I use to watch the status bar of my browser and note that wh

I use to watch the status bar of my browser and note that when I visit a site many URLs are loaded like ajax[dot]googleapis or googlesyndicate[dot]com etc.

These URLs are not accessible directly by pasting them in address bar. When I searched these URLs, I found that Google collects data through these sites about location, behavior, etc of users.

So, I decided to block them. I use firefox and just found an add-on to block given/feeded URLs.

I tried a couple of things like Ghostry etc. So now I want to ask that is it enough or I need some other software..

Thanks

Solution

On a pure theoretical basis, the list of URL to block to remain anonymous is... all of them ! As soon as you contact a Web site, any site, then that site sees your IP address and can track you. The Google-like addresses that you see are used by trackers who:

So, basically, that kind of visible tracking is for targeted advertisement. Regardless of what you may think of the morality of such practices, one has to convene that this is about the most harmless kind of tracking: it is done by businesses who crave your attention and, indirectly, your money, but only as part of consenting transactions (i.e. buying stuff). If you concentrate on blocking these URL, you will miss on the more dangerous tracking, done behind the scene in ways that you won\'t see (namely by aggregating log files from host systems) and won\'t block either.

If you really want to \"be anonymous\", you\'ll need heavier mechanisms, e.g. Tor (whether Tor really provides anonymity is open to debate, but at least it represents a substantial effort in that direction). If you just want not to see ads, then there are extensions for that (apparently some people find that one convenient).