What does tomshardware.com track?
Before any consent, tomshardware.com loaded 6 tracking companies and set 4 advertising or analytics cookies.
That's more tracking companies than 83% of the 2,450 sites we scanned.
Scanned October 2, 2026 from Germany, loading www.tomshardware.com once and clicking nothing. How we scan
- Tracking companies
- 6
- Tracking cookies
- 4
- Third-party hosts
- 46
- Cookies in total
- 19
Consent banner
The page loaded Sourcepoint, a consent management platform. Everything below was recorded before anyone answered it. 6 tracking companies still loaded while it was unanswered.
Companies contacted before consent
5 of the 16 companies it contacted before consent were unclassified.
- Google Ads2 requestsAdvertising
www3.doubleclick.net, pagead2.googlesyndication.com
- Yahoo1 requestAdvertising
ads.servebom.com
- Google Analytics9 requestsAnalytics
www.googletagmanager.com, region1.google-analytics.com
- Dotmetrics4 requestsAnalytics
uk-script.dotmetrics.net, rm-script.dotmetrics.net
- Scorecard Research (Comscore)3 requestsAnalytics
sb.scorecardresearch.com
- Marfeel2 requestsAnalytics
sdk.mrf.io, marfeelexperimentsexperienceengine.mrf.io
Other third parties (content delivery, consent, functional, unclassified)
- chargebee.com10 requestsUnclassified
js.chargebee.com
- newsroom.bi3 requestsUnclassified
events.newsroom.bi
- html-load.com2 requestsUnclassified
html-load.com, stg.html-load.com
- vanilla.tools2 requestsUnclassified
kiosq.vanilla.tools
- chargebeestaticv2.com1 requestUnclassified
future-plc.chargebeestaticv2.com
- Sourcepoint12 requestsConsent banner
cdn.privacy-mgmt.com
- Firework130 requestsFunctional
asset.fwcdn3.com, p2.fwpixel.com, cdn1-api.fireworktv.com, cdn3.fireworktv.com
- Google13 requestsFunctional
www.gstatic.com, news.google.com, fonts.googleapis.com, marketingplatform.google.com
- hCaptcha6 requestsFunctional
newassets.hcaptcha.com, d8574c80b66e.w.hcaptcha.com, f2d9a3b48f6d.w.hcaptcha.com, api.hcaptcha.com
- Future plc55 requestsContent delivery
cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net, vanilla.futurecdn.net, search-api.fie.futurecdn.net, slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net
Cookies set before consent
The longest-lived tracking cookie it set was _ga, from Google Analytics, lasting about 13 months.
| Cookie | Purpose | Set by | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| u | Advertising | servebom.com (third party) | 12 months |
| _ga | Analytics | tomshardware.com | 13 months |
| _ga_HKK8NZEZYV | Analytics | tomshardware.com | 13 months |
| _ga_XTF601BSRK | Analytics | tomshardware.com | 13 months |
| _scor_uid | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | 13 months |
| FTR_Cache_Status | Unclassified | www.tomshardware.com | Session |
| FTR_Country_Code | Unclassified | www.tomshardware.com | Session |
| FTR_Vanilla_Session_ID | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | Session |
| FTR_Vanilla_User_Is_Active | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | Under a day |
| fw_abt | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | 30 days |
| fw_bid | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | 12 months |
| fw_chid | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | 12 months |
| fw_se | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | 12 months |
| fw_uid | Unclassified | tomshardware.com | 12 months |
| GAESA | Unclassified | bot.tomshardware.com | 30 days |
| h_id | Unclassified | www.tomshardware.com | 1 day |
| __cf_bm | Functional | hcaptcha.com (third party) | Under a day |
| consentUUID | Functional | tomshardware.com | 12 months |
| usprivacy | Functional | www.tomshardware.com | 12 months |
The page also wrote 14 keys to local storage, which works like a cookie but isn't sent with requests.
Understanding this page
- How to see which cookies and trackers a website loads
A hands-on walkthrough for checking what a site sets before you've clicked anything, using Chrome and Firefox's built-in tools, plus how CookieTosser automates the same check every month.
- What counts as valid cookie consent in the EU
The rules that actually govern cookie banners — the ePrivacy Directive, the GDPR consent standard, the Planet49 ruling, the strictly-necessary exemption, and what "reject" has to offer compared with "accept.
- Consent management platforms explained
What a CMP banner is actually doing behind the scenes, how the IAB's TCF standard and Google's Consent Mode v2 fit in, and why a banner being present is no guarantee that nothing loads before you answer it.