Privacy Advisory: 9 Practical Steps to Stop Online Tracking and Reduce Third‑Party Data Exposure
What Happened — ZDNet published a step‑by‑step guide outlining nine actionable measures individuals and organizations can take to limit online tracking, including browser hardening, tracker‑blocking extensions, VPN usage, and data‑removal techniques.
Why It Matters for TPRM —
- Third‑party data collection increases the attack surface for supply‑chain compromise.
- Persistent tracking cookies and fingerprinting can expose employee behavior, revealing business processes to adversaries.
- Reducing digital footprints mitigates risk of credential harvesting and social engineering against partner personnel.
Who Is Affected — All industry sectors that rely on SaaS, cloud services, or remote work; particularly firms handling sensitive customer data (finance, health, government).
Recommended Actions —
- Review vendor‑provided browser and VPN policies; enforce use of privacy‑focused browsers (e.g., Brave, Tor) on corporate devices.
- Deploy organization‑wide tracker‑blocking extensions (e.g., Ghostery, Privacy Badger) via endpoint management.
- Incorporate VPN usage into remote‑access standards and verify no DNS leaks.
- Conduct periodic data‑removal audits for public‑facing profiles and corporate social media.
Technical Notes — The guide does not reference specific CVEs; it focuses on mitigating tracking vectors such as third‑party cookies, browser fingerprinting, and unencrypted DNS queries. Data types at risk include browsing histories, search queries, and inferred personal interests. Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-stop-the-internet-from-tracking-you/