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

A sisyphean task. [Link]

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.

Go to Panopticlick to see how unique your browser is.