Control what you include! Server-side protection against third party web tracking

Abstract

Third party tracking is the practice by which third parties recognize users accross different websites as they browse the web. Recent studies show that more than 90% of Alexa top 500 websites [38] contain third party content that is tracking its users across the web. Website developers often need to include third party content in order to provide basic functionality. However, when a developer includes a third party content, she cannot know whether the third party contains tracking mechanisms. If a website developer wants to protect her users from being tracked, the only solution is to exclude any third-party content, thus trading functionality for privacy. We describe and implement a privacy-preserving web architecture that gives website developers a control over third party tracking: developers are able to include functionally useful third party content, the same time ensuring that the end users are not tracked by the third parties.