Tracking the trackers -- collusion extension.

[mikeymad]

Just installed a new extension in Chrome -- there is one for Firefox as well -- called "Collusion".. It is an interesting thing to track who is tracking you..

As an example - I cleared it.. Came to HC, and clicked on one thread.... and saw the following.

Interesting....

----

head-case.org

When you visit this site, the following sites are informed:

google-analytics.com

facebook.net

google.com

silvergallery.com

obsessive-media.de

gravatar.com

comicbookmovie.com

badhaven.com

fbcdn.net

-----

Wow... from one thread..

Enjoy your surfing... maybe install this on the kids computer to scare them...

I am putting my tin hat on..

Cheers,

Mikey

[jvlgato]

Wow. Gotta check that out!

[robm321]

Nice! Adding it now. I know SUPERAntispyware usually finds 40-50 tracker stuffs or what not on my PC after just 10 minutes of surfing

[Grahame]

Have you tried visiting the other site to see what it says, mikey?

[Grahame]

Time to add a few more 127.0.0.1 entries to the hosts file

or use a pre-configured one

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Edited May 7, 2012 by Grahame

[jvlgato]

Interesting. Each click to a new site results in a burst of 4-6 entries. Looks kind of like fireworks on the Fourth of July!

[mikeymad]

Have you tried visiting the other site to see what it says, mikey?

I have not... very scared of that.

[tkam]

This isn't exactly a "who's tracking you" thing - it's more like content from these sites is being loaded on the site your looking at. Don't get me wrong, the Facebook, Googles, etc of the world do track you but in the example given it's pretty clear a few of those are likely just from images or other items hosted elsewhere.

[mikeymad]

Correct... it is collusion -- or sharing.

My morning site routine... leads to.

Ed: -- and No I will not be posting my evening site routines.....

Edited May 7, 2012 by mikeymad

[mikeymad]

Okay one more before I remove the extension ... after a regular workday of surfing..

lots of sharing of info out there

[mrarroyo]

Big brother watching? Yes I am paranoid.

[Currawong]

Twitter just announced that they track you if you view a site that loads a twitter sharing icon. If you turn on Do not Track in your browser prefs (In the Develop menu in Safari, which has to be enabled in Advanced in Preferences but usually easy to find in the others) then they wont track you on third party web sites.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169453

I don't go anywhere on the web I'd be upset about anyone else knowing about to care much about the tracking though.