SYSTEMS FOR AND METHODS FOR DETECTING URL WEB TRACKING AND CONSUMER OPT-OUT COOKIES

摘要

An anti-tracking server includes a rendering engine for URL tracking and/or an opt-out cookie web crawler. The rendering engine is configured for emulating a browser visiting a plurality of web sites and processing elements of web content in web pages of the visited web sites. Web communication traffic generated as a result of said processing is captured and analyzed to identify URL tracking patterns. A URL tracking database reflecting identified URL tracking patterns is maintained. The opt-out cookie web crawlers are configured for visiting a second plurality of web sites, identifying hyperlinks pertaining to opt-out cookies in the second plurality of web sites, and following the identified hyperlinks to determine definitive uniform resource locators (URLs) for the opt-out cookies. An opt-out cookie database containing the definitive opt-out cookie URLs is maintained. The server coordinates with an anti-tracking application of a user device to provide the user device with access to information in the URL tracking database and information indicative of the definitive URLs.