Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/27/do-not-track.html
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Very handy tool, I’ve been using it for a while now. It’s blocking 23 on this page, 21 on the article page, and 19 on the front page. 
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Mine only blocked 21 on this page 
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Run!!!
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Not available for Safari, but you can use Ghostery.
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I use Ghostery on my Mac, but it is only blocking 3.
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What about OFFLINE data they collect on you?
The reports about Facebook buying offline data to fill out their user profiles was an eye-opener to me… as if they didn’t know enough already… creeped me right out.
Links: Just search ‘facebook buys offline data’ to remind you of the reports from last year.
Here’s a quote from an article at pymnts.com
Jeffrey Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, was quoted as saying, “They’re not being honest. Facebook is bundling a dozen different data companies to target an individual customer, and an individual should have access to that bundle as well.”
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Note: This was with regard to the line “Facebook collects data from two sources”
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I stopped using ghostery after it emerged that they themselves harvest your data to help advertisers improve their anti-tracking/blocking approaches.
I use oneblocker now which, while it doesn’t block everything, does seem to have a clean business model.
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Really, BoingBoing. Doubleclick trackers? Really?
The irony burns.
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I use 1Blocker on my Mac and my (compatible) iOS devices as well. Probably the best money I’ve ever spent in the app stores. Bonus: unlike Ghostery, they use Safari’s content blocker API, so they actually can’t harvest data about where you’re going or what you’re blocking. Safari just pulls 1Blocker’s rule set and applies those rules itself, without handing web content back over to the app’s extension.
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Someone must have tidied up. It’s showing zero now. Way to go BoingBoing!
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I already use uBlock Origin, so it looks like it covers the same thing. UO got four somethings, Privacy Badger got zero. I assume Pi-Hole or ProtonVPN got the rest.
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Back up to 14 now. It must be like playing Whack-a-mole or herding cats trying to keep the ads under control.
It is the ads isn’t it?
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I wonder how many of these are false positives or false reporting? I’m put in mind of other types of security theatre; like where the intelligence service is reported saying, “We blocked 23 terrorist attacks this year, but we can’t tell you anything about them. Trust us; totes.” I’m not saying it doesn’t work, but how do we know it works?
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Thanks for the suggestion. Ima check it out.
I guess it’s always possible that they’re making stuff up on the fly.
I did a google search for Privacy Badger review and Privacy Badger test results but couldn’t find any good independent tests. I was hoping to find something akin to AV tests where they might load up a webpage with trackers and such then report on what gets blocked. No such luck.
I guess you have to consider the source when evaluating whether they’re being honest or not. I trust EFF not to lie to my face and considering Privacy Badger is free and not ad supported I can’t see any reason for them to be dishonest so I assume it’s doing the best job it can.
It would be nice to see serious, independent, test results though.
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I used Privacy Badger for awhile the first time that Cory linked it here, but it really slowed down my browser and caused several pages I visited to load improperly. I finally just turned it off when I realized how bad it made things.
My computers are really old and slow in any case however.
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Ironic, as other have pointed out that BB has (in my case, on this comment page) 39 trackers, 12 of which have been blocked and several more of which are semi-suspicious. Doubly ironic, that when I log into Facebook (considering deleting my profile, but haven’t yet pulled the trigger), precisely zero trackers are shown.
Either they’re really good at hiding stuff, or they’re running all their tracking internally and thus it just doesn’t register.
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