Ghostery extension is an impressive privacy extension tool that blocks ads, speeds up a website, and stops trackers. After installing the browser extension and visiting the most frequently accessed sites, there were 45 trackers. The Ghostery extension had blocked some of these from displaying. The trackers collected included the sites I had visited before when doing online shopping, ads about dating sites, and advertisements about joining social media sites. These blocked trackers were related to what I had searched for on the chrome browser.
After getting a detailed report about the trackers blocked from the Ghostery extension report by visiting five websites, I learned that online companies exploit personal data for profit. Online companies collect personal data and use it to track private online activities, such as purchases, social life status, and other personal data. They use the collected individual information to make advertisements on sites that one visits without their consent.
Technology sites and online companies usually collect people’s data, but sometimes they fail to gather their full story information. For example, Brockell (2018) said that she was happy when she used to get advertisements related to pregnancy. She is annoyed that the online companies did not stop sending her ads about purchasing baby clothes after her child’s death. The audience data collection companies must have measures to enable customer tracking of information to provide the right promotions. This will prevent hurting people’s feelings, as experienced by Brockell. The safety of individuals while online is threatened by technology companies collecting information without consent. Ghostery extension warrants the privacy and safety of personal information.
References
Brockell, G. (2018). Dear tech companies, I don’t want to see pregnancy ads anymore.Washington Post. Web.