Everywhere I go online I get these little messages about the site using cookies.  So I am sort-of aware of being tracked, though now that I read your post I'm more well-informed.  I don't really know what the alternative is for me -- just stop hanging out on blogs looking for free printables and interesting articles?  I kind of expect that if folks are giving me free stuff online that they must be getting something for it -- my clicks or eyeballs on ads or whatever.  I didn't like my web browsing following me into FB ads, so I changed my browser settings, and then I just left FB.

It was news to me that bloggers can discover whether I open their emails or not.  I thought that information was held on my end.  I myself have no idea whether folks read my emails unless they respond.  I'm also not in the practice of emailing those I don't know personally, so there's that.  I expect to be tracked when I'm actually on the blog site, especially if it's one that sells lots of stuff.  My favorite kinds of blogs have typically been "a day in the life of a homeschooling mom," "how I organized my craft closet without buying $$ container system," or "see pictures of how our homestead is coming along"-- not selling advice or stuff so much as interesting stories and problem-solving.  These seem to be harder to find now than three or four years ago.

@sarahelizabeth

Those kinds of blogs have become much harder to find. There are a couple of reasons for that. One, most people who blog want to make money now so they follow all of the "expert advice" out there. There are no experts out there telling women to write the kind of blog you are talking about. Women who do write blogs like that tend to blog sporadically because they aren't treating it like a job and they generally have a little audience so there isn't a feeling of urgency.

There ARE people still writing traditional blogs. I put up a list I found a few years ago when I was desperate to read things that were different. The list from that time is here:

https://sallieborrink.com/cozy-blogs-im-reading/

Re: the tracking. Bloggers who use mailing systems, especially the more advanced ones like ConvertKit, not only know if you open your email but they know which links you click on in each email. They will funnel you into different lists behind the scenes for future use. Some email systems also tell the blogger when you were last on their site.

It's all really creepy. It really is.

I don't know what any of those names are, not being a blogger myself. I had no idea the depth or what could be tracked, but I have always just assumed that anytime I am online, nothing I ever do is private and anything I put out there is there forever. Do I like it? No, not really. But, other than completely dropping off the grid and living without internet and connection, I'm not sure how to stop it. I'm sure I would be distressed at some of the info companies (and bloggers?) have about me, but I feel it's part of our lives today.

Is there a way to stop it, or at least limit the information they can track from the readers' end? I wonder if the European Union laws have changed what they can keep. (Not that I am covered by those laws...)

When they track all that, how is that information usually used?

I'm fully aware of how much we're all being tracked online.  While I understand the need to some degree from the bloggers standpoint, I think it has gone the way of many other things in this life due to "the few ruining it for the many".  Or maybe the few have just added to their number in the online world of anonymity.  Integrity may be a thing of the past in a few short years.