Each time you visit a page on the Internet, there is a good chance a service on that page is tracking you. Below is a list of some common ways a web page tracks you when it is being viewed. To view and optionally block the services that are tracking you, install Ghostery. Ghostery is a free tool that displays all tracking services and gives you additional details about each service. The picture shows an example of a Ghostery window for the CNN website with eight services tracking the visit, however, six of the services are disabled.

  • Visit and install Ghostery.

How a website may track you

  • Most sites collect analytical data using services such as Google Analytics to help the owner of a website understand how their web page is being used.
  • Sites with share buttons from Facebook, Google+, and other social networks also track each visitor that views the share button or a social network plugin. Users logged in to these social services can be tracked and also share the pages through the services.
  • Many advertisers such as Google (DoubleClick) track where their advertisement banners are displayed.
  • Hundreds of other services that monitor traffic, brands, patterns, mobile, etc. for research and advertisers.
  • How to be anonymous on the Internet.
  • How does a website or advertisement know where I am?
  • See our anonymous and track definitions for further information and related links on these terms.