Everyone is concern about privacy and security online, and online tracking is a problem that has worried internet net users for many years. Cookies are used by web sites and advertisers to build up a profile of your online activity, and there is often no way of knowing just how this information will be used. Ghostery is a browser extension that is available for Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari that can be used to discover exactly what information particular web sites are tracking about you and back control.

• Ghostery For Edge 7
• Ghostery For Edge Beta
• Ghostery For Edge Reddit

Yea that's definitely not intended behavior. Our next release (v8.4.7) cleans things up for the new Chromium Edge. Can you try turning off notifications as I mentioned previously (Ghostery settings Notifications turn off the first four options) to see if that helps temporarily?

• Microsoft Edge already has a couple of good extensions such as AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, OneNote Web Clipper, Save to Pocket, and much more. Now, Ghostery, one of the most widely used extensions will be coming to Edge soon. According to Ghostery, the company’s Edge extensions is currently in beta now, and it’s being tested internally.
• Ghostery is a powerful privacy extension. Block ads, stop trackers and speed up websites. Block ads Ghostery’s built-in ad blocker removes advertisements from a webpage to eliminate clutter so you can focus on the content you want.
• Ghostery gives away browser-specific ad and tracker blocking for free. The biggest feature you get with the commercial Midnight is the privacy protection of a Virtual Private Network, or VPN.

The add-on reveals all of the tracking features that can be hidden in the pages you visit and identifies the companies responsible for them. You are then equipped with the information you need to conduct online research about the companies in question and discover more about their privacy policies and how they use the information they track.

While this is useful information, the key feature of Ghostery is the fact that it enables you to block these tracking features. The simple popup interface makes it easy to block cookies and other tracking files, as well as scripts and any files that have been added locally. Ghostery can block tracking components from a growing list of companies to ensure protection against all of the latest tracking methods.

The Firefox, Chrome and Safari versions of the tool will detect tracker scripts, img tags, and iframes from over 500 data collection services, but Edge and Internet Explorer users will find that the add-on is less useful simply because of the way the browser works.

Verdict:

Anyone who uses the internet is right to be concerned about privacy, and Ghostery provides an easy way to remain in control.

Ghostery is a free and open-sourceprivacy and security-related browser extension and mobile browser application. Since February 2017, it has been owned by the German company Cliqz International GmbH (formerly owned by Evidon, Inc., which was previously called Ghostery, Inc. and the Better Advertising Project).^[5][6] The code was originally developed by David Cancel and associates.

Ghostery enables its users to detect and control JavaScript 'tags' and 'trackers' in order to remove JavaScript bugs and beacons that are embedded in many web pages which allow for the collection of a user's browsing habits via HTTP cookies, as well as participating in more sophisticated forms of tracking such as canvas fingerprinting.

As of 2017, Ghostery is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari, iOS, Android, and Firefox for Android.

Additionally, Ghostery's privacy team creates profiles of page elements and companies for educational purposes.^[7][8]

Functionality[edit]

Blocking[edit]

Ghostery blocks HTTP requests and redirects according to their source address in several ways:

1. Blocking third-party tracking scripts that are used by websites to collect data on user behavior for advertising, marketing, site optimization, and security purposes. These scripts, also known as 'tags' or 'trackers', are the underlying technology that places tracking cookies on consumers' browsers.
2. Continuously curating a 'script library' that identifies when new tracking scripts are encountered on the Internet and automatically blocking them.^[8]
3. Creating 'Whitelists' of websites where third-party script blocking is disabled and other advanced functionality for users to configure and personalize their experience.

When a tracker is blocked, any cookie that the tracker has placed is not accessible to anyone but the user and thus cannot be read when called upon.^[9][10]

Reporting[edit]

Ghostery reports all tracking packages detected, and whether Ghostery has blocked them or not, in a 'findings window' accessible from clicking on the Ghostery Icon in the browser. When configured, Ghostery also displays the list of trackers present on the page in a temporary purple overlay box.^[11]

History and use[edit]

Originally developed by David Cancel, Ghostery was acquired by Evidon^[12] (renamed Ghostery, Inc.) in January 2010. Ghostery is among the most popular browser extensions for privacy protection. In 2014, Edward Snowden suggested consumers use Ghostery along with other tools to protect their online privacy.^[13]Ghostery, Inc. made their software source code open for review in 2010, but did not release further versions of the source code after that. On February 22, 2016, the company released the EULA for the Ghostery browser extension, as a proprietary closed-source product.

