Online tracking and why Koofr doesn't do it

Imagine walking into a physical shop, and a member of staff quietly follows you around, writing down every item you touch, how long you look at it, and where you walk next. You’d probably never shop there again.

That sounds invasive, but it’s exactly what happens on almost every website you visit today.

Welcome to Koofr. Because privacy matters.

Online tracking is the practice of collecting data about your behaviour, your device and your identity as you browse the web, usually through cookies, hidden scripts and tracking pixels, so that companies can build a profile of you and use it to target advertising, personalise content, or sell your data. It happens in the background on nearly every web page you load, and it’s the foundation of digital footprint: the trail of data you leave behind without actively choosing to share it.

We’ll break down exactly how online tracking works, how common it is, why Koofr has never taken part in it, and what you can do to take back a bit of control over your online privacy.

How Does Online Tracking Actually Work?

So what actually happens when a website tracks you? Here’s what can be collected, how and why it’s collected, and where that information ends up.

What websites collect

• Everyday actions: clicks, scrolling, time spent on a page and other browsing behaviour.
• Device details: your approximate location, device type, battery level, screen size and internet connection.
• Sensitive information: your search terms, items left in your cart, and your reading or browsing habits.

Why they collect it

• Building a profile: advertisers want to work out your age, income, interests and buying triggers.
• Monetisation: personalisation drives ad clicks. Your behavioural data plays a major role in the online advertising industry.

How they track you

• Invisible trackers: hidden snippets of code, like tracking pixels, embedded inside web pages.
• Third-party cookies: tiny files placed in your browser that log your identity as you move from site to site. Many predicted these would have disappeared by now, but in 2025 Google shelved its plan to phase them out of Chrome altogether, so they remain very much alive.
• Digital fingerprinting: even if you block cookies, sites can read your device’s unique combination of fonts, screen resolution, installed plugins and operating system to build a digital fingerprint that identifies you across the web.

Curious about the cookie side of things specifically? We go into much more detail in The Cookie Apocalypse: What it Means for Your Online Privacy and Experience.

Where your data ends up

• Real-time auctions: the instant you load a page, thousands of ad networks bid against each other in milliseconds to display targeted ads based on your specific profile.
• Data brokers: your profile gets packaged up and sold to third-party data brokers, who trade user habits at scale.
• Hyper-targeting: that product you glanced at once starts following you across sites and social media for weeks afterwards.

Just How Common Is Online Tracking?

According to HTTP Archive’s 2025 Web Almanac, roughly 75% of desktop websites and 74% of mobile websites contain at least one third-party tracker, and over half of desktop pages carry two or more. Google alone has a tracking presence on 61% of the web’s pages.

It isn’t a niche problem, either. AdGuard’s 2025 Ad Tracker Report found that ad trackers now account for over 10% of all global internet traffic, up from under 8% the year before, and the highest share recorded since the survey began.

And the cookie banner you dutifully click through often doesn’t change much. Ghostery’s research found that 90% of the pharmacy websites it tested in Europe and the US kept loading trackers even after users explicitly rejected consent. Many sites start tracking the moment you land on the page, before you’ve even had the chance to click “Accept” or “Decline”.

Why Koofr Doesn’t Track You

Privacy has been part of Koofr’s approach from the beginning. Our service was built around collecting as little user data as possible.

Our philosophy

Our business model doesn’t depend on advertising or collecting user data. Our goal has always been to hold as little personal data about our users as possible, while still giving you a fast, fully functional cloud storage service.

Our no-tracking standard

We do not use any third-party tracking tools on our website or in our services, and we do not put any cookies in your browser beyond the necessary one that keeps you logged in. No analytics and no advertising. Privacy is considered from the start when we design new features - it's not just an afterthought.

Koofr tip: our servers sit within the EU, so your data benefits from some of the world’s strongest data protection standards. Read more about Where are my files being kept?.

How to Reduce Online Tracking Yourself

It’s difficult to avoid online tracking completely, but there are a few simple ways to reduce it:

• Switch to a privacy-focused browser, like Brave or Firefox, both of which block many third-party trackers by default.
• Install a lightweight privacy extension, such as Ghostery or uBlock Origin, for genuinely private web browsing rather than the illusion of it.
• Use a privacy-respecting search engine that doesn’t log your searches and build a profile from them.
• Review your ad personalisation settings in the accounts you already use (Google, Meta, Apple). Most let you limit profiling without losing functionality.
• Support privacy-respecting platforms and companies that reject invasive tracking as a business model.

Read Practical Steps to Manage Your Digital Footprint and learn how to shrink your online trail.

FAQ

Do websites really track you?

Yes, the vast majority do. Recent research puts the figure at roughly three in four websites carrying at least one third-party tracker, and that’s before counting first-party analytics tools most sites also run.

Does incognito or private browsing mode stop tracking?

No. Private browsing mainly prevents your browsing history from being stored locally on your device. Incognito mode tracking protection is very limited: private browsing only stops your history being saved locally on your own device, so it’s hidden from other people who use that computer (though not necessarily from its administrator). It does nothing to hide your IP address, your device fingerprint, or your activity from the external trackers and websites you visit — they can see you just as clearly as they would in a normal window.

Data Privacy Day: 5 Digital Privacy Myths

If I click “Reject all cookies”, can sites still track me?

Often, yes. In practice, many sites either drop tracking cookies before you’ve made a choice, or don’t fully honour your rejection once you make it. Koofr doesn’t use tracking cookies, so users don’t need to opt out of this kind of tracking in the first place.

Online tracking has become a routine part of using the web, but that doesn’t mean every online service has to rely on it. Choosing privacy-focused tools and adjusting your browser settings can reduce the amount of information collected about you.

Koofr. Cloud storage that doesn’t track you.

Want to talk to us? Join our growing Reddit community!

The article is also available in the Slovenian language: Spletno sledenje in zakaj Koofr ne sledi svojim uporabnikom.

Editor's Note: This post was first published in 2019. We've updated and enhanced the content to improve clarity and detail. Whether you're revisiting or reading it for the first time, we hope this improved version offers an even better experience.