Two Great Anti-Tracking Browser Extensions

Internet companies that make money from ads (like Google and Facebook) track their users' habits on their own sites. I suppose that's fine, as they have to get some value from customers considering they don't charge anything, but they go a lot farther than that. They, and other companies, track you as you go around the Internet outside of their own properties.

I don't like that fact, and you shouldn't either. Firefox, IE 9, Safari, and Chrome (via this) have anti-tracking features in their preference panes, but we're not yet at a point where they can be fully trusted. It's not about shoddy implementation, but rather that we can't be sure that shady online marketers are paying heed. That's why I'm highlighting two browser extensions that prevent you from being tracked.

The simplest one of the two is Disconnect. It was actually started by an ex-Google employee who understands how tracking works. It prevents tracking by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Yahoo!, and it's available for Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.

The more powerful one is Ghostery, which is available for IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera and iOS. It keeps a list of known tracking technologies in the same way that an ad blocker or virus scan keeps lists. It alerts you to how many of these things are on sites that you visit, and it has the ability to block you from being tracked by them on most browsers.

For example on the Huffington Post home page, Disconnect blocks three kinds of tracking and Ghostery blocks eight. On the New York Times, Disconnect blocks three and Ghostery blocks five. On CNet, Disconnect blocks five and Ghostery blocks a whopping 12.

There are a lot of companies out there trying to track your Internet usage without your knowledge or permission. Don't let them.