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55.941 tracking attempt blocked in the last 7 days.

2 replies

doctorsleep · 30/10/2025 10:15

I share my lazy time between MN and Reddit. Especially on trains.

In the last 7 days, there have been 55.941 tracking attempts blocked from MN. For comparison, 4 tracking attempts blocked from Reddit.

I am not sure @MNHQ is aware of this . Did you know it was this bad? Of course, my Macbook will freeze, fan on, CPU % crazy high.

Oh and during the 4 minutes it took me to type these 5 lines, the trackings attempts have risen to 56.066. WTF!!! 125 tracking attempts in not even 5 minutes as I am typing a reply ?
I don’t mind ads, or some soft tracking, I get it, that’s the business model. Lately however, MN website was totally unusable so I switched to another internet browser and oh boy the difference.

( FYI two additional lines and I am now at 56.172) /

55.941 tracking attempt blocked in the last 7 days.
55.941 tracking attempt blocked in the last 7 days.
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MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 30/10/2025 12:31

Thanks for flagging this – we know those numbers can look a bit wild.

Mumsnet takes ads through what’s called the programmatic advertising ecosystem. That means lots of different ad partners are bidding in real time for the chance to show you an ad. Those bidders often use cookies or trackers to improve their targeting, which is why you’ll see more “tracking attempts” the more pages you view.

Reddit looks very different because it’s big enough to sell almost all its ads directly to brands, without using the programmatic system. Smaller publishers like us rely on programmatic ads to fund the site and keep it free to use.

When you compare us with other sites that also use programmatic ads, the level of tracking is broadly similar – though the exact number depends on how many pages you view and what kind of blocking software you use.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 30/10/2025 14:27

Thanks for taking the time to explain all that – and fair point, those numbers can look pretty crazy when you see them climb like that.

What’s going on isn’t so much a change in our approach, but in how modern browsers and blockers now count and surface tracking attempts. Every time one of the many ad partners connected to the programmatic system pings your browser, it’s logged as a new “attempt,” even if nothing new is actually tracking you or collecting extra data. So it can look like things have suddenly exploded, even when the setup hasn’t really changed.

That said, programmatic advertising does involve a lot of bidders and third-party scripts, and that can have a knock-on effect on page performance – especially on devices or browsers already running privacy extensions. Reddit and PinkNews use different ad systems (Reddit mostly sells direct, PinkNews uses fewer bidders), which is why their numbers will look lower.

We’re actively working on a fix for the battery drain, freezing and crashing issues – it’s a top priority and should be rolled out over the coming days and weeks.

Watch this thread for updates

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