Ghostery is a Firefox add-on with a Zen simplicity: it tells you who’s watching you, via ad networks and “web bugs.” It doesn’t try to stop them from watching you, or do anything about it. It just lets you know. Which is somehow even creepier than doing something about it…. “Oh, Google Analytics knows you visited this page. Quantcast is watching you visit this page. Tacoda and WebTrends both know you visited this page.”
It’s an unassuming little box in the upper right hand corner of the web page. It disappears after a few seconds. No big deal. Easy to miss it.
On this page, on goesping.org, it tells you google adsense and doubleclick are both watching you. Since I put the ads on these pages. I don’t think I’ve ever made so much as a penny from them. Checking… nope, never a penny. Maybe it’s time to give up on that experiment. Turn down the creep factor a notch.
Hi,
I’m the author of Ghostery. Thanks for trying it out.
Just so you know I’m currently working on v2.0 which will add blocking and information on what these web bugs actually are.
Thanks again,
David
Interesting. May install it for creepy fun.
It is creepy isn’t it? You’re one of the few blogs I’ve seen without any ‘ghosts’, I’ve seen some with more than ten!