Blacklight searched 2 pages on
cnet.com at 29th September 2026 20:22 ET.
For more information on the files in this
report
please visit our Github
Repository.
Blacklight works by visiting each website with a headless browser running custom software built by The Markup. To learn more, read our methodology.
Websites containing advertising tracking technology load JavaScript code or small invisible images that are used to either build your advertising profile or to identify you for ad targeting on this site. These techniques are often used in addition to cookies to profile you.,Blacklight detected trackers on this page sending data to companies involved in online advertising. Blacklight detected scripts belonging to Microsoft Corporation, OpenX Technologies Inc, and seventeen other companies.
These are commonly used by advertising tracking companies to profile you based on your internet usage.,Blacklight detected 11 third-party cookies on this site. Blacklight detected cookies set for Ziff Davis LLC, Alphabet, Inc. and and three others
The inspected website contacted some well known actors in the ad-tech industry. Not all of these loaded trackers, so they may be different from those listed in the tests section above. For more information on each company, what it does, and which of its domains Blacklight found during the inspection, click the arrow. Reading this can give you a better idea of how the ad-tech industry works.
Blacklight detected this website sending user data to Alphabet, the technology conglomerate that encompasses Google and associated companies like Nest. The Silicon Valley giant collects data from twice the number of websites as its closest competitor, Facebook. An Alphabet spokesperson told The Markup that internet users can go here if they want to opt out of the company showing them targeted ads based on their browsing history. ,The site sent information to the following domains 2mdn.net, doubleclick.net, google-analytics.com, googlesyndication.com, googletagmanager.com, googletagservices.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to Amazon, which has a wide variety of business units. The most commonly appearing Amazon trackers in our scan of popular sites in September 2020 were those for CloudFront and its marketing research arm, Alexa, which helps marketers improve their search engine performance and provides site operators insights about the popularity of their websites. (This Alexa is unrelated to Amazon’s virtual assistant of the same name.) Representatives from Amazon did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain amazon-adsystem.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to Comscore, a company that monitors traffic on millions of websites to create market research data on how people use the internet, which it sells to advertisers, according to The Guardian. The company’s analytics also incorporate user data collected from its dozens of corporate partners, such as Facebook, Oracle, and Salesforce, according to its own website. Representatives from Comscore did not respond to multiple requests for comment. , The site sent information to the following domain scorecardresearch.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to the advertising technology company Criteo, which a company spokesperson told The Markup specializes in what are called “retargeting campaigns,” targeting advertisements across the internet at people who have already visited the advertiser's digital properties. Decisions about which previous site visitors to target are made with profiles compiled by the company about consumers’ interests and previous shopping behavior. Speaking in July 2020, CEO Megan Clarken said that the company had data on “2.5 billion unique users globally, of which 98 percent had persistent identifiers beyond cookies.” , The site sent information to the following domain criteo.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to DoubleVerify, an ad tech company that says it helps advertisers, online advertising exchanges, and site operators track ad performance, prevent fraud, and ensure ads are only running next to content with which advertisers are comfortable. Representatives from DoubleVerify did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain doubleverify.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to OpenX, an online advertising exchange. Ad exchanges are online marketplaces where advertisers can bid against each other to place ads on various websites. OpenX specializes in real-time bidding, according to its website, which is when ads are targeted at individual web users based on profiles assembled about their demographics and prior behavior. It also says on its website that ads placed by the exchange reach more than 240 million U.S. consumers each month. Representatives from OpenX did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain openx.net.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to the online advertising company Pubmatic. Pubmatic is a portal for site operators to offer space on their website for sale to advertisers. The company also runs an “identity hub” that, a PubMatic spokesperson told The Markup, helps advertisers use the data they’ve acquired from a third party— a data broker, for example—to target ads to the specific interests of someone visiting a website. , The site sent information to the following domain pubmatic.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to Magnite. Created by the 2020 merger of ad tech companies Rubicon Project and Telaria, Magnite places advertisements on more than million websites and apps. The company claims to have reached more than a billion consumers with ads placed on websites, mobile apps, and streaming videos. Representatives from Magnite did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain rubiconproject.com.
Blacklight results should not be taken as the final word on potential privacy violations by a given website. Rather, they should be treated as an initial automated inspection that requires further investigation before a definitive claim can be made.