Ghostery Midnight For Desktop: Just The Facts

Ghostery, a browser extension that uses its own proprietary technology to detect and blocks ads and trackers, has recently launched Ghostery Midnight. Midnight brings that same ad blocking technology to desktop apps, providing ad-blockers, tracker-blockers and a virtual private network (VPN), allowing for additional privacy and mitigating third-party data collection.

Why Did Ghostery Introduce Midnight?

In an October announcement about the release of Midnight, the Ghostery team explained why this new technology is necessary. “It’s no secret that today’s third-party tracking technologies go beyond your browser. Ghostery Midnight’s device-level blocking tools allow you to protect personal data across your entire computer and applications, including email clients, creative software, task apps, entertainment and music platforms and more.”

How Does Ghostery Midnight Work?

According to The Verge, “Ghostery Midnight blocks first- and third-party trackers based on its own database, which is updated regularly but currently includes at least 4,500 trackers from more than 2,600 companies.” Midnight also allows users to either set and forget preferences or drill down into which trackers have been detected and where. Users can also decide on a preferred level of tracker blocking, including “protected,” “monitoring” and “disabled.”

The newest addition from Ghostery is the offer of a VPN on Midnight, allowing users to anonymize their IP address, location and browsing information. According to TechCrunch, Ghostery realizes that many of their users already have VPNs but wanted an integrated ecosystem that all worked together. The Midnight ad blockers, tracker blockers and VPN can all be toggled on and off by users. Midnight offers a 7-day free trial and then costs $14 a month.

How Should Marketers Respond To Ad Blockers?

In 2019, more than 25% of internet users were using ad blockers of some kind. Digital brands that want to beat the ad blocker need to consider additional ways to connect with audiences, including native advertising, social media campaigns, one-to-one messaging and robust content marketing.

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