Somebody’s (Not) Watching Me
Just a quick update to Monday’s item about Do Not Track Plus.
In 48 hours, this thing has killed off more than 5,200 attempts to track my browsing. I look at websites as a big part of my job, so a big number didn’t come as a surprise. But that big? I had no idea.
But that’s nothing compared to how much easier life is for my CPU. I keep Apple’s Activity Monitor up and running all the time, just because I’m a bit of a geek like that. Under a typical browser workload — which for me is a lot of open windows and tabs — my browser web content could be eating up anywhere from an eighth to a quarter of my CPU cycles. That’s been cut down by about 80%.
In other words, web trackers might be quadrupling the processor load of your web browser, slowing down your whole system.
As I said the other day, just go and download it right now.
Steve,
Always have loved your blog, but posting on this tool fully discharges your “do good” quota for all of 2012!
I can completely affirm your findings. I don’t have the exact metrics, but the simple fact that I’ve not had to kill Extensions and restart Safari for the last couple of days speaks volumes. I used to experience massive slowdowns (sometimes seeing my entire system brought to its knees). Now? Movin’ right along.
I wonder if Apple is aware of how badly Safari chokes on tracking scripts. This is really amazing, to be honest. I’ve wondered if there were some javascript issues that were behind my suffering. But this is really ridiculous.
Thanks again for the tip. I owe you a bottle of Grey Goose.
I’ve had a similar problem on my laptop where, from time to time and for no apparent reason, CPU use explodes and I may as well go watch a movie while waiting for a web page to load.
Although I downloaded the filter back when Stephen first made the post, I haven’t really had a chance to see what difference it’s made. Your comment has me a little excited.
I installed it the other day as well and yes, it works very well. Page loads are now close to instant and my CPU monitor shows almost no activity.
1663 for me as I read your post with only about 10 tabs open. Best thing I’ve seen since Add Block.
Thanks!
You do realize, of course, that your PJ Media blog has six trackers being blocked.
I’ve had up to five show up — it varies. Would’ve thought I’d show more than a regular reader, since I’m also logged in via WordPress.
Far from an expert, but I think this is partially a function of recent activity and sites you visit before (and maybe after) you hit PJM.
Blocked numbers seem to reflect both what any one site is trying to track along with ads and entities that track your path around the internet.
Thank you so much, Steve.
I know almost nothing about computers, and I always assumed that some site were just, y’know, slow and prone to messing up my computer. This makes things so much easier.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but it sure seems as though web pages are loading quicker. Even if not, it’s nice to thwart the trackers. Installed on 2 PCs and fixin’ to do a third.
Thanks.
Great plug-in. Already passed the word over at Ace’s place.
http://minx.cc/?blog=86&post=326771#c17504863
Got some installing it already.
I wonder how this will compare to my NoScript/Flashblock combination.
4408 and it hasn’t been a week.
GOOD LORD! My tab loads are d@&* near instant now!
May the good lord bless you and keep you, Steve.
Thank you Steve.
I installed it for Firefox. Seems to be working great.
Do you have a place to recommend in Denver to rent ski stuff for my son?
Sorry, I don’t ski.
My solution (I run Linux) is to surf the Web with Links2, a text-based browser which also displays still pictures.
Everything loads in a flash, there are no blinky-blinky ads, and all the extraneous trash which slows down a full-featured browser simply does not stick! Obviously, amongst that “trash” must be numbered Tracking Scripts…
You *do* have to be willing to forgo all those Modern Conveniences…!
Steve, According to my “Do Not Track” icon your website has tried to place 4 tracking cookies from social media, 1 tracking cookie from business and 3 tracking cookies from companies. All have been blocked. So, Who attaches these cookies ????
Wow, thanks for this! I am running Chrome on a netbook and I would say my page loading is twice as fast now.
This looks like a great tool. Thanks for the tip.
Ironically, when I enter Vodkapundit, I see 3 social buttons, 1 ad network and 4 companies tracking me.