The requirements for internet privacy are getting ever stricter as online service providers rely increasingly on visitor data for personalization and optimization. While visitor data has many valid uses, such as providing a visitor with relevant and interesting content, collecting data through cookies and other tracking technologies is sometimes seen as intrusive, especially when the intention is to sell the data to third parties.
While Frosmo never collects visitor data for its own purposes, or for the purpose of selling the data to a third party, the Frosmo scripts are technically third-party content on websites, and some privacy technologies therefore affect the Frosmo Platform.
This document gives an overview of the most common privacy technologies and their effect on the Frosmo Platform.
For more information about how the Frosmo Platform collects and processes data, see Data privacy description and Data collection and processing.
Private browsing
All the major browsers, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari, contain different levels or privacy settings. The easiest way to enable the features without manually adjusting the browser settings is to use a private browsing mode (known in Chrome as incognito mode). In a private browsing mode, the browser creates a temporary browser session separated from the browser's main session and user data. Browsing history is not saved, and local data associated with the session, such as cookies, are cleared when the session ends, that is, when the visitor closes the browser tab or window.
Visitors can also use privacy browsers (for example, Brave, Epic, and DuckDuckGo), which contain more built-in privacy features than the standard browsers, and often use a private browsing mode by default. Privacy browsers also typically block ads while preventing websites from collecting any data about the visitor.
Blockers
Third-party blocking technologies can be roughly classified into:
- Ad blockers. Typically, free-of-charge browser extensions or standalone apps that prevent displaying third-party ads on web pages. Blocking is based on filter lists containing the names of tracking files or systems that are filtered out. The most common ad blockers include AdBlock and AdBlock Plus. Basic ad blocking features are also built into the most common browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
- Tracking blockers. Software or browser settings that prevent programmatic trackers from collecting data about the visitor's online activity. Tracking blocker features include hiding user search queries, private browsing, prevention or deletion of third-party cookies, and hiding the visitor's IP address.
- Privacy blockers. Browsers, browser extensions, or standalone apps that combine ad blocking and tracking blocking features and often aim to protect the visitor's overall online privacy. These blockers often affect even the most basic analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. Blocking can also involve setting up a private VPN network for browsing. The most common wide-spectrum privacy blockers include Ghostery, Privacy Badger, and uBlock Origin.
How private browsing and blockers affect the Frosmo Platform
We have compiled some of the most common questions about how online privacy technologies affect the Frosmo Platform.