How to: Utiq Tracking sperren (Tracking via IP & Telefonnummer)

Ich bin kein großer Fan davon, im Internet ge’tracked zu werden. Bisher dachte ich, Cookies löschen und Pi-Hole wären schon eine recht gute Lösung. — Dass aber noch direkt am Telefonanbieter auch noch ein Unternehmen steckt und cookieless track’ed, hat mich dann doch sehr überrascht.

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How to get rid of Cookie-AdTracking – easily

TL;DR: Delete cookies when closing the browser, allow-list only the sites you want to stay logged in. It’s really that easy.

I recently checked my browser settings and was “surprised” to find more than 3.000 cookies. Most of them from sites I didn’t recognize, many from obvious ad-tracking companies. These companies, with whom I have no business, were all able to track my online activity. Seriously? 3.000 companies being able to track me? Okay maybe some of them were not valid anymore – but still – that’s just ways too much.

I wanted to stop this tracking – but also with minimal impact on my browsing experience.

Attempt 1: Cookie Management Add-on

At first, I tried using a cookie management add-on. However, it didn’t work as expected. It was annoying and didn’t work as expected. Then, I accidentally deleted all my cookies. Sigh 🤦‍♂️

Not exactly what I had planned as I was indeed “afraid” of logging back into all the services.

Attempt 2: Starting Fresh

Since I was now starting from scratch anyways, I decided to

• skip the Cookie Add-On
• allowlist only the sites I really want to keep logged in
• set my browser to delete all other cookies when closed

Actually, I didn’t try this before because I was afraid that it might be somehow annoying. But I couldn’t be more wrong! The most cumbersome thing was logging in to my “regular” sites the first time. After about two days, I didn’t add any more sites to the allow-list.

Yet one little downside is undeniable: I see a little more cookie-consent-banner as the cookies which are storing that information are deleted. On the other hand, I now don’t care anymore whether to allow or reject the tracking consent – the according cookies will be lost after closing the browser anyways!

Result after a couple of weeks:

I’m sticking with this solution. My initial fears were unfounded – it just works and doesn’t inconvenience me. If you’re concerned about cookie tracking, just do it! It’s a simple and effective solution to maintain privacy without sacrificing convenience.

Summary

Pros:

• It just works!
• Simplicity. No additional addons required
• Transparency. I know exactly which sites are allow-listed!

Cons:

• Initial inconvenience. The first 1-2 days required logging back into major websites and allow-listing the sites.
• More cookie consent banners. But they’re valid only for the session, so I don’t care anymore whether to accept or reject.
• Depends on closing the browser. This method works only if you close your browser occasionally (not an issue for me but I heard, some people NEVER close their browser window).

#AdTracking #Browser #CookieTracking #Privacy