the.com/tracking
The internet remembers everything you pretend to forget.
means The continuous collection of data about what you do, click, and buy, usually so advertisers can follow you around the internet.
from From 'track' meaning to follow footprints or a trail left by a person or animal, rooted in Old French 'trac' (a trace or track). The leap from hunting game through a forest to hunting behavior through a browser is a modern one — the digital sense is just the old word for pursuit, pointed at you instead of a deer.
- first cookie
- Created in 1994 to remember shopping carts, not stalk you
- fingerprinting
- Tracks you even with cookies fully disabled
- average site
- Loads dozens of hidden trackers before you click anything
- GPS origin
- Built by the military, repurposed to track delivery drivers