Last scan: 2026-10-12 16:57 UTC · from GitHub servers in the US

Which news sites contact the most tracking services before you click anything?

Each page is loaded with no clicks and no consent given, three times, and we count the third-party tracking services it contacts. These are counts, not verdicts: read the method and its limits before drawing conclusions.

Example reading of the Browser check page: four summary tiles (details a script could read, signs of fingerprint defences, ad filter in the browser, privacy signals), a combined code, and the first two details with their labels. Analyse your browser What can any web page read about your browser? Free, nothing is sent or stored.
41sites measured
36contacted at least one tracking service
7could not be measured
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Two free tools, no approval needed. They run automatically from a public GitHub issue.

Analyse an address

One measurement of any public site: how many third-party tracking services it contacts before any interaction. Not added to the ranking.

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A short link that shows where it leads, and what we measured there, before the visitor continues. It never redirects by itself.

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What you get here

One weekly, reproducible measurement of third-party tracking on news sites, with open data and its limits stated. Everything below is published, and nothing here is a verdict.

The weekly ranking

Which tracking services each site contacts before you click anything, with a fixed band, a week-to-week comparison and the raw reports behind every number.

See the sites

Companies

How many of the measured sites each company's tracking services reach, for example “Google on 19 of 29 sites”.

See the companies

Weight

How much of what a page downloads comes from third parties, in megabytes, not just in counts.

How it is measured

Countries

The same pages measured from different places, because what loads often depends on where the reader is. Volunteers can add their own country, always labelled unverified.

Compare countries

After the banner

What happens once you press the banner's “reject” or “accept” button: does the tracking stop, and are there new trackers?

See the test

Blocking list

The same pages with a public privacy filter list applied: how much third-party traffic disappears, and what still loads.

See the test

Filter lists

Our list of tracking domains as a file for the ad and tracker blocker you already use: one with only verified entries, one with all of them.

Get the lists

Open data

CSV and JSON downloads, full history and the raw request log of every pass, free to reuse with credit (CC BY 4.0).

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Why also test what happens after a click? The weekly ranking deliberately never clicks anything, so it shows the state before you have made any choice. But many sites load very little until you accept, and others keep contacting trackers even after you reject, so a count taken before the click can be misleading in both directions. The two tests above press one consent button, or block a public list, in separate runs and publish the results next to the ranking without changing it. They help answer a simple question: does my choice at the banner change what the site does? They are limited by what our detector can find, and a number there is a measured fact, not a finding of wrongdoing.

Sites

Tracking services = third-party services classified as advertising, analytics, social or audience measurement. The band is a fixed range of that count (see the ranges), not a verdict. Click a column heading to sort.

