Trackers and HTTP requests
In the first part of this lesson, we will be talking about trackers and which ones exist. Then we will move over to HTTP requests, then services such as Facebook, Google, and Hotjar, and lastly, we will talk about ads. Each subject in this lesson is important because each one plays a big part in being the problem.
Trackers
If you are a web designer or website owner, then you are most likely familiar with the expression “tracker.” I don’t think anyone out there hasn’t been using some tracker on their website, whether it is Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or Hotjar. There is an ocean of different services out there. Some are popular; others are not. Some of them promise to be lightweight, while others are very heavy. Some even promise not to share any of the information gathered on your website (Whether that is trustable is something I will let you decide). Some services cost a monthly fee and others are free. I have always been told that nothing in this world is truly free, so even the free services cost in one way or another.
Two types of trackers exist on the internet, each with a unique purpose.
Analytics: Website owners, developers, and marketing people like to know how their website is doing and how many people are visiting it. The analytics tracker helps them figure that out. By looking at the statistics, they can see how many people visited the website, which pages they were looking at, how long they spent, and where they come from in the world.
Advertising: Trackers specialized in advertising listen to what you are searching for and what you are interested in. When you visit a website selling aquarium fish, you will likely see ads on other websites you visit afterward. Trackers focusing on ads will serve you ads you are interested in and hope you will purchase.
Now that we have established which trackers exist, let’s look at what kind of information they save about you. Trackers are not only saving the things that you like, and if you thought so, then you are in for a treat. Information is an industry; the more information you have about a person, the more valuable you are.
Browsing habits: Trackers keep track of the websites you visit and how long you look at them. They might also save information about which ads you have been clicking on in order to help them build a profile on you.
IP address: Trackers are saving your IP address which is very valuable to them when trying to figure out which websites you have been looking at. Using the IP address, they can also pin your location to a specific city, for example.
Personal Information: Trackers are saving your personal information. This could, for example, come from information you type on a website, such as your name, age, and gender. Information such as this helps them build a profile on you.
An industry of data
Now that you know more about what type of trackers are saving you and your website visitors’ information, let’s talk about the obvious. There is an industry out there entirely based on data. Your information and the information of those people visiting your website are worth money. By connecting data from different websites, they can build a complete profile on you containing all the information they need to serve you ads that will make you spend money. If you look at data profiles from companies such as Google or Facebook, I bet they know you better than you know yourself. Imagine that every time you type something on the internet, visit a website, purchase something, or even what you like on social media, it gets analyzed and attached to your profile. All of this data has one purpose and one purpose only; To know what products or services they have the highest chance of selling you.
Facebook
Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, and the biggest part of its revenue comes from advertisements. They have a whole section where you can pay to advertise on their platform, and what better place to do it? Millions of people voluntarily sign up, give out tons of personal information, and share about their everyday life.
Google
Google search engine is the most used website in the world, and they collect an incredible amount of data from the things people search for. On top of that, Google invented Android, which is used in most phones today, and they are also one of the most popular email services and cloud storage providers. The website, services, and products produce data they can use against you.
Paypal
Everyone knows Paypal, a highly popular payment solution, for many years. Different types of people are using them. Some are freelancers, others are companies, and many are even civilians. Paypal is one of the biggest, and because of that, they can gather lots of information about what people buy.
Now that I am sure you know what trackers are and what they are up to, it is time to discuss why you should exclude them from your website. I can give you many reasons why trackers are a terrible idea, but I only have space to list a few of the most important ones. To start with, we can state the obvious. Trackers produce an incredible amount of data, and all of this data must be sent somewhere and stored. A tracker starts by listing down information about you, then sends it to its “master,” where it is going to be added to the profile they already have on you. Listing the data requires energy, sending it requires both energy and HTTP requests, and saving it involves hardware. It might not sound so bad, but if you look at it from a bigger perspective, then we are talking about lots of energy and hardware. A company such as Facebook—or Meta as they are called—now has approximately 2.85 billion users.
For each user, they save the information that you choose to give them in your profile, everything you have ever shared on your profile, and all the tracking data from every website you have visited. Now we are starting to paint a picture, and just to clarify it, we are talking about hundreds of petabytes. Imagine how many hard drives they have to buy and maintain. Imagine how much electricity is used to keep this information about you. It is at a scale that is even hard to imagine. The next reason trackers should be removed from your website is that they steal personal information about you. I often discuss this with people because they do not always see it immediately. I always get the answer: “I don’t have anything to hide.” And my answer is always, “You don’t have to have something to hide.”
Let’s imagine that you are sitting in your living room watching something on Netflix. Outside the window is a person noting down everything you do on paper. You look at this person and notice that everything is listed down. Is that okay? No, right? But does it make a difference that it is a physical person stalking you in open sight outside your window or if it is hidden on the internet? It doesn’t make a difference because your information is still your information. You don’t want people to stalk you, and that doesn’t change just because it is on the internet. If you don’t like my example, I can give you another one. Please give me the password to your private email account. Let me get access to read all of your emails, even the private ones, including some of the embarrassing medicine you bought or the ones about an affair you have had. To make it worse, let me publish it on the internet for everyone to see. That is what you approve of when you have trackers on your website. A tracker won’t read your emails, but they take the information they can during your visit.
