Online trackers know 80 per cent of user’s browsing history: Norton report

Hyderabad: Online tracking is becoming more rampant than most realise and scammers are using pop culture trends to lure victims, says a new report. According to Norton Consumer Cyber Safety Pulse Report online trackers know about 80 per cent of user’s browsing history.

The report says that consumers are tracked as soon as they go online by many different organisations, and trackers collect significantly more of our digital lives than previously reported, including sensitive information about individuals.

The Norton Labs also found that half the tracking organisations encountered by a user in a typical week when browsing, take this data within the initial two-hour browsing period. This suggests that even if users were to clear their browsing history every day, it would only take an average of two hours to re-encounter half of all online trackers, the report informed.

Between October and December 2021, in India, Norton technology blocked 18,796,678 cyberthreats – an average of 204,311 blocks per day.

“While it’s common knowledge that web trackers follow us around the internet, our online privacy researchers were surprised to find that some online trackers know up to 80 per cent of a user’s browsing history,” says Darren Shou, head of technology, NortonLifeLock.

Globally, in 2021 Norton technology blocked

• 3.6 billion cyberthreats worldwide – nearly 10 million blocks per day.

• 53.9 million phishing attempts

• 221 million file threats

• 1.4 million mobile threats

• 253,063 ransomware attacks