Visit Mozilla Corporation’s not-for-profit parent, the Mozilla Foundation. Portions of this content are ©1998–2020 by individual mozilla.org contributors. Content available under a Creative Commons license. Ghostery helps you stay informed about what companies are tracking you by listing the trackers on each website you visit. Simple and Detailed Views Choose from multiple views depending on what you want Ghostery to display. Don’t worry – you can easily toggle between each view. Ghostery uncovers the trackers on each website and empowers you to control the ones you don’t want for a cleaner, faster, and safer browsing experience. Learn More Take Control of.

1. Ghostery Mozilla
2. Ghostery Pour Mozilla Firefox
3. Ghostery For Chrome

What happens when we put two web browsers in the ring to duke it out?

We put in our new up-and-comer Ghostery Dawn against a well-known champ, Google Chrome, and we’re proud to say that our brand-new, lightning-fast browser came out on top!

Our priorities when we built Ghostery Dawn were split evenly among privacy, security, and speed. But we’re not going to lie — speed alone is a pretty big deal and some of the numbers we found are really exciting!

Ghostery is a free browser privacy extension that allows users to quickly and easily detect and block Web trackers designed to tag your movements across the Internet. In addition, Ghostery allows. As of 2017, Ghostery is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari, iOS, Android, and Firefox for Android. Additionally, Ghostery's privacy team creates profiles of page elements and companies for educational purposes.

Let’s check out this chart to understand what makes Ghostery Dawn faster. In an internal test(1), we found that nearly one-third of the 92 websites we tested loaded at least 2x times faster on Ghostery Dawn than on Chrome.

Here’s a better breakdown of our analysis:

• 33% of websites tested ran 2x faster on Ghostery Dawn
• 17% of websites tested ran 3x faster on Ghostery Dawn
• 10% of websites tested ran 4x faster on Ghostery Dawn

And here are the results broken down by category:

• In the News Category, Ghostery Dawn is 2.13x faster
• In the Entertainment category, Ghostery Dawn is 2.63x faster
• In the Sports category, Ghostery Dawn is 1.94x faster
• In the E-Commerce category, Ghostery Dawn is 1.54x faster

Since Ghostery Dawn loads web pages up to 3x faster than Chrome, we wanted to see what would happen when we ran several speed test comparisons on average Chrome page load times.

The good news? Using Ghostery Dawn may save you a few days’ worth of time per year! Here’s how we ran speed test comparisons on average Chrome page load times:

First, we determined the average page load speed for a web page on desktop is 10.3 seconds based on the 2019 data from Backlinko, which analyzed the speed of 5.2 million web pages.

Next, considering browser market share(2) and how many times faster each browser is than Chrome(3), we determined that Chrome has an average page load speed of 11.20 seconds.

Since Ghostery Dawn is 2.08x faster than Chrome, the average page load speed in our browser is 5.4 seconds. This is a savings of 5.8 seconds per page load. 5.8 seconds x 140 sites per day(4) x 365 days balances out to be 3.44 days per year that Ghostery Dawn saves you relative to Chrome.

That’s 3.44 days per year that companies are not making money off of using your data.

How Is Ghostery Dawn So Much Faster?

For one, we built on the open source Firefox browser which itself is 1.78x faster than Chrome. We took this template and rebuilt it for the Ghostery Dawn experience. Our test results show that Ghostery Dawn is 1.34x faster than Firefox! Click here to take a look under the hood. Additionally, by blocking ads and trackers, we’ve minimized the amount of clutter that typically loads with a web page.

We also wanted to take down the worst offenders. You know, those routinely “bad” sites with tons of tracking scripts causing the pages to load slowly, not to mention the tons of data they are collecting.

Ghostery Mozilla

Yep, we’re looking at you TMZ. They not only come in first as the most bloated but they also are the slowest in our comparison.

In this chart, we’re comparing page load speeds by seconds. The comparison is how much faster Ghostery Dawn is against Google Chrome. Keep in mind that by blocking ads and trackers, we’ve minimized the amount of clutter that typically loads with a web page. Let’s say you want to log onto www.Variety.com. Ghostery Dawn loaded the page in 1.08 seconds and Google Chrome loaded the same page in 4.40 seconds. So in that comparison, Ghostery Dawn is 4.07 times faster than Google Chrome!

