Norton - AntiTrack For Blocking Trackers and Protecting Privacy Online - Mac OS, Windows [Digital]

During the last few days, I have been testing Norton AntiTrack, and I can admit that it is one of those tools that you do not notice until you can see what has been going on on the backstage of your own browser. This software is really mind opening in case you ever thought adverts stalk you on the internet all the time after searching something once, or you are fed up with the fact that every bit of data is being collected online. Easy Setup & Clean Interface The most outstanding fact that struck me is how simple it is. Installation of the Norton AntiTrack would only take a couple of minutes and the interface is user friendly to allow persons who desire to stay protected without having to browse the complex settings. There is nothing ever to be confused as everything is categorized well and you always have an idea of what will get blocked and why. What Makes It Different? There are plenty of browsers and antivirus programs that provide some form of tracker protection in these days, though Norton AntiTrack does it on a deeper level. It does not block cookies, but rather aims at blocking the creation of a fingerprint of you that is built by the companies based on your type of browser, on your device, your behavior, and several dozens of other minor peculiarities of the system. Such is the type of tracking that the majority of ad blockers always avoid. The fact that there is a dashboard with the indication of the number of tracking attempts being terminated is quite shocking to see. On the first day, alone, I had already hundreds of tracking requests blocked, including websites that I believed to be safe. It makes you question the extent to which you are being tracked online, as well. Uninterrupted Surfing, No Glitches. It happened that one of my concerns was that by blocking out all this stuff websites are going to run slowly or even break. But Norton Anti Track has been strangely easy. There are no problems with pages loading, and I seldom have certain layout problems. In case a site complains or behaves weirdly, then it is easy to add it into an exception list. Perfect Person Closet to Privacy. It can be said that this tool keeps you more in control regardless of whether you are privacy-conscious or just want fewer ads about you. It is particularly helpful in cases when you often shop online or use social media platforms as the latter are infamous in their aggressive tracking. The second advantage is that it could not conflict with your current antivirus, VPN, or ad blocker, thus you will not have to rearrange the current components. Room for Improvement The only additional feature I would like to have is a feature of more customization on the higher-level users (a more detailed record of activities or a more detailed control of particular tracker categories). However, with the rest of the world, the simplicity is in fact a huge advantage. As the name of the product Norton AntiTrack suggests, it actually does what it promises: it places trackers off the back and actually makes your internet activities significantly privateer. It does not slow things down and does so quietly while in the background, it provides the gratifying feeling of control over your own data once more. When you are sick of being stalked around the internet or you are after an additional form of privacy and do not want to go to any technicality, then Norton AntiTrack is actually worth trying it.

You're being tracked constantly online. It's how you can do a search for something on your phone and then later that day pull up YouTube on your TV and suddenly you'll start seeing ads for what you searched for hours ago. Install was quick and easy. The program/browser extension is light and doesn't slow anything down. It gives you a log of everything that it has blocked that has been trying to track you. It tracks fingerprinting, which is the profile that websites build on you based on software, hardware, etc. It tracks/blocks ads and analytics (what you click on and interact with), social media (what you view/do outside of their websites, and shopping/browsing choices. Your digital fingerprint is who you are and what you like to these websites/companies. It's one way they make money. The track log can be filtered by today, 7 days, 30 days, 60 days and 90 days and breaks down how many trackers are in which category and what websites were using them. Going through this record is where it becomes questionable for me. Most of the list makes sense. It's from websites that I have visited. However, on the list is a website that I haven't visited in over 10 years, and another one that I've never been to. So, are they tracking me just from a Google search? Was there an ad for that particular website on a different page that I visited? I don't remember seeing any from those places. Interestingly, Norton says that they blocked 6 trackers...from themselves. Being that the entire product is about not being tracked, you'd think that they would be one company that wouldn't track you. I guess at least they're honest about it. You can set up an email mask that is a random string of gibberish/words at a @norton.me address. It's not something that I will use. My main email address is Gmail and anytime I just want to see a price or something that requires you to submit your email I just use an old Yahoo email address that I never look at. That way, any spam/junk just goes there instead of my main email address. Overall, I don't really think that it is beneficial enough to be worth it, at least not for me. We're all being tracked whether we like it or not. For example, my computer at work still tracks me, and because I'm tied to it and my phone as well, having it on my laptop at home is only really helping 1/3 of the problem. Obviously my company wouldn't allow me to install anything on their computer. Without having it on every internet connected device you own (phone, laptop, work computer, etc.) , you're not really doing anything.

