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Security report for ghostery.com

Ghostery · Technology · N/a

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Ghostery is a well-established privacy technology company offering a suite of privacy tools including a tracker and ad blocker, private search engine, and privacy-focused newsletters. The website demonstrates a strong market position with over 100 million downloads and high user ratings, targeting internet users seeking enhanced online privacy. Technically, the site uses modern web standards with good mobile optimization and SEO practices, though explicit security headers are not detected in the provided HTML. The security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, but could be improved by publishing security policies and incident response contacts. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and focused on privacy advocacy, though the lack of WHOIS data transparency and explicit privacy/cookie policies in the provided content slightly reduce compliance confidence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…
  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching ghostery.com

This scan found 17 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
77
Security headers
50
Email security
87
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
78

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention ghostery.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
11,875
Employees
0
Customers
11,875
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
12%

26 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for ghostery.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Ghostery operates in the technology sector, specializing in privacy software for browsers and search. Their business model centers on providing free and open-source privacy tools with community contributions and optional paid features or merchandise. The company benefits from a strong brand presence, extensive user base, and partnerships such as WhoTracks.Me. The target customers are privacy-conscious internet users globally. The company leverages community engagement and transparency as competitive advantages. Growth indicators include a long operational history and high user ratings. The ecosystem includes related domains and services focused on tracking transparency and privacy education.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data in the HTML content. However, no explicit security headers like Content Security Policy or HSTS are detected, which are recommended best practices. There is no visible security or incident response policy, nor contact channels for reporting security issues. The absence of a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure program reduces transparency in security management. Overall, the security maturity is moderate to good, with room for improvement in formalizing security policies and headers to enhance protection and trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy accessible from the homepage.
  2. Add standard security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information, including a security.txt file.
  4. Improve WHOIS transparency or provide clear domain ownership information on the website to enhance trust.
  5. Maintain and promote GDPR compliance indicators and user data protection practices visibly.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ghostery
Description
Take back control of your online privacy with Ghostery. The #1 privacy suite that gives you the power to block ads, stop trackers, and much more.
Key services
Tracker & Ad Blocker, Private Search, WhoTracks.Me, Privacy Digest newsletter
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JSON-LD structured data
Platforms
Web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
excellent

Advertising

Transparency
excellent

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and user testimonials.
  2. Strong focus on privacy and ad blocking technology.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found on homepage HTML.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie policy links detected in provided HTML snippet.
  5. High user ratings and community engagement visible.
  6. No signs of malware, phishing, or suspicious content.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses modern HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript technologies with JSON-LD structured data for SEO and rich snippets. It supports multiple browsers and platforms with good mobile responsiveness and accessibility. Performance is moderate with no major issues detected. The site lacks a detected CMS or hosting provider information in the HTML. There is no evidence of outdated or vulnerable libraries. SEO is well supported with meta tags, Open Graph, and Twitter cards. Technical debt appears low, but adding security headers and formal policies would improve the technical maturity and security posture.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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