Cliqz GmbH acquired Ghostery from Evidon Inc. in February 2017.^[14] Cliqz is a German company majority-owned by Hubert Burda Media. Ghostery no longer shares data of any kind with Evidon.

On March 8, 2018, Ghostery shifted back to an open source development model and published their source code on GitHub,^[15] saying that this would allow third-party contributions as well as make the software more transparent in its operations. The company said that Evidon's business model 'was hard to understand and lent itself to conspiracy theories', and that its new monetization strategy would involve affiliate marketing and the sale of ad analytics data.^[16][17]

Ghostery For Edge 7

In May 2018, in the distribution of an email promoting changes to Ghostery's practices to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), hundreds of user email addresses were accidentally leaked by listing them as recipients. Ghostery apologized for the incident, stating that they stopped the distribution of the email when they noticed the error, and reported that this was caused by a new in-house email system that accidentally sent the message as a single email to many recipients, rather than sending it individually to each user.^[18][19]

Criticism[edit]

Under its former owner Evidon, Ghostery had an opt-in feature called GhostRank. GhostRank could be enabled to 'support' its privacy function. GhostRank took note of ads encountered and blocked, then sent that information back to advertisers so they could better formulate their ads to avoid being blocked.^[20] Though Ghostery claims that the data is anonymized, patterns of web page visits cannot truly be anonymized.^[21] Not everyone sees Evidon's business model as conflict-free. Jonathan Mayer, a Stanford graduate student and privacy advocate, has said: 'Evidon has a financial incentive to encourage the program's adoption and discourage alternatives like Do Not Track and cookie blocking as well as to maintain positive relationships with intrusive advertising companies'.^[22]

Ghostery For Edge Beta

Since July 2018, with version 8.2, Ghostery shows advertisements of its own to users.^[23] Burda claims that the advertisements do not send personal data back to their servers and that they do not create a personal profile.^[24]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Releases · ghostery/ghostery-extension', GitHub, February 18, 2019
2. ^'Releases · ghostery/browser-android', GitHub, February 17, 2019
3. ^'Ghostery Privacy Browser on the App Store'. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
4. ^'ghostery/ghostery-extension'. GitHub.
5. ^'CLIQZ and Ghostery join forces to defend your privacy'. CLIQZ. February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
6. ^Ghostery Team. 'wbteck'.
7. ^'wbteck.com'.
8. ^ ^abAttacking Tracking: They're Watching You (Video). Fox News. March 15, 2011.
9. ^'Third-Party Cookies vs First-Party Cookies'. Opentracker. Opentracker. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
10. ^'Prevent 3rd party script from setting cookies (specifically Google adsense)'. Stack Overflow. July 29, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
11. ^'wbteck'. www.ghostery.com. Ghostery, Inc. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
12. ^Pierce, Jon (2010). 'Github - Ghostery Source Code'. Github. Ghostery, Inc. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
13. ^Storm, Darlene (March 10, 2014). 'Snowden at SXSW: We need better encryption to save us from the surveillance state'. www.computerworld.com. computerworld. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
14. ^'Private search browser Cliqz buys Ghostery ad-tracker tool'. techcrunch.com. February 15, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
15. ^'Ad-Blocker Ghostery Just Went Open Source—And Has a New Business Model'. wired.com. March 8, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
16. ^'This tool to block web tracking software just went open-source so you see exactly what it's up to'. CNET. March 8, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
17. ^Conger, Kate. 'Ad Blocker Ghostery Is Going Open Source to Win Back Some Privacy Points'. Gizmodo. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
18. ^Dellinger, AJ. 'Ad Blocker Ghostery Celebrates GDPR Day by Revealing Hundreds of User Email Addresses'. Gizmodo. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
19. ^'Ghostery Email Incident Update'. Ghostery. May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
20. ^Henry, Alan. 'Ad-Blocker Ghostery Actually Helps Advertisers, If You 'Support' It'. LifeHacker.com. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
21. ^Hill, Kashmir (August 1, 2012). 'How Your Browsing History Is Like A Fingerprint'. Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
22. ^Simonite, Tom (June 17, 2013). 'Popular Ad Blocker Also Helps the Ad Industry'. Mashable. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
23. ^'Ghostery FAQ - What is Ghostery Rewards?'.
24. ^'Ghostery-Erweiterung blendet Werbung ein'. Heise (in German).

External links[edit]

Ghostery For Edge Reddit