiquitous, but it can be prevented

A minimal amount of visitor information is enough for sites to provide optimal performance. However, many online services collect a vast amount of information about their users, not intended to make the site easier to use but to increase advertising revenue.

As mentioned, targeted ads are not necessarily harmful. Still, if you want to be online without being tracked, the basic technique of deleting cookies and changing the browser fingerprint is among the best strategies you can use.