In today’s digital world, internet users are constantly being tracked online by advertisers and data brokers. From the websites you visit to the products you browse, your online activity is monitored to serve you targeted advertisements. While this can sometimes be useful in showing ads for products and services you may actually want, excessive tracking can feel like an invasion of privacy. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to limit ad tracking and protect your personal data.
What is ad tracking?
Ad tracking refers to the methods advertisers use to monitor your online behavior in order to serve you relevant ads. The most common ways advertisers track you include:
- Using cookies – Cookies are small text files stored on your device that record information about your browsing habits.
- Using web beacons – Also known as tracking pixels, these embedded images allow sites to monitor if you’ve viewed a particular page or ad.
- Your IP address – Your device’s unique IP address can be used to build profiles of your internet usage.
- Using browser fingerprints – Factors like your browser type, plugins, and device info are gathered to create your unique fingerprint.
As you browse the web, data points like these are collected to target ads based on your apparent interests and demographics. While advertisers claim this leads to a better experience for users, many feel uncomfortable with the level of tracking that goes on behind the scenes.
Why limit ad tracking?
Here are some of the main reasons you may want to limit ad tracking:
- Privacy – Reducing tracking protects your data and online privacy.
- Security – The more your data is shared, the more potential security risks are introduced.
- Relevance – You likely get shown many irrelevant ads based on limited data collection.
- Data ownership – You should have control over how much of your data is shared.
- Speed – Limiting tracking results in faster page load times.
- Battery life – Blocking certain trackers reduces energy usage on mobile.
While seeing relevant ads can sometimes be useful, most users feel the cons of excessive tracking outweigh the pros. Limiting ad tracking helps you take control of your privacy and browsing experience.
How you’re tracked across devices
Many users don’t realize the extent that companies track them across different devices. Here are some ways advertisers connect your data across smartphones, tablets, computers, and more:
- Syncing cookies – Cookies placed on one device get synced to your other devices via your account logins.
- Fingerprinting – Your browser fingerprint pieces together data across devices to identify you.
- Account linking – Data brokers link together your accounts and profiles on various platforms.
- Location tracking – Your position derived from one device reveals usage across your devices.
- Bought data – Data companies purchase and combine disparate data sets to make broader connections.
This broad data collection results in an alarmingly comprehensive profile of your activities, even across separate devices. Limiting tracking is important not just on individual devices, but across all the connected devices you use.
How you’re tracked across websites
Advertisers not only track you device to device, but across all the websites and services you use. Some ways this occurs include:
- Affiliate ad networks – Many websites run ads through the same large affiliate networks, like Google Ads.
- Social media buttons – Buttons for sharing on social media profiles allow tracking across sites.
- Synchronized cookies – Cookies are synced across sites to log your browser history.
- Buying web histories – Data brokers purchase browsing data from various sources and merge it.
- Browser fingerprinting – Your browser fingerprint allows companies to find you across sites.
Limiting these tools for cross-site tracking gives you control over how much of your browse history is exposed.
Popular ad tracking techniques
Now that we’ve looked at how prevalent ad tracking is across devices and sites, let’s examine some of the most common specific tracking techniques used:
Cookies
Cookies are files that sites place on your device to store browsing information. While required for basic site functionality, third-party cookies are heavily used for ad targeting. Limiting third-party cookie tracking is a key step for reducing ads following you.
Web beacons
Tiny 1×1 pixel images hidden on sites and in ads ping back to advertisers to monitor your activity. Disabling web beacons cuts off another means for following your actions.
Browser fingerprinting
By analyzing factors like your device type, browser, software versions, and more, browsers generate a unique fingerprint profile to track you. Private browsing limits the ability to fingerprint your device.
Like buttons
Buttons for liking or sharing content on social networks allow sites to monitor your visits and interests. Removing them removes a key tracking vector.
These are just a few examples of common methods. Let’s look at steps you can take to reduce tracking by advertisers.
