Blacklight searched 2 pages on
theverge.com at 29th September 2026 20:22 ET.
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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 Lucid Holdings, LLC, Microsoft Corporation, and fifty-seven other companies.
These are commonly used by advertising tracking companies to profile you based on your internet usage.,Blacklight detected 110 third-party cookies on this site. Blacklight detected cookies set for Outbrain, Amobee, Inc and and forty-eight others
Key logging is when a website captures the text that you type into a webpage before you hit the submit button. This technique has been used to identify anonymous web users by matching them to postal addresses and real names. This technique was used by four percent of popular websites when we scanned them in September 2020.,On the site you are inspecting, information entered in the postal-code field was logged. , Blacklight detected a script belonging to the company Connatix doing this on this site.
There are other reasons for key logging, such as providing autocomplete functionality. Blacklight cannot determine the intent behind the inspected website’s use of this technique.
The X pixel is a snippet of code that sends data back to X (previously known as Twitter) about people who visit this site and allows the site operator to later target them with ads on X. A user doesn’t have to be “simultaneously logged into X and viewing a third-party website for our business tools to function.” Common actions that can be tracked via pixel include viewing a page or specific content, adding payment information, or making a purchase.
This site uses Google Analytics and seems to use its ”remarketing audiences” feature that enables user tracking for targeted advertising across the internet. This feature allows a website to build custom audiences based on how a user interacts with this particular site and then follow those users across the internet and target them with advertising on other sites using Google Ads and Display & Video 360. A Google spokesperson told The Markup that site operators are supposed to inform visitors when data collected with this feature is used to connect this browsing data with someone’s real-world identity. You know when those shoes you were looking at follow you around the internet? This is one of the trackers leading to that. This feature appeared in fifty percent of popular websites when we scanned them in September 2020.
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 the inspected website sending user data to Adobe. While Adobe is primarily associated with creative design products, a company spokesperson told The Markup that it also offers a suite of digital marketing products. Of the Adobe trackers that appeared in our scan of popular websites in September 2020, the most common were Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Advertising Cloud. Audience Manager helps advertisers build profiles of consumers based on their web browsing history and other data to target both ads and content on their own websites. Advertising Cloud sells ads on websites, streaming video, or TV, and tracks their performance. , The site sent information to the following domain demdex.net.
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.com, googleapis.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 the ad tech company IPONWEB. The company’s Bidswitch subsidiary functions as an interchange between the platforms where publishers sell advertising space and the platforms where advertisers buy ads. An IPONWEB spokesperson told The Markup that the company also builds bespoke online platforms for other companies involved in digital advertising. Digiday called IPONWEB’s founder “the Godfather of Ad Tech.”,The site sent information to the following domains bidswitch.net, mfadsrvr.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to LiveRamp. Using its own, unique identifier for each individual, LiveRamp verifies that data held by Company A is about the same person as the data held by Company B. LiveRamp also operates a Data Store, where advertisers can purchase datasets, like this one, about consumers from LiveRamp’s corporate partners. , The site sent information to the following domain pippio.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to Lotame. Lotame operates a warehouse of user information, including the different devices likely used by a person, that marketers can append to user profiles they’ve assembled. The company also operates what it says is the world’s largest marketplace where companies can directly buy and sell user data. In 2017, a Lotame executive told DMN that the company had four billion user profiles. Representatives from Lotame did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain crwdcntrl.net.
Blacklight detected this website sending user data to the analytics company Neustar. Beginning as a division of the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, Neustar managed the system that assigned three-digit area codes to U.S. phone numbers. Neustar now provides advertisers “accurate targeting based on ZIP, age, and gender, but also a wide range of attributes, including brand preferences, product affinities, and psychographic variables.” Representatives from Neustar did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain agkn.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 the analytics company Quantcast. A Quantcast spokesperson told The Markup that the company collects data about a website’s visitors and “provides it in aggregated, de-identified form to publishers based on the overall demographics of the collection of user cookies based on visits to their websites.” Quantcast builds “psychographic” metrics of the types of people who visit a given site, which are enhanced with third-party data about web users from the company’s corporate partners. The company claims to have data about the audience visiting more than 100 million mobile and web destinations., The site sent information to the following domain quantserve.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 detected the inspected website sending user data to Sovrn, which helps publishers monetize "affiliate links". When a user clicks on a link and then buys the product or service, the site operator gets a cut of the proceeds. A Sovrn spokesperson told The Markup that its tracking technology is used to ensure the site operators receive their commissions. Sovrn also assists site operators in selling advertisers the de-identified data the sites collect about visitors., The site sent information to the following domain lijit.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to Tower Data, an ad tech company that creates profiles of web users anchored to their email address, according to its website. It also sells data about voters to political campaigns. Representatives from Tower Data did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain rlcdn.com.
Blacklight detected the inspected website sending user data to Verizon. While best known for providing cellphone and broadband service, Verizon has gained a significant presence in online advertising through acquisitions of ad-focused companies like AOL and Yahoo!, which offer advertising services in addition to content. Domains associated with Yahoo! and AOL (specifically, advertising.com, which was part of AOL before Verizon’s purchase of the company) appeared the most frequently among the many Verizon-controlled trackers appearing in our scan of popular websites in September 2020. Representatives from Verizon did not respond to multiple requests for comment., The site sent information to the following domain yahoo.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.