Why are they tracking me?

So now you know that every time you use your computer or phone, your behaviour is being tracked. But why are they doing this? And is it something to really be worried about?

Does private browsing keep me safe?

Your browser probably has a "private browsing" or "incognito" mode. Does this protect you from the pervasive tracking that is common on the web nowadays? Private browsing means that

Cookies and more

So a web page is built out of many different files - the HTML, the stylesheets, the Javascripts, the images and possibly many more. Often, all these files live on the same server.

How web browsers work

This is a very simplified view of how a web browser works, but it should be enough to explain how web tracking works. When you click a link - for example https://somesite.

How tracking works

People are becoming more and more aware that their activities online are being tracked. But how does it work? The other day my wife mentioned that she had been looking up some information
@rahoulb@ruby.social