If you read or clicked anything online today, some part of Google probably knows about it. That’s one lesson from the largest study yet of the technology that tracks people’s movements around the Web. When Princeton researchers logged the use of tracking code on the Internet’s million most popular websites, Google code was found on a majority of them. Google Analytics, a product used to log visitors to websites that integrates with the company’s ad-targeting systems, was found on almost 70 percent of sites. DoubleClick, a dedicated ad-serving system from Google, was found on close to 50 percent of sites. The top five most common tracking tools were all Google-owned. The new study, which was conducted using an open-source tool, also uncovered a stealthy new technique used by some small tracking companies that exploits the way browsers process audio, using it to “fingerprint” computers so they can be tracked around the Web. The researchers say the technology they used to collect their findings could help regulators and the developers of tools that block tracking, like some ad blockers [...] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601488/largest-study-of-online-tracking-p... -- Alessandro Mantelero Politecnico di Torino Nexa Center for Internet and Society | Director of Privacy European Data Protection Law Review | Associate Editor http://staff.polito.it/alessandro.mantelero