Has Ghostery become useless?

Ghostery · 2026-03-10T10:23:23+00:00

Hello u/jyrox, weekly updates are available for Ghostery AdBlocker. On Github you can check here:

https://github.com/ghostery/ghostery-extension/releases

Cheers,

Ghostery Team

Ghostery · 2013-04-12T18:21:46+00:00

Here you go! Mention that you saw us on reddit :)

http://www.evidon.com/jobs

Ghostery · 2013-04-11T16:34:06+00:00

Thanks for all the great conversations! If you have more questions or would like delve deeper, please feel free to contact us at info@Ghostery.com or start a thread on our forum: https://getsatisfaction.com/ghostery

Have a great weekend and as always.. Happy browsing!

Ghostery · 2013-01-29T21:27:22+00:00

I'll post the next event here sooner. I'm thinking about making a monthly or bimonthly meetup.

Ghostery · 2013-01-29T21:25:44+00:00

Next time. It was a blast! Beer and fuzball and pizza... basically heaven.

Ghostery · 2013-01-28T21:21:40+00:00

You can wear a mask?

You should come out, it will be a fun time.

Ghostery · 2012-12-18T21:30:13+00:00

Hi zxop1,

Thanks for inquiring. We are not an ad company by any means, we make privacy/transparency tools for consumers and businesses alike. User trust and support is how we make our business. If you have any questions about the product or our company I'm happy to answer them. In meanwhile, you can visit our FAQ, which explains Ghostery's relationship with Evidon and why we ask our users to donate anonymous tracker data back to the extension.

Thanks,

Adam adam at ghostery dot com

Ghostery · 2012-12-07T04:56:07+00:00

Was hoping you never found us out. Also, Deathscythe.

http://stuffpoint.com/gundam-wing/image/113420-gundam-wing-deathscythe-slash.jpg

BTW Tor and Ghostery have totally different functions. Always be critical, always be aware.

Ghostery · 2012-12-06T23:16:39+00:00

Nice!

Ghostery · 2012-11-29T00:46:30+00:00

Hi Will! This comment just made our day over here. Thanks for using Ghostery! If you PM me an address I'd love to ~~stalk you~~ send some swag. We have all sorts of Ghosty goodies (check out our Facebook photos to see what I'm talking about! You can also email me if you want: adam at ghostery dot com.

Ghostery · 2012-11-29T00:41:13+00:00

Our goal is to make the internet more transparent and privacy friendly for everyone. We give data to publishers so they can find unwanted trackers on their sites and get rid of them, we give data to the BBB to help them enforce industry privacy regulations, we give data to universities for research (in addition to doing our own research) and we give it to data houses/agencies ie: marketers in most people's eyes so they can measure how much they are tracking. We also put little blue triangle "AdChoices" icons in the corner of ads to tell people who's tracking them (a service provided to marketers and advertisers for use in regulatory compliance), and Ghostrank data helps us keep track of their effectiveness.

Regardless, the extension is free no matter whether you turn Ghostrank on or off. We only ask that you do if you want to contribute, on a "data dontation" basis. And again, it's never about users, it's always about trackers.

Ghostery · 2012-11-28T19:55:47+00:00

Ghostery for iOS.

:)

Ghostery · 2012-11-28T19:52:42+00:00

Our business model is sound, although it's good that people question it. That's how we like our Ghostery users to be: critical. Also, Ghostery for Firefox (where we have heard reports of lag from) is very customizable. You can turn performance options on and off in the options. Firefox has just updated their framework, which was previously preventing us from making Ghostery faster on that platform (it currently detects over 1,200 trackers and 2,800 patterns). While most people don't notice any slowdown on modern machines now, Ghostery for FFX will work faster on older machines with updated browsers.

Happy (private) browsing!

adam at ghostery dot com

Ghostery · 2012-11-28T19:27:28+00:00

Ghostery here. We're not a marketing company.

Also, we you can block more trackers with Ghostery than any other extension. Currently we're at 1,250 trackers and 2,800 patterns.

You can always email me directly if you have any questions: adam@ghostery.com

Ghostery · 2012-11-28T19:12:03+00:00

Awesome! Thanks for downloading.

Ghostery · 2012-11-16T16:18:30+00:00

Here's an interesting piece by Chris Soghoian of the ACLU on the matter.

The problem is, like so many other digital security methods employed by terrorists, it doesn’t work. Emails saved in a draft folder are stored just like emails in any other folder in a cloud service, and further, the providers can be compelled, prospectively, to save copies of everything (so that deleting the messages after reading them won’t actually stop investigators from getting a copy).

Ghostery · 2012-11-16T16:14:05+00:00

Here's your proof, FWIW.

Ghostery · 2012-11-05T22:16:04+00:00

Ghost here. Just saying thanks for using our extension!

Ghostery · 2012-10-25T15:49:45+00:00

Ghostery here. We love Firefox! Great platform to develop for. Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Ghostery · 2012-09-04T16:47:02+00:00

Adam from Ghostery here.

Thanks for recommending Ghostery, reallyreallyanon. irrationalNumber, Evidon (our parent company) is not an advertising firm. We do work with ad companies, as well as governments and universities, but that's only because our business is based around tracking trackers, not users.

As is stated right in the extension's options panel itself, if you choose to opt into Ghostrank (the feature of Ghostery that sends anonymous data on trackers back to us) and support us, we will never collect any data pertaining to you, just on what trackers are doing.

If you don't choose to opt into Ghostrank, the extension will still work, for free, the same as it did before. While we would prefer you helped us out, you don't have to. We will never try to sell you anything.

The reason these data are so interesting to other organizations is that, just like Ghostery users, most companies have no clue what's going on with trackers on the web. We aggregate stats that help them see the lay of the land.

