Want to know who really monitors your internet activity?

Your internet habits are being studied and logged, an no I'm not talking about the government, or some shady three letter organization that is going to put you on a secret list, I'm talking about the multitude of private companies that monitor you on almost every single web page you ever visit and use or sell that data to other people.

I'm sure a lot of you are already aware that your web activities are monitored but I think you might be surprised by just how many different companies track you when you log into a site and so I thought I would do a little break down of the different trackers found on a typical large web site.

I have compiled this list using the chrome browser add on Ghostery (NOTE Ghostery does not block these networks or trackers it simply informs you of them)

So lets hit a web site and see what pops up.
For this example I have chosen to use foxnews.com not because it has any more or less tracking then any large site, but because I imagine it's a site that a lot of people visit on a regular basis

Here is the ghostery results for the foxnews front page for today
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/723dd92323d6.jpg[/atsimg]
As you can see there are 7 different trackers on just the front page alone, so lets look a little at who those companies are and what they do with the data they collect

1. Quantcast
Who Quantcast are in their own words

Quantcast is a new breed of audience service, focused on helping buyers and sellers quantify the real-time characteristics of digital media consumers against which they can activate addressable advertising solutions. Quantcast provides publishers, marketers and agencies unmatched capabilities to measure, organize, discover and transact based on directly-measured traffic and inferred audience data

Quantcast

What kind of information do they collect?

information sent by your browser such as your computer’s IP address, pixel code, referring HTTP location, current HTTP location, search string, time of the access, browser’s time, any searches made on the applicable website, and other statistics.
We also collect Log Data each time you visit third-party websites serving content that has been tagged by Quantcast Clients with Quantcast Tags. We analyze Log Data from different websites and combine it with other non Personally Identifiable Information to produce the Reports that are made available on the Quantcast.com Site, to enable web publishers and advertisers to deliver audience segments that are appropriate for their products or services. This combined data is also used by us and our partners to serve you content, advertisements, and other information tailored to your interests.

They also have a disclaimer that they do not try to link you to your personal data

We do not link Log Data to any other Personally Identifiable Information about you or otherwise attempt to discover your identity. We make efforts to require our Quantcast Clients to ensure that any such third party website post adequate privacy policies and otherwise protect the privacy rights of their visitors. Check the privacy policies of websites tagged with Quantcast Tags for information regarding the applicable privacy practices.

How do they collect data?
Quantcast uses cookies both standard and flash cookies to record your browsing habits.

Who will quantcast share your information with?
Well from their own policy it looks to me like, pretty much anyone

We may share the following information with third parties, including, but not limited to, vendors that support the operation of our Services and entities involved in the delivery of advertisements: Log Data collected on both the Quantcast.com Site and third party websites tagged with Quantcast Tags (as described in the Log Data section above), as well as aggregated anonymized information resulting from the analysis of such Log Data for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to, conducting industry, traffic and demographic analysis, and enabling web publishers to deliver to advertisers audience segments that are appropriate for their products or services.

2. DoubleClick
DoubleClick is googles own advertising branch. Much like quantcast they collect data about you including you IP address time of logging search terms etc and use that information to target adverts at you in a more personal way

DoubleClick seems to operate in much the same way as Quantcast with a slight difference in their information sharing policy. link which includes the following

We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.

3. Revenue Science
Now this one immediately took my interest when I read their own statement that

AudienceScience offers the most powerful and flexible targeting platform for digital media worldwide and their leading behavioral targeting platform collects and measures people's interests and intent through their Web behaviors.

Measuring someones intent sounds like a pretty strange service to offer.

They also have a very interesting explaination on their privacy page as to what a web beacon is

Web Beacons Web sites and web pages contain links to other web sites. These might be links to images, videos, other web pages, ads or other types of content. We collect data from web sites that place a link to our web servers on their web site. We call this link a beacon. (They are also known as an action tag, clear gif or tracking pixel). A beacon is designed to allow the site owner or a third party to monitor or collect information about a site visitor. The type of information collected might include the IP address of the computer, the web page being viewed, the date/time it was viewed, and user activity on the page. We may use the IP address to infer information, such as geolocation. We do not use the IP address to identify users. We do not collect PII.

4. BlueKai
BlueKai is another interesting one as rather then tracking you to better target their advertising they are specifically there to collect data that they can sell to other people

By aggregating valuable shopping and research behaviors across the Internet, BlueKai is building the world's largest database of intentions. The BlueKai Data Exchange enables partners to buy and own data to boost ad targeting across any media. Publishers can also participate as data sellers to increase revenue in a privacy friendly way

There are quite a few worrying things on the BlueKai site amongst them being

We are aware of the sensitivity of certain types of Preference Data. We do not create or share any segments that reflect Preference Data that we consider sensitive. While the types of Preference Data that may be considered sensitive may vary among users, we presently treat Preference Data as sensitive if it includes data reflecting a user having any medical or health condition; certain aspects of a user's personal life or financial situation; or use of, or interest in, gambling, alcoholic beverages, or "adult" products or services. We may update from time to time the types of Preference Data that we consider sensitive.

This to me implies that they have actually got data on this and can change their mind about supplying it to people whenever they feel like it

BlueKai also collect data through "Pixel Tags" these are similar to web beacons as described above

Their policy on information sharing also makes interesting reading

We may share Preference Data with third-party service providers (e.g., data storage and processing facilities) in order for those service providers to perform business functions for us or on our behalf. We may also disclose Preference Data if we believe that we have a legal obligation to do so. In addition, information in our possession or control, including Preference Data, may be disclosed in connection with any merger, acquisition, debt financing, sale of company assets, or other business transaction in which data could be transferred to third parties as one of our business assets.

