Over half of the emails you receive contain trackers that are designed to discover private information about you. Trackbuster is a new online service that removes the trackers and protects your online privacy.
Most people don't realize it, but a huge percentage of the emails they are receiving and opening are being tracked. From marketing firms to governments, anyone can now track emails using easily-acquired browser extensions and apps designed for that purpose.
The information the trackers can divulge includes the user's location and/or IP address and the device and software used to open the email. The trackers can also detect whether an email has actually been opened, a particularly helpful piece of information for marketing companies, which are likely to continue to target users who have opened emails about a particular subject or product.
Now, a new online service called Trackbuster has been developed to combat the online tracking frenzy. According to company founder Florian Seroussi, "We want to give people this feeling that you're now back in control of your email. We agree to give up on some of our privacy because we want a more secure world, but I don't think marketers tracking my email has anything to do with security."
While the service currently works with Gmail only, the company plans on adding additional email platforms in the future. After a user signs up, Trackbuster scans all incoming emails before depositing them in the subscriber's inbox, each with a notification that the email has been processed and trackers removed.
"We parse emails and we look for malicious lines of code," notes Seroussi. "We remove it and we blur the information before it's sent to the sender."
The company claims to have scanned over one million emails and removed trackers from over 700 known sources since it began operating on July 9. While the service is currently completely free, the company plans to add additional freemium features in the future.
