Tracking Software.

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I installed Ghostery (an ad and tracker blocker) in my browser.  Most websites have maybe a half-dozen trackers attached to each page.  As I type this, there are 4 trackers being blocked on this page.  Do you know which websites use the most tracking software?  News sites.  Here is a quick list of several popular news sites (and a few esoteric ones for comparison), followed by the number of trackers on the main page at each website:

Wired News: 44
CNN: 39
The Onion: 28
NBC News: 23
Alternet: 22
ABC News: 20
FOX News: 20
USA Today: 19
BBC: 12
Washington Post: 11
Astronomy Magazine: 10
Time Magazine: 10
CBS News: 9
Newsweek: 9
NPR: 9
Psychology Today: 7
Sky & Telescope: 6
WrongPlanet: 4

I put an extension onto my browser to block trackers awhile ago. Most of the time I've noticed the trackers are from Google or Facebook, which isn't surprising, but I'll find multiples from one of them on pretty much any website I go to. The extension I use currently says that WP has eight trackers, but pretty much all of them seem to be from advertisements.

Right now, I detect only five:

• Google Adsense
• Google Analytics
• Google Publisher Tags
• Media.net
• Quantcast

The extension I use shows 5 trackers for the rest of the site, and then when I go to make a reply it can go up to 6-8 trackers. "Media.net" doesn't really show up anywhere but the page for replying, for whatever reason.

Well ... at least we know that the trackers are being blocked, however many there may be.

I've been using duck duck go for web browsing. Does that block the trackers?

I've not tried to use a tracker before. Didn't know what one was.

I get that trackers and duckduckgo have different purposes. I was trying to figure out if duck duck go blocks sites from trying to track me.

I think, experimentally, it does. Because I get no ads when on my laptop which has duck duck go and ad blockers

But my ipad mini is laced with ads, for things I have already bought, or have looked at. Especially while I am on WP.

I also have an ad blocker on the main machines and some sites will not let me see their content without disabling my ad blocker. So I have stopped using those sites. Which is too bad. Some of them are interesting.

I am just old enough to want to keep my buying and browsing habits private. There is nothing there, there. Still, it bothers me.

needs a mindmeld to get ahead of these various metrics that are used to track your internet browsing. So duckduck go is inadequate for tracking . fortunately do little shopping on the net ,
these days . Having to consider all the ad trac stuff on the net could cause a meltdown all by itself
i think .