BlueKai


Ok so I hope that this thread has been a little help to the who, why and how of internet tracking. I did not include all seven companies as I didn't want the thread to become too large but if anyone wants more info on a specific one then I will be happy to supply it.

half way through the first paragraph and I was going to suggest using ghostery, damn advertising companies sure do like collecting your surfing habits.

I'm pretty sure it does block them.

img19.imageshack.us...





ATS
google analytics
gorilla nation
quantcast
double click (On some pages it seems)

reply to post by aivlas


I think there is an option to block certain things on the latest version but it's set to off by default and I have left mine that way to comply with the ATS t and c's

Who really monitors your internet activity? Your wife ofcourse! Well done Dave for a very imformative thread, there is no privacy anywhere anymore.

do these still apply if I use a wi-fi connection that I pick up free? or is it used for those who actuallly have their own connection? just curios and dont know mucjh about ip addresses and how things work on the internet...

Originally posted by thedoctorswife
Who really monitors your internet activity? Your wife ofcourse! Well done Dave for a very imformative thread, there is no privacy anywhere anymore.

I feel your pain I really do. CCleaner is your friend

do these still apply if I use a wi-fi connection that I pick up free? or is it used for those who actuallly have their own connection? just curios and dont know mucjh about ip addresses and how things work on the internet...

Hmm I'm not sure how that would work.
Anybody know?

Does that mean somebody his hired to personally moniter my activities online? I feel special but freaked out at the same time

Dave: if your using google as your browser ad google to the list of those tracking you.

Doubly so given this posters showing google analytics on ATS:

Originally posted by aivlas
ATS
google analytics
gorilla nation
quantcast
double click (On some pages it seems)

There have been numerous threads pointing out the deep links between google and NSA, IAO, etc... I don't trust google at all.

reply to post by gdaub23


Not to sure but I think it comes down to cookies so, yes.


pianopraze yeah google are sketchy, what with the hotspot fiasco.

I was wondering if there is a way to remove or simply erase this trace left by our IP when visiting a website. I fine to know who are tracking you but better to simply stop them to take those valuable datas. I'm no programing expert nor hacker so that's why I'm asking it.


Thruthseek3r

Well, what ever ad agency abovetopsecret uses, certainly uses tracking cookies.

I was buying bras once and the next thing I know I'm seeing the exact same bra on abovetopsecret!

Talk about no privacy!

This site is one of the worst for this type of thing. Yahoo will sometimes do this too but not as much as this site.

The cure is firefox 4 with https secure browser. Not all websites are https enabled such as this one but many are.

www.mozilla.com...

Then there is of course this search engine which hides all your searches.

www.startingpage.com...

At least they say they do,I'm no computer expert so I really wouldnt know but I do like all the firefox add-ons and its much faster.

I wouldnt use google for anything at all, nothing. Especially after their overt involvement in the middle east nwo psuedo revolutions.

reply to post by Daughter2


Now that is freaky

Yes ATS like all other big web sites does indeed use ad networks to the ones I mentions

WOw I guess this is truly the information age. Information is power.

reply to post by aivlas


The IAO strait up admits to monitoring social networks like this one as well as "truth mantenance" i.e. disinformation agents...

Collaboration and sharing over TCP/IP networks across agency boundaries
Large, distributed repositories with dynamic schemas that can be changed interactively by users
Foreign language machine translation and speech recognition
Biometric signatures of humans
Real time learning, pattern matching and anomalous pattern detection
Entity extraction from natural language text
Human network analysis and behavior model building engines
Event prediction and capability development model building engines
Structured argumentation and evidential reasoning
Story telling, change detection, and truth maintenance
Business rules sub-systems for access control and process management
Biologically inspired algorithms for agent control
Other aids for human cognition and human reasoning

darpa.mil/iao/
Combine this with Psy Ops who strait up say they will control the media and "truth mainenance" and you get a true picture to what is going on in our country:

MindWar has nothing to do with deception or even with “selected” - and therefore misleading - truth. Rather it states a whole truth that, if it does not now exist, will be forced into existence by the will of the United States.

MindWar.pdf

Originally posted by thruthseek3r
I was wondering if there is a way to remove or simply erase this trace left by our IP when visiting a website. I fine to know who are tracking you but better to simply stop them to take those valuable datas. I'm no programing expert nor hacker so that's why I'm asking it.


Thruthseek3r

davespanners post about Ccleaner is right on the money. it's free, just download from trusted online share source. so simle to use, fast too. "..and away goes trouble, down the drain!"

high praise too for Scotty Patrol from BillP Studios, which makes it easy to lock-down programs trying to "phone home" in or outbound, which you may not want eyeballing your actions or clogging up the works by running needlessly.

Daughter2 it depends on what sites you go on, yahoo according to ghostery only uses "bluelithium" so you would need to go on other sites which use "bluelithium" the providers ATS use seem to be everywhere, so they will get more hits.

thruthseek3r block them and if you don't want your ip connected to what your doing online use a good proxy or even better get a box in a safe country.

*OT*
www.boingboing.net... OOPS

Originally posted by gdaub23
do these still apply if I use a wi-fi connection that I pick up free? or is it used for those who actuallly have their own connection? just curios and dont know mucjh about ip addresses and how things work on the internet...

Any form of internet browsing where websites are tracked by these companies will provide them with data. There's really no difference between a wi-fi connection and a hardwire connection. wi-fi is just slower..

So it looks like to me after reading most of this thread that if you download this it will tell you who is watching you but if you block them you'll lose being able to access some or all the things on the page and here at ATS and other websites you have to agree to be watched when you check the box saying you agree to the terms and conditions or you can't join?

reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69


Yes Indeed, you are not allowed to use any kind of ad blocking software on ATS at all, it's in the t and c's