Wordle according to the media is the sensational word game of the moment. The New York Times just paid good dollars to acquire the game. Presumably, they think people who like Wordle are more likely to want to subscribe to the New York Times. Or, they think New York Times subscribers are less likely to quit if they have a Wordle addiction.
Business Insider oddly has a hit piece today about data collection using the Wordle app. They allege that after the acquisition, New York Times added more "trackers" to the app.
They didn't say what is being tracked, though.
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But here is the kicker:
What's that?
The drop-down window on the right comes from the Privacy Badger add-on that you can install on your web browser. It identifies and automatically blocks trackers. It's telling me that the Business Insider article that complains about Wordle tracking has embedded 19 potential trackers. Scrolling down that list you will recognize Amazon, Google, etc.
By contrast, the page I'm on right now - composing this blog post - has 1 tracker blocked (Google).
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The act of tracking is not necessarily bad. It's what data they are collecting, how long they are storing the data, whether they merge in your personal details, and what they do with the data. That is where we have almost no transparency.
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