Anti-Tracking - Protection software
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 133
Anti-Tracking - Protection software
Not sure where to put this post but FYI. I have installed anti-tracking programs and it shows me what companies try to track my presence on the internet. On this site it shows Google Analytics and Comscore Beacon trying to track me.
For more information on installing antitracking programs go to this link The Best Browser Extensions that Protect Your Privacy
Grins,
Genie
For more information on installing antitracking programs go to this link The Best Browser Extensions that Protect Your Privacy
Grins,
Genie
now's the time
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 2,181
Google Analytics is the top program that website owners use to track their own traffic. As a site owner you can see which of your pages are most popular, which ones are avoided, etc. Where people get lost in your flow. The type of data you can get from programs like this is "of all 100% of people who land on the front page, 90% leave, 0.1% sign in as members, 5.3% view forums without logging in, 4% view articles, etc". Or "of 100% of people who land on the registration page, 80% leave immediately, 10% fill out part of the form but do not complete it, and 10% complete it".
You don't see things like "Visitor 225.33345 lives in Missouri, visits webpages about horseback riding" etc. It's designed to give broad demographics and trends rather than detail.
Comcast Beacon I'm not familiar with. That is most likely Comcast tracking how popular this site is and how much bandwidth it uses across the network.
Either case, that software's awesome! Just wanted to explain a bit more so no one became concerned. Both of these trackers would have been adopted intentionally by the site owner, they're not spyware.
Given how connected all of these different analytics machines are getting, though, if you share your computer and want your SR activity to remain private, I highly recommend using Google Chrome and visiting SR in an "incognito window". A few weeks back google & facebook made a new deal where your google searches can affect your facebook ads. One day I wasn't being careful and did some sobriety-related search in a regular window, and for a couple of weeks I was seeing ads for Rehab when I logged into Facebook.
An incognito window will delete all history, cookies, etc as soon as the window is closed. It's very effective for keeping things separate from your general online background profile.
You don't see things like "Visitor 225.33345 lives in Missouri, visits webpages about horseback riding" etc. It's designed to give broad demographics and trends rather than detail.
Comcast Beacon I'm not familiar with. That is most likely Comcast tracking how popular this site is and how much bandwidth it uses across the network.
Either case, that software's awesome! Just wanted to explain a bit more so no one became concerned. Both of these trackers would have been adopted intentionally by the site owner, they're not spyware.
Given how connected all of these different analytics machines are getting, though, if you share your computer and want your SR activity to remain private, I highly recommend using Google Chrome and visiting SR in an "incognito window". A few weeks back google & facebook made a new deal where your google searches can affect your facebook ads. One day I wasn't being careful and did some sobriety-related search in a regular window, and for a couple of weeks I was seeing ads for Rehab when I logged into Facebook.
An incognito window will delete all history, cookies, etc as soon as the window is closed. It's very effective for keeping things separate from your general online background profile.
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