the.com/tracker
The internet never forgets, and now it takes notes on everything you do.
means A tool or piece of code that follows and records what you do — where you go, what you click, how long you linger — so someone else can build a profile of your behavior.
from From 'track,' rooted in the idea of following footprints or a trail left in the ground — hunters and scouts 'tracked' game long before anyone imagined digital trails. The '-er' turns the verb into 'the one who does the following.' By the 20th century 'tracking' extended to radar, shipments, and eventually software that follows your clicks the way a hound follows a scent — the wilderness metaphor never really left, it just moved indoors.
- average per site
- most websites run 5 to 10 trackers silently
- first one
- the HTTP cookie, invented 1994, by Lou Montulli
- invisible pixel
- 1x1 images that exist only to spy
- not just ads
- analytics, fonts, and 'like' buttons track you too