TRACKER REMOVED SCORE - PLEASE RESTORE IT

[DIMOJABE]

I don't want to use any of the 'advanced' features on this latest upgrade.  I airgap and limit my "internet PC's" exposure... But, I really liked seeing how many trackers were removed each time I ran CCleaner Professional.

Please restore this critical feature.  It lets me know how vicious the data collection going on around me actually is... and how well my Google dominated Firefox browser plus add-ons are doing to remove/block the trackers.  If I am not going to be paid for the data I generate, I want to know the level/degree of exploitation occurring around me.

When Google took over Mozilla it destroyed their tracker observation tool called Collusion.  They removed the audio alert feature, obscured the diagrams with a worthless dashboard, and re-named it Lightbeam.  The big corps do NOT want us to know how much surveillance we are enduring because they do not want us to start demanding that our privacy be respected.

The trackers removed count made me think CCleaner was on our side.

 

 

[nukecad]

The 'Trackers' that CC reports as found are not what you or I (or anyone else) would call trackers.

The summary report screen used to report every file that it found to clean as a 'tracker', regardless of what the file was.

That's now been incorporated into the new 'Easy Clean' and it now seems to report all cookies as 'Trackers'. (Rather than just saying that everything is a tracker).

A slight improvement, but I doubt that many people would regard any but a very few cookies as 'tracking' what they do.
It's just a marketing ploy.

CCleaner is a junk file cleaner, it is not meant to search for anything malicious like files that are tracking your actions.
For that you need an anti-virus or anti-malware application.

[DIMOJABE]

Thank you so much!!  I have plenty of anti-virus, malware protection and a VPN.

I really wish everyone out here with me in layperson land would understand that cookies are no longer simple files to target advertising.  Mozilla Firefox won't even function if you disable it's cookies in your Firefox browser settings... and then there's location data collection.  Fedex.com won't even let you use their client rating tools unless you allow Adobe Flash to capture your location for Fedex.  They really do seem to be bundled together.    

At some point, we have to realize that the excuse that the software is free to us and has to be paid for in some way - is an excuse that has been left behind by the marketing of our data without any remuneration to us or permission from us.

Maybe someday CCleaner will program up to the level where it can bring visibility to those who would track our activity on-line and sell it.

Thanks again!!

[nukecad]

That's part of how they justify calling all cookies 'Trackers'. It's just a language thing.

Yes, location data could literally be said to be tracking you by saving your current/last location in a cookie.
Many websites you visit will leave a cookie on your computer to say that you visited there (and maybe store how you set the page up, etc. so it's the same if you visit again).
Your browser history could also be said to be tracking which websites you visited.

But historicaly 'tracking files' meant keyloggers, screengrabbers, and the like that tracked/recorded your every activity. - Definite malware that you didn't want on your PC.

So fair enough, language usage changes, but it's important to understand just what is meant when a particular word is used.

Marketing/Advertising people are not above using a particular word in one way to imply that it means something else.

PS. As you are using Firefox are you aware that Malwarebytes now has an add-on for it?
It protects your Firefox browser from Malware/Scams as well as blocking Ads/Clickbait, it's free.
I've been using it for a number of months now, it's blocked/warned of various sites that contained malware. (Including a nasty Ransomware on one site. I already knew it was there but the block/warning showed that the addon protection was working as it should).
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/malwarebytes/