CNN BEFORE AND AFTER TRASHING TRACKERS.
While cookies have gradually become part of our ‘digital vocabulary’, trackers are still hiding in plain sight. Trackers collect and trade information about your browsing habits. Have you been feeling ill and looking up a certain disease? This could be valuable information for insurance companies. Have you been browsing shops for a new TV for a while? Sold and shared with other retail trackers under your unique user-ID! The more you do online, the more you are worth to tracker companies.
THE TRASHING TRACKERS MENU.
There are browser extensions like Ghostery and uBlock that expose the amount of trackers on websites. However, after two days of use I had noticed that I was desensitized to the information they were offering: a little circle and square with the amount of trackers is rather simple to ignore. Trackers should be a huge disturbance; they should make you angry and annoyed, wanting to get rid of them.
Turning the extension on at a website with 7 trackers, still functional.
Enter Trashing Trackers, the extension that constantly confronts and annoys you. When you visit a website, Trashing Trackers looks for the amount of trackers in the background. Based on the amount of trackers, the website can get distorted from a minor grievance to completely unreadable.
Reddit has 16 trackers and is losing usability, but still readable. CNN has 25 trackers, and has therefore lost most of its functionality and readability.
A destroyed webmd.com and turning the extension off, linking to EFF
The option to turn off Trashing Trackers is always available. However, when you turn the extension off you are called into action. A closing page tells the user about the amount of trackers that have collected his information and how a distorted website is nothing compared to the real danger of trackers. The page closes with a reference to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organisation that fights for a free and private internet.
The closing page with tracker summary, information about the extension and call to action to join EFF
Want to know more about this project or see a live demonstration?
Feel free to contact me on: hi@jerryestie.com
CNN before and after Trashing Trackers.
The Trashing Trackers menu.
While cookies have gradually become part of our ‘digital vocabulary’, trackers are still hiding in plain sight. Trackers collect and trade information about your browsing habits. Have you been feeling ill and looking up a certain disease? This could be valuable information for insurance companies. Have you been browsing shops for a new TV for a while? Sold and shared with other retail trackers under your unique user-ID! The more you do online, the more you are worth to tracker companies.
I was happy to discover browser extensions like Ghostery and uBlock exposing the amount of trackers on each website. However, after two days of use I had noticed that I was desensitized to the information they were offering: a little circle and square with the amount of trackers is rather simple to ignore. Trackers should be a huge disturbance; they should make you angry and annoyed, wanting to get rid of them.
TURNING ON THE EXTENSION - GOODREADS HAS MINIMAL TRACKERS AND IS STILL USABLE
Enter Trashing Trackers, the extension that constantly confronts and annoys you. When you visit a website, Trashing Trackers looks for the amount of trackers in the background. Based on the amount of trackers, the website can get distorted from a minor grievance to completely unreadable.
Reddit has 16 trackers and is losing usability, but is still readable. CNN has 25 trackers, and therefore lost most of its functionality and readability.
WebMD has a lot of trackers, as medical information is a tracker goldmine. The site is unusable.
The closing page with tracker summary, information about the extension and call to action to join EFF
Want to know more about this project or see a live demonstration?
Feel free to contact me through hi@jerryestie.com