why does the LTT forum have Google and Amazon trackers on it?

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

why does the LTT forum have Google and Amazon trackers on it? why is that needed? the forum is run by LMG who have their own sponsors. why put trackers on the forum?

[Snipergod87]

looks like for serving the very few ads on it

[Origami Cactus]

You are asking why does the forum have Google Analytics on it?

Have you seen what google analytics can do?

It is pretty damn cool, so i would have it on my website too.

 

But yeah amazon is quite a bit weirder.

[AlexTheGreatish]

1 minute ago, Origami Cactus said:

But yeah amazon is quite a bit weirder.

I don't actually know but I'm guessing it's the Amazon Ad at the very bottom of the page.

[Origami Cactus]

1 minute ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I don't actually know but I'm guessing it's the Amazon Ad at the very bottom of the page.

That makes sense. Amazon AD has an amazon tracker, so it can see who clicked on it from this forum.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

47 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I don't actually know but I'm guessing it's the Amazon Ad at the very bottom of the page.

EDIT: yeah probably, but like why though? i thought LMG had their own sponsors etc.. why amazon? 

 

49 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

You are asking why does the forum have Google Analytics on it?

Have you seen what google analytics can do?

It is pretty damn cool, so i would have it on my website too.

the google one doesn't bother me as much. it's easy to block and get rid of, and i can understand the use. the amazon one is unacceptable IMO. 

 

46 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

That makes sense. Amazon AD has an amazon tracker, so it can see who clicked on it from this forum.

do they need a tracker for that though? doesn't that work like the affiliate links? 

[Origami Cactus]

8 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

do they need a tracker for that though? doesn't that work like the affiliate links? 

Idk. If you look at it closer, it is amazon adsystem, so it must have something to do with the ad. The other one is amazon images, which is for the ad picture itself.

Quote

amazon-adsystem.com

   aax-us-east.amazon-adsystem.com

   fls-na.amazon-adsystem.com

   ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com

   z-na.amazon-adsystem.com

   

ssl-images-amazon.com

   images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com

 

If you look closer at the ad, then the href for the ad itself is the amazon-adsystem, which would explain why it is detected as a tracker. My guess is that if you don't click on the ad, then you wont be tracked by amazon.

 

 

[Amazonsucks]

1 hour ago, firelighter487 said:

amazon one is unacceptable IMO. 

Agreed. Glad my VPN blocks them automatically 

[This_guy1998]

On 1/26/2019 at 2:34 PM, firelighter487 said:

EDIT: yeah probably, but like why though? i thought LMG had their own sponsors etc.. why amazon? 

 

the google one doesn't bother me as much. it's easy to block and get rid of, and i can understand the use. the amazon one is unacceptable IMO. 

 

do they need a tracker for that though? doesn't that work like the affiliate links? 

It's @LinusTech site, he and his team can do what they want. I personally have the Google tracker on my personal WordPress site. The Amazon is probably for ad revenue and affiliate links.  TBH, I don't see why people get butt-hurt about these having trackers. If you don't like a particular site having info then run it in a container (Firefox has this feature) and call it good. I only do that for Facebook, because I know Amazon and Google both have their own cloud services so they know a thing or two about user data and how to keep it secure (that's why Google+ us shutting down because of a bug).

 

Also to point out, I am a 2nd year IT major and so far from what I have learned so far about the web is that there is alot of things you can do with user data in order to make a site better and/or make money off of it. Without it every website online would charge you to just look at their site (web hosting isn't free). I pay $10 USD/month for my website plus around another $30-35 USD/year for my domain and the SSL certificate. I could host it myself but an internet connection with a static public IP address is more expensive (plus I would have to maintain the hardware) (the LAMP Stack is free to use in most cases).

 

I'm also pointing out I own an Alexa and it can listen in (and see) on me in exchange for a handsfree assistant. My mom has both Alexas and Google and when I visit I use them too. I honestly don't care if they have my info in exchange to make my life easier.

Edited January 31, 2019 by This_guy1998
added info

[colonel_mortis]

The Amazon tracker is, as other have noted, for the Amazon ads. It is only included when an Amazon ad is displayed on the page (this means it's not included for Bronze/Silver/Gold contributors, who get no ads).

The Google tracker is Google Analytics, and is used to monitor how the site is being used, to give a quantitative basis for future improvements.

13 minutes ago, This_guy1998 said:

Also to point out, I am a 2nd year IT major and so far from what I have learned so far about the web is that there is alot of things you can do with user data in order to make a site better and/or make money off of it. Without it every website online would charge you to just look at their site (web hosting isn't free). I pay $10 USD/month for my website plus around another $30-35 USD/year for my domain and the SSL certificate. I could host it myself but an internet connection with a static public IP address is more expensive (plus I would have to maintain the hardware).

For what it's worth, per our Privacy Policy, we don't sell, trade or rent any of your data to third parties. Information that we gather is only used internally, for monitoring how the site is used and making it better.

Amazon does collect some data, as governed by their Privacy Policy, and Amazon ads do help to offset the substantial costs of running the forum.

[This_guy1998]

20 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

For what it's worth, per our Privacy Policy, we don't sell, trade or rent any of your data to third parties. Information that we gather is only used internally, for monitoring how the site is used and making it better.

Amazon does collect some data, as governed by their Privacy Policy, and Amazon ads do help to offset the substantial costs of running the forum.

I figured as such. I personally don't read Privacy Policy's for the most part (there are some exceptions) and I figured that you guys use the tracking data internally. Even with my website (It's mostly a personal blog where I write long posts and where I can share projects I've done (It's a Linux server with cPanel, so I have flexibility)) I used the standard Privacy Policy from Wordpress (plus a few changes) and called it a day.

 

Honestly, I pointed that out to the OP just so they can realize that even web hosting for a small website that is somewhat decent isn't cheap. I remember how Linus has said before about the Forum funds itself it makes sense there are Amazon ads on here. If people are concerned about privacy in general then maybe they should move to a place like the EU or not get on the internet. Richard Stallman (founded GNU) goes through great lengths to protect his privacy and it seems like a hassle. You give some freedoms up for exchange for others. 

[Kleine IJsbeer]

For anyone too scared about this stuff, you can disable third party cookies in your browser so not google nor amazon nor anyone else can track you on different sites than the one you're on without getting that info from the host itself.

 

In chrome: settings -> advanced -> privacy and security -> content settings -> cookies -> pick what you like, none, all, no third party and even if you want to delete them when you close the browser or not.

In ff: options -> privacy and security -> choose what to block -> for cookies you can even specify to only block trackers.

 

Think in solutions, not problems