As it relates to my browsing activities on the web, the assigned Track the Tracker exercise left me with a greater sense of empowerment; yet, at the same time, unease in terms of just how deep the rabbit hole of surveillance really goes.
I tried a few common sites such as LuluLemon, Patagonia, Drudge Report, Nordstrom and Reliable (my employer), and by far, the site connected to the most trackers was overwhelmingly Drudge Report. Drudge is a website that collects current news and information which like most private organizations, aligns with, and to a certain degree is biased with the worldview of Matt Drudge (owner). I suppose that any news or information hosting organization feeds off the advertisement time/space that they can sell; therefore, the personal interests which these trackers capture are extremely valuable to not only commercial enterprises, but also those eager to measure my political inclinations
In all trials to verify what sites are tracking my movements, almost all trackers were from websites that I did not visit. Again, with the illumination of new knowledge measuring what is happening behind the scenes as it relates to who is interested in my activity, I have a new perspective in terms of monitoring my own movements on the web. We know that cookies exist as mechanisms to store data in order to assist both the user and websites to speed up/pre-fill data transfer of information. In my Chrome browser, I learned that cookies are stored for 90 days; however, upon further investigation, I learned from the link below that “the average cookie is set to survive for 7000 years” (Derek, 2015); therefore, I intend to increase the regular practice of clearing those cookies.
Matt