Jarvis Johnson explains that big companies like Google and Facebook don’t need to listen in on you via your phone/tablet, because they already collect so much data on you that they can guess what ads might be relevant on that alone. I love the critical thinking aspect to this - it’s easy to oversimplify complex systems, because our brains aren’t good at understanding that many variables, but reality is not required to bend to our beliefs.
Relevant points [of disabling Disqus] are:
- Load-time goes from 6 seconds to 2 seconds.
- There are 105 network requests vs. 16.
- There are a lot of non-relevant requests going through to networks that will be tracking your movements.
Among the networks you can find:
disqus.com- Obviously!google-analytics.com- Multiple requests; no idea who’s capturing your movements.connect.facebook.net- If you’re logged into Facebook, they know you visit this site.accounts.google.com- Google will also map your visits to this site with any of your Google accounts.pippio.com- LiveRamp identify mapping for harvesting your details for commercial gain.bluekai.com- Identity tracking for marketing campaigns.crwdcntrl.net- Pretty suspect site listed as referenced by viruses and spyware.exelator.com- More identity and movement tracking site which even has a virus named after it!doubleclick.net- We all know this one: ad services and movement tracking, owned by Google.tag.apxlv.net- Very shady and tricky to pin-point an owner as they obsfuscate their domain (I didn’t even know this was a thing!). Adds a tracking pixel to your site.adnxs.com- More tracking garbage, albeit slightly more prolific.adsymptotic.com- Advertising and tracking that suppposedly uses machine learning.rlcdn.com- Obsfuscated advertising/tracking from Rapleaf.adbrn.com- “Deliver a personalized customer journey across devices, channels and platforms with Adbrain customer ID mapping technology.”nexac.com- Oracle’s Datalogix, their own tracking and behavioural pattern rubbish.tapad.com- OK, I cant’t be bothered to search to look this up anymore.liadm.com- More? Oh, ok, then…sohern.com- Yup. Tracking.demdex.net- Tracking. From Adobe.bidswitch.net- I’ll give you one guess…agkn.com- …mathtag.com- Curious name, maybe it’s… no. It’s tracking you.I can’t visit many of these sites because I have them blocked in uBlock Origin so information was gleaned from google crawl results of the webpages and 3rd parties. Needless to say, it’s a pretty disgusting insight into how certain free products turn you into the product. What’s more worrying are the services that go to lengths to hide who they are and what their purposes are for tracking your movements.