Really nice anti tracking software. Install was very easy, I just had to create a Norton account with my email and then I redeemed my key and I chose to download the Windows app. Install was fast and it also prompted me to install a web browser extension (on my case, for Google Chrome). Extension was light and I didn't notice any issues loading my most frequented sites. The app running in the background protecting windows has a dashboard that tells me which trackers and by whom were detected and if I wanted to delete them. My biggest worry was this, I've heard horror stories about these programs heavy on resources, but to my surprise, looking at the task manager (check pic), it was very light in its footprint, very low RAM and barely any CPU usage, this is what I wanted to see. Its really good at catching trackers and telling me what it is catching and blocking. It also gives you the option to enable its email anti tracker, you can either enable or leave this disabled, I like it doesn't force anything on you, you can choose which parts of the anti tracker you want enabled or disabled. I used to use Norton utilities way in the day, I remember their nice hard drive bad sector scanner. Lately they got a bad rap from being heavy on resources, but from what I could test, at least this anti tracker app is very lightweight, so I'm keeping it. I don't like being tracked online and I value my online privacy, thanks Norton, and keep it light!

Norton has been around for years and I’ve used their Antivirus software several times in the past(many years ago). And I thought hey why not try their anti tracking software right!? Well I’ve been using this software for a week now and all I can really say is that it works, you know because it pops up every so often even if you are playing a game which I do a lot. Not something I love as you can’t just click it away but you can turn off the pop up settings in windows I believe. It will show you how many things were blocked and that’s cool and all but and while browsing I didn’t see any slow down it felt a little snappier but hard to say if that’s placebo or not. I don’t browse on my pc a lot I mainly game on it and I shop on my phone like most people. I will say that these types of software do not bog your system down like they used to back in the day. So that is very nice to see. I did notice that I had to re log into a few websites after installing Norton antitrack. Not a huge deal but it is technically a cookie and this blocks those to help with the tracking. It is a fair price but personally after my subscription is done I don’t think I will need it. Again this works and is great if you browse on your pc and shop but for me it’s not necessary. But I’m glad at least I tried it and I know it’s not important for my use case. It might be useful to you.

Review of Norton Antitrack for Blocking Trackers and Protecting Privacy Online. The anti track for blocking Trackers and Protecting Privacy Online from Norton seems a simple implementation to a complex problem parse as is indicated in its own name. It is simple in a sense how it does is installing a browser extension that result of adding an extra icon on the URL field of the browser on the top, next to the browser extension icon. Previous to going in detail, the installation consist of downloading Norton Antitrack application, a separate one from rest of other Norton solutions. As result, for existing users of Norton, this mean a new app being installed. From the installed application initiate the installation of the extension on the browser, then need to setup the security access depending on the OS. In case of Mac OS or iOS, needed to grant Allow option. But after these, that conclude the installation and setup. Then based on website can opt to Exception to track, which would be added in the Exception List accessible via the AntiTracker icon (within its setup icon) from the Browser URL field on the top. Now how it does work, based the website opened, via AntiTracker icon can see if there is tracking or not. In case there isn’t, it shows the message “Tracking & Fingerprinting 0 Trackers found”. If there is, it shows a kind of dashboard that indicates: -Tracker Levels color indicator by High, Medium, Low / Fingerprinting -Total Number of Blocked on website name - Section that list Ads/Analytics and Total Count of number of blocked url of tracking companies Example from just opening Bustbuy.com list: Icon High - criteo.com Icon High - demdex.net Icon High - doubleclick.net Icon High - googletagmanager.com Icon High - adsafeproected.com Icon High - c.contentsquare.net Total Count 6 Social/Media and Total Count of number of blocked url of tracking companies Icon High - gstatic.com Total Count 1 These result is visible from the applications and list by time line period. As part of functionalities, for case of website is not opening properly, the tool give option to “Fix it” for “Site not working correctly”. And the option to “Allow tracking and profiling for this site” As result, in overall, the AntiTracker provides a comprehensive way to see and understand what and which sites tracking based on the url and site opened. Then a quickly actionable options as control of the tracking and the page being opened. What I wish it were better: 1. For existing user of Norton Security, the Antitracker is not part of the same application having to install second one or totally separate one. 2. Applying in multiple devices, there isn’t a central place to observe the tracking and privacy detection blocked at all the devices installed with AntiTracker. 3. After its installation, opening sites result some delay loading the page. Based on my test, it goes from 5 sec to 15 secs. 4. For the option “Fix”, if the page is loaded correctly, the button should be grayed out as Norton Application would detect it automatically. And enabled only when it is detected incorrectly loaded page. Otherwise, feels like always the page has not been working correctly. 5. The color indicator seems not supported for accessibilities as upon selection of color doesn’t show mouse hover like text. Aside of the above list of wish it work better, the tools is simple and comprehensive with simple analytics. To end, despite of the detection of blocked name being provided by the tool, personally not sure if really it has blocked and the data has not been passthrough. But otherwise, it is easy to use and give some idea of what is involved.