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Using mixed methods to study the historical use of web beacons in web tracking

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Abstract

Historical studies of the use of tracking technologies collecting data about web users and their behaviour can help us understand the spread and implications of web tracking. This article presents a historical study of the use of a specific tracking technology, the web beacon, on the Danish web from 2006 to 2015 using archived web materials from the national Danish web archive. The study combines a large-scale quantitative mapping of the use of web beacons on the Danish web with a qualitative study of specific websites. Using this mixed-method design, the article identifies the prevalent third-party domains setting web beacons and the different purposes for beacon use. The findings show the ratio of Danish to international third-party domains involved in the tracking and the development, over time, of what types of beacon providers are dominant on the Danish web. The article also addresses the methodological challenges related to using archived web for a mixed-method historical study of web tracking.

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Notes

  1. A cryptographic hash function is used to assess whether two files are identical and in cases where the file is identical, instead of downloading and storing the file again, a log entry is made in the crawl log with a reference of where the file is already archived. This allows replay software like the Wayback Machine to include the file in replay of later websites using the file, even if it was archived at another point in time.

  2. It is very common to focus on third-party HTTP requests in studies of web tracking (e.g. Libert, 2015), since it is mostly the collection of data across websites (and devices) which is cause for concern.

  3. When looking at the top 500, there are no third-party domains that are only linked to from one other domain, but it includes domains with images embedded in only a few domains. In the top 100, 17 or more domains embed images from these domains.

  4. Top 100 TLDs and ccSLDs in alphabetical order: co.uk, com, cz, de, dk, info, is, net, nl, nu, org, ru, se, us.

  5. Top 500 TLDs and ccSLDs in alphabetical order: al, at, bg, biz, ca, cc, ch, cn, co, co.jp, co.uk, com, com.au, com.tw, cx, cz, de, dk, ee, es, eu, fm, fo, fr, hr., hu, in, info, is, it, jp, li, lt, lv, me.uk, ms, net, nl, no, nu, org, pl, pp.ua, pro, ru, se, ua, us, ws.

  6. The corpus combines the first broad crawl of the year (except in 2011 and 2012, where the second broad crawl is used) with selective crawls from the same period (or closest to it) to get the best possible coverage (Brügger et al., 2020).

  7. As mentioned, the number of domains with beacons from googleadservices.com in 2012 is a substantial outlier, which we have not so far been able to explain.

  8. Ei.dk is a strange case because clicking one of the captures either opens a login module or redirects to either danseek.dk captures (the first time I tried) or sedoparking.com/ei.dk (another time), even though I clicked what should be the same captures. This again speaks to the difficulties of assessing materials in the web archive.

  9. See Brookman et al., 2017; Estrada-Jiménez et al., 2017; Falahrastegar et al., 2014; Gerlitz & Helmond, 2013; Gomez et al., 2009; Krishnamurthy & Wills, 2006, 2009; Macbeth, 2017; Malandrino et al., 2013; Mayer & Mitchell, 2012; Olejnik et al., 2013; Ruohonen & Leppänen, 2018; Schelter & Kunegis, 2016, 2018; Trevisan et al., 2019.

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Web archive references

    The following references list the domain, the date of harvest, and the unique identification number in Netarkivet:

    • adform.net, 29.07.2009, 52214–100–20090729185723-00135-kb-prod-har-004 kb.dk arc.gz/16216639.

    • chart.dk, 01.01.2006, 2873–25–20060101013022-00110-kb-prod-har-001.kb.dk.arc.gz/17272613.

    • chart.dk, 02.07.2007, 13946–38–20070302092854-00148-sb-prod-har-002.statsbiblioteket.dk.arc.gz/540406.

    • cmsstats.com, 14.01.2014, 198220–203–2011401114110058-00000-sb-prod-har-005.statsbiblioteket.warc.gz/9186625.

    • extremetracking.com/?reg, 23.07.2009, 51645–100–20090723011652-001188-sb-prod-har-004.arc"gz/62161493.

    • quantcast.com, 20.01.2011, 106159–123–20110120095603-00096-kb-prod-har-004.kb.dk.arc.gz/352401.

    • zipstat.dk, 03.01.2006, 2905–25–20060103145121-00060-kb-prod-har-001 kb.dk arc.gz/56467885.

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    Acknowledgements

    The author wishes to thank Asger Askov Blekinge, The Royal Danish Library, and Ulrich Karstoft Have, NetLab/ DIGHUMLAB, Aarhus University, for providing indispensable expertise in the use of Netarkivet and the DeiC National Cultural Heritage Cluster. Thanks also to The DeiC National Cultural Heritage Cluster, NetLab/DIGHUMLAB, Aarhus University, and The Center for Humanities Computing Aarhus, Aarhus University.

    Funding

    Part of this research was supported by the DeiC National Cultural Heritage Cluster, The Royal Danish Library and NetLab/DIGHUMLAB, Aarhus University.

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    1. Department of Media and Journalism Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

      Janne Nielsen

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    1. Janne Nielsen
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    Correspondence to Janne Nielsen.

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    Nielsen, J. Using mixed methods to study the historical use of web beacons in web tracking. Int J Digit Humanities 2, 65–88 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42803-021-00033-4

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