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Ghostery™ FAQs
What is Ghostery? Ghostery is a browser tool available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, as well as a standalone app available for iOS. It scans the page for trackers - scripts, pixels, and other elements - and notifies you of the companies whose code is present on the webpage you are visiting. These trackers often aren't otherwise visible and are often not detailed in the page source code. Ghostery allows you to learn more about these companies and their practices, and block the page elements from loading if the user chooses. Where are Ghostery's options? Depending on which extension you’re using, Ghostery’s options can be in a different place. Chrome
Opera
Firefox
Safari
IE
How do I turn the purple bubble off? If you want to turn Ghostery’s tracker alert bubble off, you can do so in Ghostery’s options. I installed Ghostery, but can’t find it in my browser. Where is it? When you install Ghostery on any browser, it inserts an icon into your top toolbar. If you’re having trouble finding it, try expanding the toolbar by resizing it or clicking on the “more” arrows – particularly in IE. Here’s a video to help IE users with this issue. Every time I start my browser up, the Ghostery configuration wizard pops up. How can I stop this? This is happening because you have an extension installed from before that’s interfering with your ability to set Ghostery’s options. You can fix it by disabling the other extensions, setting Ghostery’s options, restarting your browser, and then re-enabling them. What is the best way to report a problem, make a suggestion or ask a question? You can visit our support forums or send an email to support@ghostery.com. What is whitelisting? When you whitelist a site, it allows tracking on just that site until you remove it from the whitelist in Ghostery’s options. Ghostery does not add or remove sites automatically to or from your whitelist. What is blocking? When you choose to block a tracker, Ghostery either prevents the tracker from “phoning home” or prevents the tracker from ever being written to your browser. You can toggle control blocking on a tracker-by-tracker basis, on a per-site basis, and on a per-category basis in Ghostery’s options. Should I block www.somerandomsiteontheinternet.com? This is up to you. Everyone’s expectations for privacy on the internet are different. Along with the ability to block tracking, Ghostery provides the most comprehensive library on trackers, complete with detailed profiles, known to man. If you are suspicious of a tracker or are unsure as to whether or not you should block it, you can refer to these profiles for more information. Will Ghostery affect my browser performance? Ghostery initiates a scan and decision for several types of page elements, and in some cases, this scan may represent a slight increase in page load times. However, if users choose to block page scripts, our lab research suggests that pages load faster on average. Why is Ghostery making that noise? Ghostery is not making that noise. Ghostery does not make noise. Ghostery is a free plug in. Is that going to change? Ghostery will remain a free service. There are no plans to create a version of Ghostery that requires user payment. I love your product. How can I donate to Ghostery? Thank you! We don’t currently take donations for Ghostery. This isn’t because we hate money, it’s because we already have a successful business model. If you want to support us, please opt into Ghostrank. You can find out more about our how we make money here. What is Ghostrank? Ghostrank is an option you can select if you would like to support Ghostery. When you select it, you allow Ghostery to track trackers as your browser traverses the internet. The anonymous information on the trackers is sent back to us, and we make reports out of it. It’s how we make money, it makes the internet more transparent for everyone, and it also makes for some very insightful blog posts on the Purple Box. You can learn more about Ghostrank and our parent company, Evidon, here. Ghostery is owned by Evidon, Inc. What is Evidon? Evidon is a technology company that provides solutions for consumers, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that enable them to see, understand and control data online. For businesses and NGOs, Evidon provides the technological underpinnings that put the AdChoices icon, which functions as a “tracking nutrition label” into ads, as well as reports on trackers and what they are doing on the web. For consumers, we provide Ghostery. Evidon is able to support Ghostery through our users who choose to opt into the anonymous Ghostrank panel, which allows us to make tracker reports and helps to provide organizations like the Better Business Bureau with information that helps them enforce self-regulation. Our mission, as a company, is to make the web more transparent for everyone involved. We strongly believe that making disclosure more transparent will raise the quality of the entire online advertising industry by enabling advertisers to grow and innovate with privacy in mind. What Evidon is not:
Click here to learn more about Evidon's services. Also, check out what Ghostery’s senior product manager, Andy, has to say about the company's mission and how it relates to Ghostery. What data does Evidon receive from users who opt-in to GhostRank? When a user opts-in to GhostRank, Ghostery sends the following information each time a tracker is encountered:
NOTE: Ghostery currently collects page latency on pages without trackers. This is only true when Ghostrank is enabled. This data is not required for any of our business intelligence products, and is only collected as an overlooked portion of Ghostery functionality. This collection will be eliminated in subsequent Ghostery releases. What does Evidon do with Ghostrank information? We have several interesting uses for Ghostrank data, but equally important is how we don't use it. When you opt in to be a part of the Ghostrank panel, we send back data (anonymously) on the tracking code your browser has encountered as you visit web pages. The intelligence we gather is about tracking elements, not the individuals that encountered those elements. We don’t collect any data that can be used to target advertising or identify our users. The data we collect helps us to bolster the Ghostery service—expanding our code library to reveal more tracking information to our users—and to inform our tracker intelligence and control solutions for businesses. We often provide data to university students, privacy researchers, and journalists for their studies; and we act as a source for the Better Business Bureau in their efforts to enforce online advertising standards. I have a question that is not listed here. Where can I find an answer? Try our support forums. |
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