In this short workshop you will learn how to map the cookie ecology related to a set of websites using the DMI Tracker Tracker tool and Gephi. The Tracker Tracker tool was conceived at the Digital Methods Winterschool 2012 in January. It is build on top of the anti-tracking plugin www.ghostery.com and allows to identify the invisible web, devices that track user activities online and the services associated to them. In order to prepare for this workshop we recommend reading the related projects and materials listed below. Please download and install Gephi at https://gephi.org/ before the workshop starts so you can also learn how to visualize your results. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WorkshopTrackingtheTrackers

1. Tracking the Trackers
A Digital Methods Summer School 2012 Workshop
Anne Helmond (UvA) & Carolin Gerlitz (Goldsmiths)

2. One action, many data points
“For every explicit action of a user, there are
probably 100+ implicit data points from
usage; whether that is a page visit, a scroll
etc.” (Berry 2011: 152)

3. Hitting & tracking
Every time a web user requests a
website, a series of tracking
features are enabled.

4. Hitting & tracking
Every time a web user requests a
website, a series of tracking
features are enabled.
Workshop objective: Tracking the
trackers.

5. Cookies
• (HTML) Cookies are a string of text or a
unique identifier downloaded to your browser
after requesting a website.
• Cookies do not share data about the user,
but recognise returning visits/requests.
• Every time the associated website is
visited, information is send to the cookie
owner.

6. Cookies
• Can be issued by requested website.
• But can also come from third party
providers: ad companies, analytics services,
social media platforms.
Multiple purposes
• Remember site preferences.
• Collect information to enhance usability of
site.
• Part of secure logins.
• User profiling across sites (ad services).
• Behavioural targeting.
• Additional user data for platform.

7. Cookies & dataflows
• Tracking devices enable behavioural
targeting.
• Not only happen in the back-end, return to
users through personalised ads &
recommendations.

8. Tracking ecologies
• Tracking data is used & re-used by multiple actors.
• Profiling, reselling, personalisation, recommendation, behaviour
targeting, re-combination...
• Profiling machines (Elmer 2004), qualculation (Thrift 2008), de- &
recomposition of relations (Mackenzie 2012).
• Part of multiple relational databases: Not individual datasets or
datapoints matter, but relations created between them (Mackenzie
2012).

9. Cookie auctions & piggybacking
• Cookies are not only being used by the services that
issues them.
• Real-time reselling & cookie auctions for personalised
advertising (Borgesius 2012).
• Cookies trigger further tracking devices & let them
piggyback - websites do not exactly know which services
collect data about their visitors.

10. Social media platform cookies
• Platform features (Facebook Connect, Twitter Buttons,
etc) can place cookies.
• Data can be connected to existing user profiles or
collected and used upon sign-up.
• Facebook: Cookies not used for ads. Twitter: used for
ads & recommendations.
• All web users are potential platform users & contribute
to its data mining practices.

11. Beyond cookies
• Flash cookies: Used on Flash websites.
• Server logs: Saving requests to the website’s server
usually include: IP date/time, referral page, time spend
,
and pages visited.
• Beacons: Small, mostly invisible objects (pixels, bugs)
embedded in websites or emails. Enables third parties
to identify website requests. Do not place a file on the
browser.
• Widgets: Small applications that can be implemented
and executed on websites, i.e. social media or blog
widgets.

12. Tracking blockers
Ghostery: Detects and allows to block the invisible web.
• Allows to selectively enable/disable cookies,
advertising, beacons etc.
• Users can opt to contribute to Ghostrank: analytics on
the most dominant tracking devices online.
• Detecting over 1000 trackers.

13. Visualising trackers
Mozilla Collusion: Creates a network of
browsed sites and associated tracking
services for users in real time while
browsing.
• Visualises which services are tracking
users and how they are connected to other
websites visited.

14. Tracking blockers
Disconnect.me: Blocks and visualises
trackers. Especially disables social widgets
and personalised advertising.
• Disables Facebook Social Plugins/
recommendation features.

15. Tracking blockers
Mozilla Do Not Track: Firefox
feature which allows users to
tell websites that they want to
opt out of third-party tracking
services.
• Transmits a Do Not Track
HTTP whenever data is
requested.
• Requires tracking services to
offer opt out: Works for Twitter,
but not for Facebook.

16. Tracking projects & research
Tracking the trackers
(Guardian): User generated
tracking map based on Mozilla
Collusion data.
• Covers 7000 websites and
features insights into the data
shared by most prominent
tracking services.
• Limitations: user generated,
random set of URLs.

17. Tracking projects & research
Cookie Search Engine
(German): Detects first and
third party cookies on URLs.
• Provides list of cookies, their
domain, security options and
expiry date.

18. Tracking projects & research
Visipisi: Deploys cookies to detect which
websites have recently been visited.

19. DMI: Tracker Tracker
• Objective: detecting interfaces to the cloud and
data-mining features operating in the back-end.
• Repurpose analytical capacities of Ghostery to
detect presence of tracking devices on websites.
• Input list of URL, output: list of trackers &
network formatted data.

20. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Allows to detect alternative fabric
of the web - not organised by
mutual linking practices between
webmasters, but through the
presence of tracking devices.

21. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Websites using Facebook Social
Plugins and Facebook Connect in
the top 1000 global websites
according to Alexa, February
2012

22. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Websites using Google Analytics
in the top 1000 global websites
according to Alexa, February
2012

23. DMI: Tracker Tracker
Presence of Trackers on
websites of Dutch
political parties, June
2012.

24. Tracking exercise
1. Collect a set of URLs, for instance via www.alexa.com.
Use the Link Ripper to extract them.
2. Enter the list into the Tracker Tracker tool (max 100).
Settings: Only look at specific pages.
3. Save .gefx file.
4. Open in Gephi, use colour settings to visually distinguish
different tracking services.

25. Questions?
Anne Helmond (UvA) & Carolin Gerlitz (Goldsmiths)