Measuring third party tracker power across web and mobile

Third-party networks collect vast amounts of data about users via web sites and mobile applications. Consolidations among tracker companies can significantly increase their individual tracking capabilities, prompting scrutiny by competition regulators. Traditional measures of market share, based on...

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Bibliografische gegevens
Hoofdauteurs: Binns, R, Zhao, J, Van Kleek, M, Shadbolt, N
Formaat: Journal article
Gepubliceerd in: Association for Computing Machinery 2018
Omschrijving
Samenvatting:Third-party networks collect vast amounts of data about users via web sites and mobile applications. Consolidations among tracker companies can significantly increase their individual tracking capabilities, prompting scrutiny by competition regulators. Traditional measures of market share, based on revenue or sales, fail to represent the tracking capability of a tracker, especially if it spans both web and mobile. This paper proposes a new approach to measure the concentration of tracking capability, based on the reach of a tracker on popular websites and apps. Our results reveal that tracker prominence and parent-subsidiary relationships have significant impact on accurately measuring concentration.