Anti-Tracking

It is common for websites to include tracking services that record all user activity. Multiple tracking companies watch user’s every step, even what they do on individual websites. It’s close to impossible to know how and where your personal information gets distributed.

A Cliqz study found that trackers – consciously or not – collect “unsafe” data on about three quarters of all website visits. With “unsafe” we mean data that can be used to identify individual users and follow them through the Internet.

Let’s assume a user visits multiple websites that collect signals for the same tracking company. For example, this could be online shops or news portals. It could also be websites on topics like addictions or personal insolvency. Combining data from different visited websites can provide insights into personal interests, financial status, purchasing decisions, but also health issues, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. If a user then logs into a social media platform like about.me, this intimate information can be matched with the person.

Who gets access to this information? Which business partners is it shared with? What is the data used for? Answers to these questions are generally hard to get.
Cliqz offers a new technology that aims to protect its users from inadvertently sending personal data to trackers.

When you visit a website, Cliqz for Windows and Cliqz for Mac show you a list of trackers on that domain that could possibly infringe your privacy.

Cliqz Anti-Tracking feature blocks the transfer of unsafe data even if you (accidentally or not) gave permission to a specific website, for example by accepting their terms and conditions. At the same time, Cliqz also blocks advertisements that work with personal tracking data.
You can disable Cliqz Anti-tracking feature completely or for single websites. This will allow trackers on the respective pages to access information that could identify you.

Unlike other anti-tracking systems, Cliqz does not block all signals completely. Website owners can still gather secure data like the number of visits to their pages. Only personal information strings are removed. This is the default behavior of this function. To block all data, please check the option “strict” in the Control Center under “Private data points have been removed”.

Based on our Human Web statistics, Cliqz Anti-Tracking is able to function very precisely. It recognizes more unsafe data than many other anti-tracking tools. Additionally it rarely happens that Cliqz accidentaly blocks useful website functions. In our Techblogs, you can find more info on how online tracking works and how Cliqz anti-tracking protects users from web tracking.