Pakistanis cautioned: ‘25 top web tracking service providers collecting users’ online behaviour data’

ISLAMABAD: A global cybersecurity company Thursday cautioned Pakistanis that 25 top web tracking service providers are regularly collecting users’ online behaviour data.

A report released by Kaspersky’s with latest analysis of the 25 most prevalent web tracking services, including Google services, New Relic, Microsoft, revealed over 38 billion instances of web trackers collecting user behaviour data in 2024, with an average of one million detections every day.

The report disclosed that the web tracking involves collecting, storing, and analyzing data on users’ online behaviour. This data can include demographics, website visits, time spent on pages, and interactions such as clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements, which can be used for creating heat maps and other insights. Businesses leverage this information to personalize experiences, boost user engagement, target ads more effectively, and measure the performance of their online services.

Kaspersky products feature a Do Not Track (DNT) component that blocks tracking elements designed to monitor user activity on websites. This feature enables Kaspersky to assess the current state of data harvesting by web trackers.

To conduct this assessment, Kaspersky experts analyzed the 25 most prevalent tracking services. These include four from Alphabet Inc. – Google Display & Video 360, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, and YouTube Analytics – as well as services from New Relic, and Microsoft, including Bing and other Microsoft tracking platforms. Their analysis revealed that 38,725,551,855 data collection incidents were detected in a year, from July 2023 to June 2024, with users sharing their data approximately 1,060,974 times per day.

The report provides a region-by-region analysis of the prevalence of various tracking services. Google Display & Video 360 holds the largest share among the top 25 tracking systems in Asia. In South Asia, it accounted for 25.47% of DNT component triggers, while in East Asia it was 24.45%, in the Middle East – 22.92%, in Africa – 19.03%, in Europe – 17.24%. The smallest share was in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at 8.38%, where local tracking systems are more prevalent.

Google Analytics, which tracks user behaviour and keywords to optimize website traffic and performance, has its largest share in Latin America (14.89%), followed by the Middle East (14.12%). In Europe, it accounted for 11.93%, in Africa – 12.94%.

Anna Larkina, security and privacy expert at Kaspersky stated that while the top 25 tracking services show that data collection isn’t confined to just a few companies, the more organizations storing and processing our information, the greater the risk of breaches. However, with most tracking handled by tech giants, there’s strong motivation for them to protect user data and safeguard their reputations. Ultimately, though, users must take responsibility for their own data security, being mindful of the platforms they engage with and taking steps to protect their privacy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024