How We Pay For Free Websites With Our Privacy

An investigation by The Markup found 21 different ad-tech companies tracked visitors to the site, sending possible signals about people’s gender identities to advertisers. Some site operators are in the dark about who is watching or what marketers do with the data. Blacklight reveals the trackers loading on any site—including methods created to thwart privacy-protection tools or watch your every scroll and click. We found more than 12,000 websites loaded scripts that watch and record user interactions on all pages.