What is a tracking pixel? How websites monitor online habits

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — When you go online, whether from your phone, laptop or tablet, many times you're being watched. A fact that many online users we spoke with say is becoming the norm.

"It's become such a common place nowadays. Amazon tracks you," said Dean Moore.

"We've talked as a family where we've had a conversation, and the next thing you know my wife is getting something that we talked about. You know, an ad for it," added Mark Carlasdio.

Why, you may ask, is it important that what we browse online be monitored? More importantly, how is it being done? Enter something called a tracking pixel.

Knoxville realtor says housing market has 'come back', predicts rates going down in 2025

"Tracking pixels are very similar to cookies with some exceptions," said Jamie Tucker. Host of our ' What The Tech ' segment seen daily on 6 News at 5:30. "They work a lot like cookies in that they track your activity when you are online. So, if you click on something, you open a website, if you go from one website to another or if you subscribe to something. This tracking pixel is going to send this information back to their server."

It is important to note, where a cookie lives on your browser, Tucker tells us, a tracking pixel will send the information it gathers back to another party's server.

"So, it's going to collect your IP address. It's going to collect the kind of device you are using to access that website, whether that be a mobile device, or windows or MAC software. It's going to send that information that is very valuable to advertisers and marketers and the website owner."

So, if tracking pixels are gathering all this information, then where is it? Believe it or not, it's actually right in front of you.

"You think about it, you've got 2 million pixels on this computer screen. It's impossible to find just one. Impossible. Not even with a magnifying glass could you find one in two million so it's a needle in a haystack kind of thing," said Tucker.

East TN motorcycle club launches Christmas toy drive for flooding victims

By definition, a pixel is a dot or square that forms part of a digital image. It's approximate size, 1/96th of an inch. Which leads us to ponder, like cookies, can we opt out of tracking pixels when we look at a particular website. The answer is yes, but you have to know where to look.

"The law is not as visible to the user as cookies are. But, the websites, marketer's, and advertisers are required to notify the user that there is going to be a pixel on this website. Where does it do that? It's in the privacy policy," said Tucker. "No one looks at the privacy policy.. no one reads this insane privacy policy. So, what are you going to do? You're going to visit every website and scroll down to the very bottom and click on that privacy policy and go through all of that. No, we're not going to do that."

Browsing in incognito mode doesn't protect you as much as you might think

That's why, when it comers to tracking pixels, at least for now, it may be what Tucker calls the price of doing businesses in this day and age.

"You want to go to ESPN to look for the latest baseball and football scores? They can't give this away for free. This is how they make money," he explained.

A realization many online users we spoke with say they have to learn to accept.

"Yeah, you have to be conscious of it. You have to know it's there. We've heard that You Tube, TikTok, all that tracks it. Which they're going to. I mean how do they pay for their platform, if they don't have advertisers for it. So, it's a catch 22," said Mark Carlasdio.