How to Avoid Online Tracking. (Hint: You Can’t.)

How Do They Know That?

The main tool that online advertisers use to watch you across the Internet is the cookie. Cookies were originally developed so that a single website could track your movements from one part of the site to another. That was especially important because before the cookie, sites had no way to remember who you were when you stopped browsing and proceeded to the checkout page. To do that, each cookie gives your browser a unique code to identify your computer.

It turns out that cookies work just as well tracking your computer across multiple sites as it does following it across just one.

“You no longer need to know a person’s name or address to know what that particular person does online, what their interests and values are,” says Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit group that does consumer advocacy on Internet-related issues.

Over time, new tools have been created to do the same thing, only better. There are “Flash cookies,” which unlike normal cookies cannot be erased. There are also web beacons, which are essentially clear picture files that are embedded on a page and record your movement across a website, or even several websites – including where you move your cursor and how far down a page you scroll before clicking away. Ultimately, the data on your browsing habits is used to make the browsing experience (including ad-targeting) more efficient.

“Ad sellers and buyers are both getting the data from the cookies and beacons,” says Peter Eckersley, staff scientist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a pro-privacy group. “Those are the eyes and ears of the system.”

It’s cliché to say that knowledge is power, but never has it been more true than right now. Literally – right NOW. Because as you read this, dozens, maybe hundreds of different companies are looking over your shoulder, following every move you make online. If that fact makes you uncomfortable enough that you try to avoid it by scrolling away, just think: With beacons, data companies know that, too.

Creepy, huh?

Not really, online advertisers say. Because they’re not really looking for you. They’re looking for tens of thousands of yous – people who fit different profiles that advertisers are guessing will be more likely to buy their stuff. They don’t care about the identity of any one individual because they’re focused on volume.

“I could care less about who you are,” says Sears. “Think about it. Lowe’s doesn’t want to sell one snow blower to one person. They’d go broke. They need to find tens of thousands of people who need snow blowers. So they don’t care about your identity.”

Privacy advocates counter that data tracking and aggregation technology has grown so sophisticated, and so pervasive, there’s no way to tell who’s using it or how. Online advertisers don’t have to know your name to know everything important about you, including sensitive information like where you live, what you buy and the ages of your children.

All that personal information can be stored indefinitely, advocates point out, until someone figures out a reason to track individual consumers. It could be stolen by hackers, or simply lost. It could be subpoenaed by the government. Or it could be used in real-time, piecing together consumers’ movements, who they talk to and text (via cell phone location records), what they buy (via store loyalty card databases, which are commonly bought and sold), and who they’re friends with (via Facebook) to create a more detailed profile than any private detective could ever hope to compile.

“We’re not talking about tracking thousands of people,” Eckersley says. “We’re talking about tracking individuals.”

Anti-Tracking Tools Not Effective

Maybe you like the fact that advertising companies are gathering reams of information about your private and financial life, especially since it means you get ads that fit your tastes, offering you deals on things you actually need.

“I actually think this is great stuff,” says Iggy Fanlo, CEO of AdBrite, another ad exchange. “If I go online at Zappos and almost buy a pair of shoes and then I get busy and forget, I look at the ad that comes up and say ‘thanks for the reminder.’”

Or maybe you don’t like it.

“They can track you wherever you are, and gather hundreds of pieces of data about you, without you ever knowing it,” Chester says.

If you’re one of the skeptics, there are many steps you can take to opt-out of online tracking. Many of them are difficult to find, and cumbersome to maintain.

But here’s the real problem: None of them actually work. Each tool might help reduce the amount of information that online advertisers gather about you. But each one has its problems, and each can be circumvented.

Which means the only way to make sure you’re never tracked online is to never go online.

“It turns out to be very difficult” to avoid being tracked by online marketers, Eckersley says.

Next: Methods for Blocking Cookies … and How They Fall Short >>>

Image: Jared Tarbell, via Flickr.com