How you're being watched online: JavaScript, pixels and beacons on a typical Shopify site. 🛒👀
Channel: Scott Schiller
Date: 2023-10-06

You know those emails, "complete your purchase," when you had something in the cart but didn't buy? Ever wonder how they know? Here's why we can't have nice things when shopping online.

I think the average person would be a bit surprised, and a little disappointed, if they found out how many different pixels, beacons, analytics and marketing / re-targeting services are loaded on the average web site. Some organizations have been doing a great job calling attention to this stuff, and browser makers have also been implementing countermeasures to help protect end users. Ultimately, it's a cat-and-mouse game; at minimum, I don't believe anyone should use a web browser without an ad blocker installed.

These things exist and are used because they work; marketing helps business make sales, and the techniques that are effective are the ones that get used until they fall out of favour. However, I consider myself a motivated customer. I appreciate privacy and informed choice, and I really dislike being pushed with marketing messages and "stuff I don't need." Thanks to tools like uMatrix, it seems there's a lot online that I don't need, after all!

Personally, I use Adblock Plus, uMatrix, and uBlock Origin all together in Firefox and Chrome. uMatrix is incredibly helpful in showing third-party requests, and gives an idea of the sheer amount of non-essential "stuff" that loads on a typical site.

On a side note, I browse the web quite cynically - I'm aware of that. Most sites are broken for me at first, until I sort out which third-party bits are essential for them to work. ;)

Finally, I should mention: I bought one of these cables, without issue. The cart and checkout flow worked just fine even though I had quite a lot of things blocked. 😤🎉

I hear people say "I don't care, what's the big deal, I have nothing to hide" - and most of this may be largely harmless with regards to shopping, but trackers are everywhere. I have always wanted a nicer and more privacy-friendly web - and I'm willing to take steps to browse it my way.

" The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons."

"There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!"

Ben Kingsley, "Sneakers", 1992. My favourite movie of all time.
https://youtu.be/tjOr03DoYBQ?t=120

00:00 Shopping Cart Intro
00:28 AdBlock Plus, uMatrix, uBlock Origin
00:52 uMatrix: First-party vs. third-party blocking
01:16 avada.io: (email) marketing automation
01:43 eComposer: "Landing page builder"
01:55 Shogun: "No-code visual page builder"
02:01 lobuybtn.com JavaScript: Amazon/Walmart/eBay-styled buttons
02:43 nfcube.com: "Shopify apps"
02:55 zalify.com: "One-click installation pixels" - behavioural tracking
03:24 Analysis of third-party domains, what to block vs. allow