Before it felt like, as consumers, we were backed into the corner and on the ropes. By using Ghostery Dawn, we’re able to bob and weave our way out and wind up for the knockout. Here’s a link to our FAQs page if you have any questions about the new kid on the block.

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1. Testing conducted by Ghostery in January 2021 using Selenium Webdriver to extract page load times using Navigation Timing. Tested with Ghostery Dawn Beta and Chrome Version 88.0.4324.150 (Official Build) (x86_64), on Intel Core i5-based 13-inch MacBook Pro system with macOS Big Sur. Device tested with a WPA2 Wi-Fi network connection with download speeds of 306 Mbps, upload speeds of 341 Mbps, and 6 Ping (in ms). Performance will vary based on usage, system configuration, network connection, and other factors. Websites load three to four times faster in Ghostery Dawn than in Google Chrome for almost a third of the tested sites using each browsers’ default settings.
2. 67% of people use Chrome, 10% use Safari, 8% use Firefox, and 15% other, as reported by the January 2020-2021 Desktop Browser Market Share data from StatCounter.
3. Compared to Chrome – Firefox is 1.78x faster, Safari is 1.28x faster, and other browsers are presumably 1.20x faster based on our speed tests.
4. We derived that an average user visits 140 sites per day based on our Whotracks.me data where we estimated about ~28 page loads per user per day. Heuristics filter out the bulk of the pages (around 80%). Some things to note:
   • Not all pages that you visit will lead to a “page” message
   • Pages that you visit multiple times a day will only result in one message (client side deduplication)
   • If we assume 80% are filtered out (rough estimate, since we can’t know the real number). 28/20% = 140 page loads per user per day.

Ghostery is a free and open-sourceprivacy and security-related browser extension and mobile browser application. Since February 2017, it has been owned by the German company Cliqz International GmbH (formerly owned by Evidon, Inc., which was previously called Ghostery, Inc. and the Better Advertising Project).^[5][6] The code was originally developed by David Cancel and associates.

Ghostery enables its users to detect and control JavaScript 'tags' and 'trackers' in order to remove JavaScript bugs and beacons that are embedded in many web pages which allow for the collection of a user's browsing habits via HTTP cookies, as well as participating in more sophisticated forms of tracking such as canvas fingerprinting.

Ghostery Pour Mozilla Firefox

As of 2017, Ghostery is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari, iOS, Android, and Firefox for Android.

Additionally, Ghostery's privacy team creates profiles of page elements and companies for educational purposes.^[7][8]

Functionality[edit]

Blocking[edit]

Ghostery blocks HTTP requests and redirects according to their source address in several ways:

1. Blocking third-party tracking scripts that are used by websites to collect data on user behavior for advertising, marketing, site optimization, and security purposes. These scripts, also known as 'tags' or 'trackers', are the underlying technology that places tracking cookies on consumers' browsers.
2. Continuously curating a 'script library' that identifies when new tracking scripts are encountered on the Internet and automatically blocking them.^[8]
3. Creating 'Whitelists' of websites where third-party script blocking is disabled and other advanced functionality for users to configure and personalize their experience.

Ghostery For Chrome

When a tracker is blocked, any cookie that the tracker has placed is not accessible to anyone but the user and thus cannot be read when called upon.^[9][10]

Reporting[edit]

Ghostery reports all tracking packages detected, and whether Ghostery has blocked them or not, in a 'findings window' accessible from clicking on the Ghostery Icon in the browser. When configured, Ghostery also displays the list of trackers present on the page in a temporary purple overlay box.^[11]

History and use[edit]

Originally developed by David Cancel, Ghostery was acquired by Evidon^[12] (renamed Ghostery, Inc.) in January 2010. Ghostery is among the most popular browser extensions for privacy protection. In 2014, Edward Snowden suggested consumers use Ghostery along with other tools to protect their online privacy.^[13]Ghostery, Inc. made their software source code open for review in 2010, but did not release further versions of the source code after that. On February 22, 2016, the company released the EULA for the Ghostery browser extension, as a proprietary closed-source product.

