Cliqz makes Ghostery anti-tracking tool open source

German company Cliqz, which acquired Ghostery about a year ago, has announced that it is making the anti-tracking software open source. This should enable people to check the source code and participate in the development.

In the announcement of the decision, Cliqz writes that the decision is a step towards greater transparency. Already at the takeover in February of last year, the German company said that its own product with the Ghostery addition would remain open source, although it was not immediately clear at the time whether Ghostery itself would also become open source. Cliqz is developing a ‘privacy browser’ of the same name, which ensures that collected data cannot be traced back to an individual. Ghostery ensures that trackers are blocked in their entirety. The source code of the tool, which is available as a browser extension, can now be found on GitHub.

Jeremy Tillman, who does product management for Ghostery, explains to Wired that the tool will make money in two ways. In the first place, there will be a paid product for those interested who ‘want to learn more about the ecosystem of web pages and trackers’. A clear description of the service, which is called Ghostery Insights, is not given. The second method is called Ghostery Rewards and is an opt-in system called Ghostery Deals, through which users receive information about, for example, offers or discounts on a certain product.

Ghostery was in the news even before the acquisition, because it sold user data to advertising companies. The company said it did not include data that would enable targeted advertising or the identification of individual users. According to the company, the passing on of data could be prevented by leaving Ghostrank disabled. In 2015, the company announced a consumer messaging platform that would allow users to see product announcements and other advertisements in their browsers.