Ever do a search on Amazon and then have the same exact product you were looking at pop-up as an ad on a web or social media site? The reason this happens is in part to the fact that most Internet web-based services and Internet service providers actively monitor your network traffic.
This is not as nefarious as it seems but your browsing habits are for sale and are highly valued by retailers and marketing companies. Very often an individual actually has consent to some level of tracking by simply agreeing to use a service. Still, there are ways you can limit what information about your online habits that your web browser is exposing.
One quick way is by using the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF), a San Francisco-based digital-rights advocacy group, site called Panopticlick. This site evaluate’s your web browser’s privacy quickly and non-invasively and then provides suggestions on how to limit the about on information which is leaking out.
The EFF provides a description of Panopticlick in a blog post. What Panopticlick does is to check your browser for four types of browser security. Does the browser:
- Block tracking ads, which harvests information from your browser without consent.
- Block invisible trackers, which are protocols sites implement to harvests user data, again without consent)
- Allows ads and scripts from third parties.
- Blocks fingerprinting, which identifies a user based on unique browser data.
While there are plenty of browser exertions out there that help to block trackers, the EFF promote their Privacy Badger. It should also be noted that Panopticlick site only scans for those security issues the Badger mitigates. Still, using the EFF scanning service and the extension is a great start to better privacy!