Browser settings to limit ad tracking
One of the easiest ways to limit various forms of ad tracking is through your browser settings. Here are some key browser privacy settings to check:
Enable Do Not Track
Do Not Track is an HTTP header requesting sites not track your activity. Support is limited but it’s quick to enable in your browser settings.
Block third-party cookies
Blocking third-party cookies prevents activity tracking across sites by external ad servers. This limits cross-site tracking.
Clear cookies and site data
Regularly clearing out cookies removes those used for tracking ads and building profiles.
Disable location access
Disallow sites from accessing your location to limit location tracking-based targeting.
Enable private/incognito browsing
Private browsing limits many tracking methods and doesn’t save your history. Browse in incognito mode when possible.
Adjust these and other privacy settings to take control of your browser data.
Other methods to limit ad tracking
In addition to browser-based controls, other options for reducing tracking include:
- Use a VPN or Tor browser to mask your IP address and location.
- Clear cookies and cache regularly to remove tracking files.
- Disable personalized ads on platforms like Google and social media.
- Opt out of data broker registries that build ad profiles.
- Use an ad/script blocker like uBlock Origin to prevent tracking code from loading.
Combining multiple methods gives you layered protection against excessive ad targeting.
How to remove ad tracking cookies
Now let’s look specifically at how to find and remove the cookies used for ad tracking:
Check your cookies
First, open your browser cookies manager to view saved cookies. Look for any from unknown third-parties.
Identify ad/tracking cookies
Look for cookies from companies like Google, Facebook, and ad networks. These are used for targeting.
Remove unwanted cookies
Delete any cookies you want gone. You can remove all or just certain companies you don’t want tracking you.
Set cookie permissions
Change permissions to block third-party or all cookies. This prevents unwanted cookies from being placed at all.
Checking and clearing your cookies regularly limits persistence of tracking cookies.
How to browse without being tracked
If you want to take browsing privacy to the next level, here are a few tips for browsing without being tracked:
- Use a privacy-focused browser like Firefox Focus or Tor.
- Install browser anti-tracking extensions like Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin.
- Enable a VPN to hide your IP address and location.
- Disable cookies, location access, and other tracking permissions.
- Never sign into browser accounts to avoid syncing identifiers.
- Browse in private/incognito windows as much as possible.
Combining multiple privacy techniques makes you far less susceptible to tracking while browsing.
How to avoid targeted ads without blocking
Some users want to avoid targeted ads but don’t want to outright block ads or use an ad blocker. Here are a few tips:
- Opt out of personalized ads – Most ad networks like Google and Facebook allow you to disable personalized ad targeting in account settings or by visiting opt-out pages.
- Limit ad tracking settings – Browsers like Chrome and Firefox let you disable ad personalization and tracking in options/settings.
- Use private browsing – Private browser windows prevent many types of tracking needed for targeted ads.
- Clear cookies regularly – Deleting cookies removes those used to infer your interests.
- Mask location – Disabling location access in browsers limits location-based targeting.
These steps allow seeing more general, untargeted ads while limiting promos aimed at your personal tastes.
Should I always block ads and trackers?
While limiting ad tracking improves privacy, some argue that totally blocking ads and trackers causes problems:
- Website owners often rely on ad revenue to fund operations. Excessive blocking cuts into their business model.
- You may miss out on deals and promotions an ad might make you aware of.
- Completely anonymizing yourself online can limit services’ usability.
- Strict anti-tracking makes training AI and delivering better recommendations difficult.
Given these tradeoffs, a balanced approach is wise for most:
- Limit third-party tracking like cross-site cookies and fingerprinting which have minimal upside.
- Use private browsing when you want strict privacy from a website.
- Consider supporting sites you value by allowing their first-party ads.
- Fine tune blocker settings to find an acceptable compromise for each site.
Finding the right balance for you enhances privacy while still supporting quality sites.
Conclusion
Ad tracking has grown rampant, but users are becoming more privacy conscious. With knowledge of how you’re tracked and tools to limit it, you can browse more securely and take control of your data. Employing methods like changing browser settings, disabling tracking permissions, using blockers, and clearing cookies puts you back in charge of your privacy.