{"id":62874,"date":"2017-07-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2017\/07\/26\/fly-radar-booking-trip\/"},"modified":"2017-07-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T00:00:00","slug":"fly-radar-booking-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/fly-radar-booking-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Fly Under The Radar When Booking A Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

For our fellow denizens in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the height of summer, the season of getaways. But if you live on the internet like we do, you probably notice vacation deals following you year-round, even in the dead of winter. With every sign telling you to get packing, where should you go? And once you decide, how do you find the best cheap flight \/ lodging \/ activity combo on the vast and ever-changing web?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With access to a wealth of travel information comes newfound power\u2014and pressure\u2014to book a memorable holiday at a price that\u2019ll leave you pocket change for tacos and kitesurfing. Whatever floats your boat, now’s the time for that end of summer escape!<\/p>\n

While the exact percentage of travel booked online varies from study to study, the overall trend of travelers reserving airline tickets and hotels on the web and via mobile apps is on the rise. In fact, The Skift reports<\/a> that, by 2020, the travel industry will have the highest percentage of online payments<\/strong> in relation to all sales than any other industry on Earth.<\/p>\n

So what does this have to do with you and Mai Tais on the beach, anyway?<\/p>\n

To start, if you use the web to find cheap flights, you\u00a0might notice an uptick in web ads for the routes\u00a0you\u00a0just<\/em> searched for. These results aren\u2019t just influenced by what you look up and buy online, but include related sites\u2014even online publications where you get your news and celebrity gossip.<\/p>\n

Some e-commerce sites have even been caught displaying different prices to different customers<\/a> based on a variety of potential factors, including one\u2019s browsing history. Believe it or not, the rabbit hole goes deeper\u2014the device<\/em> that you\u2019re using to search the web\u00a0can influence results that come up.<\/p>\n

Ask anyone: it feels great to score a vacation deal. But what\u2019s arguably not so great is the possibility of being served a more expensive option simply because you splurged on, say, a luxury hotel upgrade (with whirlpool hot tub, thankyouverymuch<\/em>) once upon a time.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways to escape trackers and third-party sites that are programmed to collect information that we all share access to with each web search, click and purchase. Many of us have spent years doing this: giving up juicy info about ourselves when prompted\u2014our likes, dislikes, home addresses, shopping habits (insomniac online shopper here)\u2014all in the name of steering us to action, like typing in a credit card number or requesting even more personal info through a signup page.<\/p>\n

This Spring, I\u2014Amy here.<\/a> Hello!\u2014set out to compare search results and prices for a trip to Japan. Over the course of a week, I conducted a totally non-scientific experiment using different browsers and devices to compare flight deals and combinations between my home city of New York and Tokyo. During this time, I noticed that different options were pushed to the top depending on whether I searched in Firefox Focus<\/strong> on iPhone or a regular Firefox session on my laptop (not a private browsing window).<\/p>\n

\"\"
I started by searching for a hotel using Firefox browser and Google search.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Then I looked up the same hotel and dates on Firefox Focus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Here are flights I found from NYC to Tokyo using Firefox browser and Google search. Check out the hotel promotion up top.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Using Firefox Focus iOS, I looked up the same NYC\u2013Tokyo flight and dates. No hotel promotion here; just results.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With online booking being the go-to option for more and more travelers, many of us have become savvy to online price steering and even online price discrimination. While it\u2019s difficult to prove the latter, my experience booking the trip to Tokyo and other destinations yielded enough inconsistent price results and flight combinations to warrant a second (and third) look on different browsers and devices. And after booking the flights, I was served web ad after ad for where to stay in Japan.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ads for UNPLAN, a Tokyo hotel, appeared across numerous websites I visited while researching online privacy. (Talk about meta.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Booked it already, thanks Booking.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The TripAdvisor owl is always watching.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So does Firefox Focus actually reduce the amount of info that companies can collect from users? I went straight to the source and asked Fabio Rios, who works on product marketing for Firefox, about its underlying tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen trackers are blocked, individual devices are not tagged with a cookie so companies can’t follow you around the web, or see what other content you visit and engage with,\u201d he said. Furthermore, \u201cwith Focus, we also block some analytic trackers which keep you from getting logged in Google Analytics and similar trackers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0brand new Firefox Focus for Android<\/a>, users can even see the number of ads the app is blocking.\u00a0Woot!<\/p>\n

Still, you’re never entirely invisible in the eyes of the all-seeing online gods. For example, if you search in Google, Google can still see what you searched for and the pages you visited. And if your device has any specific programs or apps with access\u2014think adware or company tracking\u2014they might still be able to see where you\u2019ve been or clicked. Private browsing, even with tracking protection, doesn\u2019t hide your IP address, so websites can still see that you were there.<\/p>\n

It may be impossible to fully erase years of web search history, but by using simple tools and techniques, like comparing flights on different devices or looking up hotel prices on an always-on private browser like Focus, budget-minded globetrotters will tell you it\u2019s worth flying under the radar when booking a trip.<\/p>\n

Because even if you\u2019re not looking out for web trackers, you can bet those pesky trackers\u00a0have their eyes on you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For our fellow denizens in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the height of summer, the season of getaways. But if you live on the internet like we do, you probably notice vacation deals following you year-round, even in the dead of winter. With every sign telling you to get packing, where should you go? And once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1448,"featured_media":50232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy You Should Fly Under The Radar When Booking A Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/fly-radar-booking-trip\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/fly-radar-booking-trip\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/fly-radar-booking-trip\/\",\"name\":\"Why You Should Fly Under The Radar When Booking A 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