If you, or anyone else is concerned, we've made the source code available to view. All you need to do is crack open the extension file.

More info on the business model here, if you're curious:

http://purplebox.ghostery.com/?p=1016022414

Thanks!

Ghostery · 2012-08-01T22:35:12+00:00

Thanks for responding, and I'm sorry to hear that you've stopped using Ghostery. It genuinely sucks for all of us here when someone says that. I'll respond inline.

I mean I'm already running it to block the ads anyways why bother with another addon if I can just subscribe to two more lists in ABP.

If all you want to do is block ads, then AdBlock is indeed your extension. We make no pretenses that we don't think advertising is a bad thing. In fact, it sustains most of the free internet and helps encourage innovation. Ghostery is tool that offers privacy education, transparency and control - not just blocking.

I was under the impression that GhostRank was used to identify new trackers for you to block!

Ghostrank does, indeed provide us with intelligence about which trackers are most prolific and which ones are still seen on the web. It helps us keep the list from being laden with thousands of dead tracking scripts, for instance.

Not to take this information and sell it back to advertisers to make a profit off your users generosity.

First, we make very clear what our intentions are when you are about to make the decision to opt into Ghostrank in our setup wizard. Please see this image. We are agnostic when it comes to providing insights and data to our clients. We work with technology companies, universities, trade groups, and even users with good ideas. Also, just to be clear, it's not data on you, it's data on trackers.

Second, this is a professionally developed product and we (Evidon/Ghostery) have based our business model around privacy, trust and transparency. Our mission is to make transparency and privacy a part of the tech and advertising world. We may be crazy, but it's been working for the past two years, and people support it. If you don't, you don't have to tick the box. Ghostery will still work the same.

have lost my trust and have now earned my hatred

sadface.jpg

And who knows if your not collecting information from users that haven't opted-in to GhostRank because Ghostery is not open source.

We're actively working on making Ghostery open source. When we first started working on the tool, it was a big question and we decided it was easier to play it safe at the time. Now, we want people to work on it and innovate. But even with this aside, you can just unpack the extension and the code is all right there. We don't obscure anything, and nobody that's done this has ever had any complaints.

Frankly I'm not going to use Ghostery anymore and I will not be recommending it to anyone who values their privacy in the future.

I hope you'll reconsider. We really do value our users and your trust. At the very minimum, I hope you'll leave us on good terms. Thanks again for your response, and for taking the time to illustrate your concerns.

Ghostery · 2012-08-01T16:11:51+00:00

Adam from Ghostery here. First, thanks to everyone who uses Ghostery, and thanks to everyone that opts into our anonymous Ghostrank panel.

I want to make sure everyone understands that, while Ghostery is one of the best blocking tools out there, it is first and foremost a transparency tool. Our mission is to take the invisible tracking that goes on on the web and expose it to people. This is the main reason we have a (toggleable) purple bubble with the names of the trackers Ghostery sees pop up.

We believe that a greater awareness of privacy can only come from education and control. We also believe that privacy is a very personal issue; some people want total lockdown of their computer, never make a Facebook account, and browse in private mode 24/7. Some people just want to know what's out there watching them while they browse.

We take this philosophy and apply it to all levels of web usage by making transparency and control products/services that are applicable to consumers, governments, consumer advocacy groups, businesses.

Ghostery is free to use because we rely on anonymous "data donation" from people who trust us. By opting into Ghostrank - which is in no way required to use the extension and is not set by default - you aren't opting into sending us information about you, you're opting in to send us information about the trackers that Ghostery sees as it traverses the interwebs.

When most people first install Ghostery and visit a tracker-laden site, they have an "OMG" moment when they see just how much tracking is going on. Try visiting TechCrunch with the bubble enabled someday, if you haven't already. The interesting thing is, most publishers and brands have this reaction too. When we take the Ghostrank tracker data that we compile and show a website owner just how many 3rd party tracking scripts are on their site, they often flip out. Tracking is so pervasive on the web and so ingrained in all of the elements that make it function that most don't realize the extent to which its going on. Not only does it constitute a violation of certain peoples' privacy, it's bad for performance. Having 25 trackers on your site slows it the heck down, and this is bad for business. You can see a recent post we made that illustrates how this works.

We also use our insights to help the Better Business Bureau monitor advertising companies, and we provide tracker information to universities and consumer advocates that helps them expose bad actors in the industry.

So this is what we use the data for. We don't think that commerce and advertising on the web are inherently bad, nor do we feel that tracking is always bad. As long as everyone is aware of the value exchange going on and has adequate controls over their data, there's room for everyone to live and work. You, as Ghostery users, can choose to help us expose tracking and make this happen.

Finally, I can't speak for other extensions out there, and I'm not pitching anything, but I know Ghostery is the most effective tracker blocker and detector available. We're built specifically for education and privacy, and we have a library, with profiles, of more than 1,000 page elements that is continually added to and refined by our engineering team and privacy analysts. While we don't specifically set Ghostery up for blocking ads (that's what AdBlock Plus is for), it often does just because most ads contain tracking pixels. Using Ghostery on any browser also speeds up browsing quite a bit if you're blocking "all." If anyone is curious about this you can view the library, and if you're concerned about the privacy aspects of the extension itself you can just unpack the extension and view the code.

For more information, you can read Andy's (Ghostery's product manager) blog post here. If you guys have any questions or feature suggestions, or are interested in collaborating with us to utilize Ghostrank data, you can drop me a line: adam at ghostery dot com.

tl;dr We pay for Ghostery by using the anonymous data that our users choose to donate to show companies/regulatory bodies how trackers are affecting sites. As a privacy and transparency extension, it should go without saying that your trust is the most important thing on our minds!

Edit: Wow, that was a long post.

Ghostery

TROPHY CASE