My desktop anti-virus program, Bitdefender, has a feature called "TrafficLight". One of the things it detects is when someone is tracking me. Their definition of a tracker is "Trackers are code snippets included in website pages that track and analyze your browsing behavior. TrafficLight quickly identifies and lists them."

On NAM, it detects up to four different organizations, none of which are "harmful" so Bitdefender allows them to stay connected. They may not be considered harmful, but when all four are detected, my desktop is extremely slow.

The four are ---
Comscore Beacon
Facebook Tracker
Twitter Tracker
Google +1

If there is some way they can be minimized, or eliminated, I expect it would cut into NAM revenue. But, the affected members might be a whole lot happier --- I don't really like having my browsing behavior tracked!

I don't use MA as often, but it hasn't been as slow as NAM, and I've only noticed two trackers there ---
Quantserve Tracker
Google Analytics

Two vs. four??? Different tracking systems??? I'm clueless and frustrated.

Site Admin --- got a solution?

 

You can try this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...-track-feature

 

If you are running IE, you can also click onto the "cog" icon at upper right hand corner of your screen next to the star, click onto "safety" and then click onto "Turn on Tracking Protection".

 

My desktop is a Mac and it uses Safari. I've checked both Privacy and Sharing Preferences, but neither one has anything about "Tracking". Maybe I missed something?

 

Try this. On the menu bar at the top of your screen, click on Preferences. Select the Advanced preferences panel. Check the box at the bottom of the menu labeled "Show Develop menu in menu bar." On the menu bar at the top of your screen, click on Develop. Click on "Send Do Not Track HTTP Header." You have enabled Do Not Track on your Safari browser.

 

This set of Preferences is for the OS, not Safari --- my bad!

I'm using OS X El Capitan version 10.11.6 and Safari version 10.0.1 and my Develop drop-down list doesn't include your "Send Do Not Track HTTP Header."

However, my Safari Preferences has a Privacy drop-down that includes "Website Tracking: (check-box)Ask websites not to track me". The check-box is already checked! Your version is much more positive --- "~ Do Not ~", while mine is kinda wimpy --- "Ask ~". Per the associated "Help" feature, this box is explained as "With this option turned on, each time Safari fetches content from a website, Safari adds a request not to track you, but it’s up to the website to honor this request."

Looks like I'm S.O.L. Thanx a bunch for your effort, I learned a bit more today.

 

We cannot disable these trackers.

Comscore is basically on every single site that needs third-party metrics to verify their traffic. It's how all content websites are ranked by advertisers.

If you haven't synced your account with the FB/Twitter/G+ profiles, they shouldn't be tracking your forum use, but they exist on our sites for easier registration for new users.

 

I have Ghostery on my browser (Chrome). It blocks trackers and also updates its list of trackers automatically as it discovers new trackers.

 

Yes.

If you're concerned about trackers (and not just on NAM), please use the appropriate plugin for your browser.

 

Thanx for the tip. Just finished installing Ghostery for Safari. Now to set it up. We'll see ----

 

Only been one day, but huge difference! Whatever I type goes directly to the screen --- no delays. As I'm typing this, my Bitdefender shows two trackers --- Comscore Beacon and Facebook tracker --- both considered harmless. Ghostery is showing 15 trackers, all but one blocked --- Google Publisher Tags.

I'm guessing the holiday season has drawn all these trackers out of nowhere and onto the internet --- these delays I experienced were only noticed in the last couple weeks.

This app is supposed to function on most browsers --- I highly recommend it. Thanx for the tip DneprDave.