So much has been said regarding how your online activities are being monitored and the possible ways of preventing websites from tracking you. If you wish to get a better understanding of just how widespread this issue is, you should get and install a Firefox extension called Collusion. It will display in real time, the websites that are monitoring you, the locations you picked up tracking cookies from them, plus the things they are able to see. This will really a help in your private browsing efforts.
After installing this Firefox extension, you will be able to see a map of trailing services that you have come in contact with plus the websites that you have been to with the trailing scripts and cookies on them and then seeing the results you might consider private browsing. After installing Collusion, you will not be required to restart your computer, and immediately the installation is complete, the Firefox add-on will open a tab and start drawing a map of the way you are being monitored while browsing the World Wide Web. You will discover that the majority of websites employ some sort of tracking cookies for social media, stats and adverts; however the trailing map can greatly increase in size, even after you have been browsing for only a few minutes. To know who the trailing service is, plus which websites you have been to that are linked to it, place your mouse pointer over any part of the map.
The services that have been verified by PrivacyChoice to trail you across several websites will be shown as dots in red. Unconfirmed services will be shown as dots in grey. Some of these services are not harmful (for example Disqus is a site that trails you across several websites so that you can make comments on write-ups) however, that is not to say that they are not watching you carefully to know what you are doing. Examine the list of websites linked with each dot to get a clear picture of which sites are getting what details about you. If your system already has some kind of anti tracking device and all you want is to check if your device is working properly, Collusion can do the quality check for you. If you have not been taking any measures for private browsing and you are concerned about the huge number of services monitoring what you are doing on the internet, you need to look at more detailed guides for shielding your privacy online for additional suggestions.
