January 13, 2026
Big Brother’s Cookie Jar
An archaeology of tracking on government websites
Half of gov websites are watching you—Big Tech holds the clipboard
TLDR: New research shows about half of government websites now include third-party trackers, mostly from big U.S. companies. Commenters clash between “privacy first” and “we need analytics,” with jokes about the “Department of Data Collection” underscoring a serious debate over public services, data sovereignty, and trust.
Archaeologists of the internet just dug up a doozy: a global study of 61 countries using the Internet Archive found third‑party “trackers” — tiny bits of code that watch what you do — on about half of government websites by 2025. And the community is loud. The top mood: we didn’t vote for surveillance. Commenters fume that essential services like taxes, benefits, and health forms shouldn’t funnel clicks to a handful of US tech giants. Others highlight the sovereignty angle: if your passport application pings ad networks abroad, who’s actually holding your data?
Not everyone is torches-and-pitchforks. A big thread defends analytics as basic maintenance: “you can’t fix what you can’t measure,” says one IT worker, arguing cash-strapped agencies lean on free tools. Privacy hawks clap back with “self-host your stats or don’t collect,” pointing to lighter options and regional rules like GDPR. Cue the memes: “Department of Data Collection” seals, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Cookies,” and a DMV captcha that reads “prove you consent.” The hottest hot take? Governments became “adtech’s unpaid interns.” Others note the report’s map of regional differences and ask why some countries keep cleaner pages while others read like a tracker buffet. Yikes
Key Points
- •The study analyzes third-party tracker adoption on government websites across 61 countries from 1996 to 2025.
- •Historical snapshots from the Internet Archive were used to conduct the longitudinal analysis.
- •By 2025, third-party trackers appear on approximately 50% of the studied government websites.
- •Growth in tracking is primarily driven by external third-party services.
- •Tracking is dominated by a few large US-based organizations, with substantial regional variation and a long tail of smaller players.