Country Confidence Trend
The Independent UK 97 E 202 1597 4.2 MB (71%) high +1 2026-10-04: 942026-10-09: 962026-10-12: 97
Daily Mirror UK 94 E 185 914 6.3 MB (76%) high -2 2026-10-04: 942026-10-09: 962026-10-12: 94
Evening Standard UK 93 E 182 1719 3.1 MB (69%) high +68 2026-10-04: 912026-10-09: 252026-10-12: 93
The Times UK 90 E 141 582 4.5 MB (39%) high +7 2026-10-04: 912026-10-09: 832026-10-12: 90
USA Today US 89 E 178 919 3.8 MB (84%) high -2 2026-10-04: 872026-10-09: 912026-10-12: 89
Associated Press US 82 – 172 929 12.1 MB (81%) low – 2026-10-09: 882026-10-12: 82
New York Post US 82 E 162 573 6.7 MB (14%) high -3 2026-10-04: 902026-10-09: 852026-10-12: 82
The Guardian UK 80 E 123 433 1.8 MB (59%) high +6 2026-10-04: 762026-10-09: 742026-10-12: 80
CBS Sports US 73 E 114 501 11.7 MB (80%) high -3 2026-10-04: 782026-10-09: 762026-10-12: 73
The Sun UK 73 E 115 405 4.3 MB (74%) high +11 2026-10-04: 712026-10-09: 622026-10-12: 73
Fox News US 65 E 106 430 6.0 MB (36%) high 0 2026-10-04: 642026-10-09: 652026-10-12: 65
The Telegraph UK 56 E 84 327 3.3 MB (42%) high +4 2026-10-04: 632026-10-09: 522026-10-12: 56
BBC News UK 55 E 79 276 3.0 MB (46%) high +52 2026-10-04: 522026-10-09: 32026-10-12: 55
AS ES 34 – 64 256 1.7 MB (66%) low – –
NBC News US 32 D 70 322 5.2 MB (52%) high +1 2026-10-04: 332026-10-09: 312026-10-12: 32
El Mundo ES 23 C 47 255 4.0 MB (47%) high 0 2026-10-09: 232026-10-12: 23
ESPN US 18 C 30 118 3.7 MB (53%) high -8 2026-10-04: 262026-10-09: 262026-10-12: 18
El Confidencial ES 14 C 29 629 14.1 MB (74%) high 0 2026-10-09: 142026-10-12: 14
elDiario.es ES 12 C 26 304 8.8 MB (74%) high +1 2026-10-09: 112026-10-12: 12
Marca ES 12 C 19 64 2.1 MB (48%) high 0 2026-10-09: 122026-10-12: 12
SPORT ES 11 C 25 98 2.9 MB (28%) high +2 2026-10-09: 92026-10-12: 11
ABC ES 9 B 18 77 1.4 MB (43%) high 0 2026-10-09: 92026-10-12: 9
Mundo Deportivo ES 7 B 20 62 1.8 MB (55%) high 0 2026-10-09: 72026-10-12: 7
20minutos ES 6 B 17 83 2.2 MB (37%) high 0 2026-10-09: 62026-10-12: 6
La Vanguardia ES 5 B 16 41 1.2 MB (50%) high -1 2026-10-09: 62026-10-12: 5
Sport1 DE 5 B 12 35 617 kB (7%) high 0 2026-10-04: 52026-10-09: 52026-10-12: 5
Financial Times UK 4 B 5 10 516 kB (22%) medium – 2026-10-04: 42026-10-09: 42026-10-12: 4
CNN US 3 B 13 37 4.4 MB (7%) high 0 2026-10-04: 32026-10-09: 32026-10-12: 3
n-tv DE 2 A 13 39 869 kB (22%) high 0 2026-10-04: 22026-10-09: 22026-10-12: 2
Süddeutsche Zeitung DE 2 A 9 37 352 kB (13%) high 0 2026-10-04: 22026-10-09: 22026-10-12: 2
Los Angeles Times US 1 A 5 70 1.3 MB (64%) high 0 2026-10-04: 12026-10-09: 12026-10-12: 1
Bild DE 1 A 4 47 482 kB (14%) high 0 2026-10-04: 12026-10-09: 12026-10-12: 1
Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) DE 1 A 7 42 730 kB (21%) high 0 2026-10-04: 12026-10-09: 12026-10-12: 1
Sky Sports UK 1 A 7 28 1.4 MB (69%) high 0 2026-10-04: 12026-10-09: 12026-10-12: 1
Focus Online DE 1 A 5 7 240 kB (13%) high 0 2026-10-04: 12026-10-09: 12026-10-12: 1
Die Welt DE 1 A 2 3 24 kB (2%) high 0 2026-10-04: 12026-10-09: 12026-10-12: 1
t-online DE 0 A 2 18 402 kB (19%) high 0 2026-10-04: 02026-10-09: 02026-10-12: 0
Relevo ES 0 A 2 9 83 kB (7%) high 0 2026-10-09: 02026-10-12: 0
kicker DE 0 A 2 8 345 kB (99%) high 0 2026-10-04: 02026-10-09: 02026-10-12: 0
Tagesschau DE 0 A 2 5 267 kB (13%) high 0 2026-10-04: 02026-10-09: 02026-10-12: 0
Der Spiegel DE 0 A 1 2 130 kB (4%) high 0 2026-10-04: 02026-10-09: 02026-10-12: 0
Where the page is loaded from matters. Many outlets change what loads depending on the visitor's country, for example showing a consent wall to readers in the UK and the EU that blocks most trackers until they choose. A count measured from GitHub servers in the US describes that vantage point, not what a reader in another country sees. See the same sites measured from GitHub servers in the US and a PC in Spain.

“Vs last week” compares the number of tracking services only when both weeks were measured under the same conditions; otherwise it shows a dash. 7 sites refused automated access or could not be measured: see why.

How this measurement was made

2026-10-12scan ran 16:21 UTC to 16:57 UTC
3×12 spasses × observation window, no clicks, no consent
GitHub servers in the USmeasured from (banners and redirects vary by country)
v0.1.0tool version · chromium 153.0.8010.12
152entries in the classification list

Every figure can be traced to a raw report. Method and limits · Which companies reach the most sites · Download the table (CSV) · All downloads · About and corrections

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The table above looks at the sites. The Browser check looks at you: press a button and see what a script on any page can read about your browser, in plain words. Nothing is sent or stored.

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Raw data

Every report is published as JSON, with the full history and a JSON index as CSV and JSON for journalists and researchers.

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