Track What Web Sites Are Using to Track You

I have a new favorite web tool: Ghostery. This web browser plug-in tells you all of the tracking systems running behind the scenes on web sites. I’ve seen it identify web analytics, ad serving systems, ad networks, behavioral targeting networks, rich media targeting technologies, and content syndication services. Some of the technologies I’ve noticed are Doubleclick, AddToAny, NetRatings SiteCensus, Google Analytics, MSN Ads, Fox Audience Network, Quantcast, OpenAds, Omniture, ComScore Beacon and Crowd Science … over 200 in all.

The tool was developed to help individuals see web technologies whose purpose is to track online behavior. It actually allows individuals to block any of these technologies and, in essence, “opt-out” of them. It’s now part of the larger Better Advertising Project — a company that is trying to bring greater transparency to online advertising and privacy issues.

Obviously, this technology can be disturbing for publishers who are trying to monetize the web sites they have spent so much time, money and effort to create. I’m not so concerned with the transparency of letting individuals see what technologies are being used, but in giving them the ability to opt-out of these technologies. Publishers are giving the public a content asset for free and have to make money somehow. As long as publishers are not correlating behavioral and usage data with personally identifiable information (PII), I personally don’t see a problem with privacy. But I also see the other side of the equation and there are publishers and ad networks that are building very large database of online behavior and correlating it with personal information such as contact information and offline buying habits.

And don’t think this doesn’t affect marketers and agencies. Marketers rely upon these kinds of technologies to determine which sites they should buy, track how people interact with their online advertising, set frequency caps and ad sequencing in their campaigns, analyze user interaction on their own web sites, and target their campaigns to the most promising demographics for the best return on investment. All of that can be undermined if users start opting out of tracking technologies en masse.

Granted, unless there is federal legislation mandating more stringent controls or requiring opt-in to tracking, or unless tools like Ghostery become commonplace and embedded by default in web browsers, it is unlikely that publishers and marketers will be affected on a large scale. However, the debate on user privacy online is endless and is going to be one of the primary issues in online media and marketing over the next couple of years.

However, there is a bright spot about Ghostery for publishers and marketers alike. Want to know what ad and metrics system a particular site employs? Want to know if they’re using 3rd party ad networks or content syndication systems? Ghostery is a great tool for that kind of competitive analysis. It works on FireFox, Internet Explorer and Chrome, so download it, install it, and see the results on your own site and other sites that you frequent. Very interesting competitive intelligence.

Ghostery in action on the Wall Street Journal site. Click for larger image.