Investigating Advertisement Trackers

Through our daily use of social media and internet platforms, we encounter hundreds of advertisements. These ads are not only disruptive to an efficient browsing experience but they are also a breach of privacy.

Today, I installed the Disconnect browser extension to investigate invisible third party trackers across eight websites. The sites I visited were:

• NPR.org

• NBCNEWS.com

• TRAVEL.gc.ca

• UNICEF.ca

• AMAZON.ca

• WALMART.ca

• INSTAGRAM.com

• BSKY.app

Of these sites, Amazon undoubtedly had the most trackers. This comes by no surprise, as Amazon is renowned for it's custom, targeted ads.

A screenshot of the Amazon homepage, revealing the number of trackers through the Disconnect browser extension (Haala Ahmed).

Overall, this exercise has been really eye-opening for me. While these trackers are often not made apparent, they're still in the woks behind the scene. Going forward, I'll make sure to continue using this extension for my personal protection.