Cliqz GmbH acquired Ghostery from Evidon Inc. in February 2017.^[14] Cliqz is a German company majority-owned by Hubert Burda Media. Ghostery no longer shares data of any kind with Evidon.

On March 8, 2018, Ghostery shifted back to an open source development model and published their source code on GitHub,^[15] saying that this would allow third-party contributions as well as make the software more transparent in its operations. The company said that Evidon's business model 'was hard to understand and lent itself to conspiracy theories', and that its new monetization strategy would involve affiliate marketing and the sale of ad analytics data.^[16][17]

In May 2018, in the distribution of an email promoting changes to Ghostery's practices to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), hundreds of user email addresses were accidentally leaked by listing them as recipients. Ghostery apologized for the incident, stating that they stopped the distribution of the email when they noticed the error, and reported that this was caused by a new in-house email system that accidentally sent the message as a single email to many recipients, rather than sending it individually to each user.^[18][19]

Criticism[edit]

Under its former owner Evidon, Ghostery had an opt-in feature called GhostRank. GhostRank could be enabled to 'support' its privacy function. GhostRank took note of ads encountered and blocked, then sent that information back to advertisers so they could better formulate their ads to avoid being blocked.^[20] Though Ghostery claims that the data is anonymized, patterns of web page visits cannot truly be anonymized.^[21] Not everyone sees Evidon's business model as conflict-free. Jonathan Mayer, a Stanford graduate student and privacy advocate, has said: 'Evidon has a financial incentive to encourage the program's adoption and discourage alternatives like Do Not Track and cookie blocking as well as to maintain positive relationships with intrusive advertising companies'.^[22]

Since July 2018, with version 8.2, Ghostery shows advertisements of its own to users.^[23] Burda claims that the advertisements do not send personal data back to their servers and that they do not create a personal profile.^[24]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Releases · ghostery/ghostery-extension', GitHub, February 18, 2019
2. ^'Releases · ghostery/browser-android', GitHub, February 17, 2019
3. ^'Ghostery Privacy Browser on the App Store'. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
4. ^'ghostery/ghostery-extension'. GitHub.
5. ^'CLIQZ and Ghostery join forces to defend your privacy'. CLIQZ. February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
6. ^Ghostery Team. 'wbteck'.
7. ^'wbteck.com'.
8. ^ ^abAttacking Tracking: They're Watching You (Video). Fox News. March 15, 2011.
9. ^'Third-Party Cookies vs First-Party Cookies'. Opentracker. Opentracker. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
10. ^'Prevent 3rd party script from setting cookies (specifically Google adsense)'. Stack Overflow. July 29, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
11. ^'wbteck'. www.ghostery.com. Ghostery, Inc. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
12. ^Pierce, Jon (2010). 'Github - Ghostery Source Code'. Github. Ghostery, Inc. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
13. ^Storm, Darlene (March 10, 2014). 'Snowden at SXSW: We need better encryption to save us from the surveillance state'. www.computerworld.com. computerworld. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
14. ^'Private search browser Cliqz buys Ghostery ad-tracker tool'. techcrunch.com. February 15, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
15. ^'Ad-Blocker Ghostery Just Went Open Source—And Has a New Business Model'. wired.com. March 8, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
16. ^'This tool to block web tracking software just went open-source so you see exactly what it's up to'. CNET. March 8, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
17. ^Conger, Kate. 'Ad Blocker Ghostery Is Going Open Source to Win Back Some Privacy Points'. Gizmodo. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
18. ^Dellinger, AJ. 'Ad Blocker Ghostery Celebrates GDPR Day by Revealing Hundreds of User Email Addresses'. Gizmodo. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
19. ^'Ghostery Email Incident Update'. Ghostery. May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
20. ^Henry, Alan. 'Ad-Blocker Ghostery Actually Helps Advertisers, If You 'Support' It'. LifeHacker.com. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
21. ^Hill, Kashmir (August 1, 2012). 'How Your Browsing History Is Like A Fingerprint'. Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
22. ^Simonite, Tom (June 17, 2013). 'Popular Ad Blocker Also Helps the Ad Industry'. Mashable. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
23. ^'Ghostery FAQ - What is Ghostery Rewards?'.
24. ^'Ghostery-Erweiterung blendet Werbung ein'. Heise (in German).

External links[edit]