As an average user browsing online, you expect a connection between your computer and the website you’re visiting to be established. However, as most websites use tracking technologies, advertisements and cookie banners, there are very often additional hidden background connections being initiated between you and a third party domain.
The question is just how many of these hidden connections are running in the background unbeknownst to you?
Qreuz carried out a study of 46 top e-commerce stores to find the answer. The websites in this study were ranked by Alexa, as of September 16th, 2020.
You can see the following results represented in the graph below;
- Only 4% of the websites in this study have zero hidden background connections when you visit their sites.
- 33% of them have between 1 and 4 hidden connections to your computer running in the background.
- 30% of them connect your computer to between 5 and 9 third-party sites.
- 24% of the websites establish between 10 and 19 hidden connections between you and third-party domains.
- 9% connect more than 20 external domains to your computer when you visit their websites.
These third-party connections are hidden because, unless you use a privacy protection software or a similar solution, you are likely unaware of them. According to this study, there will be an average of 8 hidden background connections running when you browse e-commerce websites.
