1. Tracking the Trackers
A Digital Methods Summer School 2013 Workshop
Anne Helmond (UvA) & Alexei Miagkov (Ghostery)

2. One action, many data points
“For every explicit action of a user, there are
probably 100+ implicit data points from
usage; whether that is a page visit, a scroll
etc.” (Berry 2011: 152)

3. Hitting & tracking
Every time a web user requests a
website, a series of tracking
features are enabled.

4. Hitting & tracking
Every time a web user requests a
website, a series of tracking
features are enabled.
Workshop objective: Tracking the
trackers.

5. Cookies
• (HTML) Cookies are a string of text or a
unique identifier downloaded to your browser
after requesting a website.
• Cookies do not share data about the user,
but recognise returning visits/requests.
• Every time the associated website is
visited, information is send to the cookie
owner.

6. Cookies
• Can be issued by requested website.
• But can also come from third party
providers: ad companies, analytics services,
social media platforms.
Multiple purposes
• Remember site preferences.
• Collect information to enhance usability of
site.
• Part of secure logins.
• User profiling across sites (ad services).
• Behavioural targeting.
• Additional user data for platform.

7. Cookies & dataflows
• Tracking devices enable behavioural
targeting.
• Not only happen in the back-end, return to
users through personalised ads &
recommendations.

8. Tracking ecologies
• Tracking data is used & re-used by multiple actors.
• Profiling, reselling, personalisation, recommendation, behaviour
targeting, re-combination...
• Profiling machines (Elmer 2004), qualculation (Thrift 2008), de- &
recomposition of relations (Mackenzie 2012).
• Part of multiple relational databases: Not individual datasets or
datapoints matter, but relations created between them (Mackenzie
2012).

9. Cookie auctions & piggybacking
• Cookies are not only being used by the services that
issues them.
• Real-time reselling & cookie auctions for personalised
advertising (Borgesius 2012).
• Cookies trigger further tracking devices & let them
piggyback - websites do not exactly know which services
collect data about their visitors.

10. Social media platform cookies
• Platform features (Facebook Connect, Twitter Buttons,
etc) can place cookies.
• Data can be connected to existing user profiles or
collected and used upon sign-up.
• Facebook: Cookies not used for ads. Twitter: used for
ads & recommendations.
• All web users are potential platform users & contribute
to its data mining practices.

11. Beyond cookies
• Flash cookies: Used on Flash websites.
• Server logs: Saving requests to the website’s server
usually include: IP, date/time, referral page, time spend
and pages visited.
• Beacons: Small, mostly invisible objects (pixels, bugs)
embedded in websites or emails. Enables third parties
to identify website requests. Do not place a file on the
browser.
• Widgets: Small applications that can be implemented
and executed on websites, i.e. social media or blog
widgets.

12. Tracking blockers
Ghostery: Detects and allows to block the invisible web.
• Allows to selectively enable/disable cookies,
advertising, beacons etc.
• Users can opt to contribute to Ghostrank: analytics on
the most dominant tracking devices online.
• Detecting over 1000 trackers.

13. Visualising trackers
Mozilla Collusion: Creates a network of
browsed sites and associated tracking
services for users in real time while
browsing.
• Visualises which services are tracking
users and how they are connected to other
websites visited.

14. Tracking blockers
Disconnect.me: Blocks and visualises
trackers. Especially disables social widgets
and personalised advertising.
• Disables Facebook Social Plugins/
recommendation features.

15. Tracking blockers
Mozilla Do Not Track: Firefox
feature which allows users to
tell websites that they want to
opt out of third-party tracking
services.
• Transmits a Do Not Track
HTTP whenever data is
requested.
• Requires tracking services to
offer opt out: Works for Twitter,
but not for Facebook.

16. Tracking projects & research
Tracking the trackers
(Guardian): User generated
tracking map based on Mozilla
Collusion data.
• Covers 7000 websites and
features insights into the data
shared by most prominent
tracking services.
• Limitations: user generated,
random set of URLs.

17. Tracking projects & research
Cookie Search Engine
(German): Detects first and
third party cookies on URLs.
• Provides list of cookies, their
domain, security options and
expiry date.

18. Tracking projects & research
Visipisi: Deploys cookies to detect which
websites have recently been visited.

19. DMI: Tracker Tracker
• Objective: detecting interfaces to the cloud and
data-mining features operating in the back-end.
• Repurpose analytical capacities of Ghostery to
detect presence of tracking devices on websites.
• Input list of URL, output: list of trackers &
network formatted data.

20. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Allows to detect alternative fabric
of the web - not organised by
mutual linking practices between
webmasters, but through the
presence of tracking devices.

21. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Websites using Facebook Social
Plugins and Facebook Connect in
the top 1000 global websites
according to Alexa, February
2012

22. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Websites using Google Analytics
in the top 1000 global websites
according to Alexa, February
2012

23. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Presence of Trackers on
websites of Dutch
political parties, June
2012.

24. Tracking exercise
1. Collect a set of URLs, for instance via www.alexa.com.
Use the Link Ripper to extract them.
2. Enter the list into the Tracker Tracker tool (max 100).
Settings: Only look at specific pages.
3. Save .gefx file.
4. Open in Gephi, use colour settings to visually distinguish
different tracking services.

25. Questions?