Who's Watching You on the Web?
Ever wanted to have instant information about any trackers used by a website you visit? Then take a look at Ghostery, a Firefox extension that alerts you to any Web Bugs present on a site by placing a Pac-Man type icon in your status bar and providing a list of all trackers found.
Currently tracking 115 web bugs, ad networks and trackers, Ghostery is a simple extension that works by searching for patterns in the source code of pages you visit. With all the matching happening in your browser, you can rest assured it won't be grabbing your data - remember, it's been made to give you information.
An icon is displayed in your browser status bar when a tracker is identified
Ghostery lists all trackers found on a site
Ghostery 1.3.1 has been given a clean bill of health by Softpedia meaning it is free of spyware, adware and viruses. Designed by David Cancel, the product is relatively new so feel free to offer suggestions and as always, please let us know what you think.
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Tried it out and it's pretty cool. Most of the websites use the obvious like DoubleClick, OpenAds, Google Analytics. Some services I didn't know yet.
Just for curiosity I will install this FF add-on, but I don't think that it would serve well for the paranoid mind. It's common knowledge to the vast majority of experienced surfers that there are trackers of all types including but not limited to ad trackers and government agencies with a fare amount of malicious adware and spyware. Browsers need to keep up with this constant infringement and to a great extent do a fair job in dealing with malicious hackers. I wonder of the limitations of this plugin, for instance can it detect above and beyond your firewall any spyware and other harmful viruses. Time will tell.
Thanks’ for the read
Love it!
Bill, check out the list of web bugs it detects: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9609
This isn't something meant to replace blacklists and protect you from malicious sites. It's a useful tool for the curious; those with an interest in trackers/web bugs, ad networks, widgets.
Well done, David!
I added this a while ago, haven't tested with the newest update that came recently, but it missed a large majority of the major ad networks and focuses primarily on analytic tracking.
All,
Thanks for checking out Ghostery! It's still quite new so it's constantly changing.
I have a new release going out this week that bumps the number of bugs detected up to over 140. I'm also adding preferences to let you customize Ghostery.
I really appreciate any feedback. If you have any web bugs you'd like added please send them along.
Cheers!
David
Thank you very good Pro My Thanks..
Great idea and helpful
Nat
www.halflet.com
David - You ROCK! We are in awe in your presence! :) Glad that RWW covered Ghostery - it does rock, and use it daily.
Rex