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I’m disappointed
Guido March 25, 2012 20:36

Why doesn't Ghostery block/delete 1st-party cookies, too?

I just installed Ghostery for Safari after reading about it on Ghostery.com. On Ghostery's Website, no distinction is made between 1st- and 3rd-party trackers; in fact, the term 3rd-party isn't even mentioned. Rather, from how the information is presented, one would think that one could "detect," "learn" (about), and "control" (the setting of) trackers regardless of which company tries setting them. Apparently, however, as I've surmised from your support pages, this is not true.

To me, 1st-party information tracking can be just as nefarious and invasive as 3rd-party tracking. I would suggest that you either change your Website to make more limited and specific claims, or, preferably, broaden your software's functionality to do all that your site claims.

Ghostery seems like a great privacy tool, in principle. I also appreciate your making it available for free. It would be great, though, if it could live up to its promise.
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  • I’m ambivalent
    Guido March 25, 2012 23:01
    Hi Adam,

    Thank you for the prompt, coherent reply!

    In light of your remarks, I submit to you and the Ghostery product team these thoughts for consideration: The distinction between 1st- and 3rd-party trackers is a rather blurry one, especially since Web surfing often involves visiting sites about which one initially knows little or next to nothing. It is also not at all easy to circumvent 1st-party tracking under typical-use conditions (at least not in Safari), as blocking all cookies is too disabling and, with 1st-party cookies allowed, those from trusted sites must often be selectively preserved while trying to eradicate those from untrusted/unwanted sites. It's like looking for little pieces of straw in big stacks of needles.

    The problem with online information exchanges is not merely of non-transparency, but more generally of inequality: Sites set the terms of exchanges, and visitors often naively and powerlessly (and, yes, often blindly) "agree" to those terms.

    Ghostery, with the addition of 1st-party monitoring and control, would have the potential to further reduce that inequality by giving Web surfers more control over terms of exchanges—at least with respect to giving information away.

    (Frankly, I wouldn't mind giving a lot more information about myself away—even without being asked—if it would only stop advertisers from using crude demographic info to sell me crap that I wouldn't buy if they paid me....)

    I'm glad to hear that you're updating your site, though I'll be even happier when you update and broaden Ghostery's reach.

    Thanks for your consideration.
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    good point! good point! (undo)
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  • CHAMP
    Eric P. Scott March 25, 2012 23:13
    Webtrends is one of the troublemakers: http://help.webtrends.com/en/jstag/vi...
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    good point! good point! (undo)
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