Once installed, Do Not Track Plus and Ghostery are showed as icons on the upper right corner of the browser just like two simple extensions. Anytime we visit a webpage a number says us how many invisible online trackers are monitoring our navigation. When the DNT+ icon is clicked the window below opened showing three categories of companies.
1) Thanks to social buttons included on websites, social networks are able to monitor all our web activities. The application locks the sharing functions showing a fake icon instead. If needed we can easily unlock it with just a double click.
2) The ad networks are publisher providers, their business is to connect companies with any web space available to host advertisements. They are able to show targeted content collecting private data and placing cookies.
3) Tracking companies provide websites with tools able to track and analyze users navigation for statistical purpose. Google Analytic is only the most famous. An updated index is available on Abine website, the company that created the application.
But how does Do Not Track Plus work? In a very simple way. It sets on computer non-personally-identifiable and temporary cookies (opt-out) that stop the handshaking between server and browser advising third-party domains do not deliver targeted advertisements.
Ghostery doesn't show any category but the knowledge page is definitely more accurate. Clicking on more info, users are redirected to a complete tracker profile and its privacy policy.
"There is a huge difference between sharing personal information and having it taken", says the Abine about page. Its aim is to see, in the future, the functionality of their tools incorporated into the browsers. Anyway the privacy war is just started.
