Ad tracking has become an intrusive aspect of online advertising. Ad tracking allow companies to collect data about the user’s behaviour, preference and more as they navigate through the internet. While these data can be used to enhance the user experience, it also raises some concerns on the negative impact it has on privacy.
Ad tracking is usually done through the following process:
- Cookies: Small files stored on a user’s device that track their browsing behaviour and preferences. Websites use cookies to remember users and their actions over time.
- Tracking Pixels: Invisible pixel images that are embedded in the web pages to track when users perform a certain action. These tracking pixels will send the interaction back to the server.
- Location Data: this can be gathered through your IP address or GPS to figure out your location.
- Cross Device Tracking: through the data that is collected, analytics can deduce that the devices belong to the same user based on other data such as their behaviour and location.
These data gathered allow companies to measure the effectiveness of their advertisement and improve their marketing strategies to reach their target audience.
Ad tracking is beneficial for advertisers and can be beneficial for users as well. However, this also raises an important concern on privacy as users become increasingly aware of what kind of data is collected. Advertisers will need to find the balance to ensure that the user’s privacy is respected.