TIL a simple Firefox extension blocked 14 tracker cookies on a single news article

3 comments

3 Comments

Wait, hold on - did you seriously say 14 cookies blocked on just ONE news article? That's insane to me. I mean, I knew news sites were bad with tracking, but 14 separate trackers for one page? That feels like overkill even for the worst offenders. Makes you wonder what they're even doing with all that data. Sorry, but I can't wrap my head around why a news article needs to know that much about who's reading it. It's just wild.

juliarodriguez8d ago

Do people really think extensions are the whole solution here?

finleyl398d ago

Jumping in here @juliarodriguez because I've seen this play out at a few small nonprofits I deliver mail for. Extensions might help with one specific problem, like blocking trackers or filling in a form, but they don't fix the bigger mess of how data gets collected in the first place. A buddy of mine runs a local food pantry and they just use a basic browser extension for their donation page, but the real hassle is getting people to stop sharing their email with every random signup. So yeah, extensions are a band-aid on a broken leg in my book.