Wordle is reportedly now filled with secret ad trackers

Date:
Sat, 19 Feb 2022 04:30:53 +0000

Description:
Ad trackers have been added to Wordle now that the game is being hosted on
The New York Times' website.

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Following its recent acquisition of Wordle , The New York Times has
apparently added ad trackers to the hit web-based word game.

The news outlet acquired Wordle for a 'low' seven figure sum and the game has now joined The New York Times Crossword and the rest of its online games. However, unlike Vertex, Spelling Bee, Tiles and its Crossword, Wordle can still be played for free without a subscription.

When Jason Worlde first launched his online word game back in October of last year, it was completely free and ran on its own website. After being
purchased though, The New York Times changed its web address. The news outlet has also since added ad trackers according to software engineer and architect Ben Adida who examined how the game is being deployed by its new owner and shared his findings on Twitter. Third-party ad trackers

The addition of ad trackers to Wordle that send user data to third party companies including Google and Oracle isn't that surprising.

These days almost all major websites (even this one) use ad trackers for personalization and to serve targeted ads to users but part of the initial appeal of Wordle is that it was completely non-profit without any paid
extras. Read More

Wordle is easier because of The New York Times and I hate it

Even nonprofit websites are riddled with user trackers

The US government wants to ban targeted ads for good

The ad trackers added to Wordle may be part of The New York Times ' plan to recoup some of the money it spent acquiring the game in the first place. However, it could eventually end up being part of the news outlet's online game collection and locked behind a subscription.

Still though, there is no warning that ad trackers are present on the new Wordle site but companies rarely warn users that they're being tracked
online. The New York Times ' main site also contains plenty of ad trackers,
so their addition could just be the result of Wordle now being hosted on the company's domain .

TechRadar Pro reached out to The New York Times for a statement on the
matter but we've yet to hear back at the time of writing. We've also rounded up the best VPN and best proxy

Via Metro



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/wordle-is-reportedly-now-filled-with-secret-ad- trackers/


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