Home Forums FineTunedMac Community FineTunedMac Feedback tracker question

Many sites have trackers associate with them, which I block with Ghostery. So far, Ghostery shows none for FTM. Are sites set up to allow tracking (deliberately, by the webmaster) or does it happen without the knowledge or consent of said person?

I know nothing about web development and don't intend to develop a website, so this question is purely informational.

I wasn't sure if this is the correct forum for this question, so feel free to move it to a more appropriate location.

The trackers are intentionally setup by the web developers. Their rationale is the data will be used to enhance youir browsing experience while on their web site. Of course the fact that the data collected is a marketable commodity doesn't hurt.

I use Cookie Sstumbler to identify and remove the tracking cookies daily. They are blocked by Ghostery, but there are a LOT of tracking cookies and they can clog and slow browser performance even if they are blocked from phoning home.

Thanks, Joe. "Enhance your browsing experience" sounds like a phrase that a used car salesman would say. Do web developers receive any payment by trackers for the use of their websites? Somehow, I doubt that all of this is benign.

Obviously that would be Cookie Stumbler (without the "stutter" on the S) — now Cookie Stumbler 2 — by WriteIt! Studios. But $25.90 (or $19.90 via macupdate.com) seems a bit rich for the privilege ~ product.

AdBlock Plus ± Ghostery should more than do the trick. I no longer use Ghostery because it definitely slows down browser (Firefox) performance.

I find that simply clearing cookie sets that I know track me (particularly for paywall purposes) on a daily basis is good enough.

Trackers are usually done for profit. A Web owner will sign up to serve ads for an advertising network like Doubleclick. The ad network will pay the Web site owner for placing the ads. Doubleclick places the trackers so they can follow users across the Web, keeping track of which sites the user visits so as to tailor ads specifically to that user's interests. (For example, when I surf the Web, I might go to a forum on embedded device programming, then go to a news site and see ads for embedded microcontrollers, because Doubleclick has tracked me and knows I do embedded system programming.)

I am working on my iPad from our balcony overlooking the golf course at Disney's Old Key West Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida, and because the spell check is a bit different than on my Mac mini mispellings such as Sstumbler sometimes slip through.

The price of Cookie Stumbler is in fact a subscription to their database of cookies including which contain site login information, which ones "phone home", which ones do both, etc. Like anti-virus signature files, the list has to be updated frequently or it becomes hopelessly out of date and useless.

When I started using Cookie Stumbler I had five or six thousand cookies in Safari so the subscription to the Cookie Stumbler database and the automated nightly cleaning seem worth $20 to me, but that is a personal choice.

Under those conditions I would too. I only have a couple dozen cookies (including "subcookies") at any given time and I clean the list up at least once a day. I also block sneaky cookies via Firefox's privacy option as and when I find them lurking in my cookie list.