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X-RAY · 14 SEPTEMBER 2026

Six Colombian newspapers: how much tracking each front page loads

El Tiempo, Portafolio, El Colombiano, El Espectador, El Heraldo and Semana, opened one by one in a freshly installed Chrome, 20 seconds each, with GUARDIANA recording every name the front page made the machine ask for.

How to read this. GUARDIANA writes down every name the machine asks to resolve (DNS). It sees names, not content. Here each front page was opened alone, in a clean browser measured from the inside; what is counted is the names the page asked for, and whatever other apps on the test machine resolved during that time is left out. Websites change their advertisers every day: this holds for the date above.

The record

Scoreboard

How many advertising, tracking and telemetry names each front page loads in 20 seconds, out of the 268 distinct ones seen across the whole test.

SiteAdvertising, tracking and telemetryIts own domainsDistinct names in totalLoads the least
El Tiempo1892330
Portafolio1882343
El Colombiano1214207
El Espectador1202195
El Heraldo45187yes
Semananot measurable on equal terms (see its section)—

In this test the one loading the least tracking was El Heraldo (45 names against 189 for the one loading most). It is a result of these front pages on this day, not a general verdict.

What it says

A Colombian newspaper front page loads, in 20 seconds and without touching anything, between 45 and 189 distinct advertising and tracking names: ad networks (Google, Amazon, Teads, Criteo, Taboola), audience measurement and identity synchronisers. The two that load most, El Tiempo and Portafolio, make the machine ask for more than 300 distinct service names at once. Semana is the exception: with its consent notice unanswered, it loads very little.

What only a guardian on the machine sees

The browser shows the page; GUARDIANA writes down every name the page makes the machine ask for, including the ones no content blocker ever shows you:

Detail

MeasureEl TiempoPortafolioEl ColombianoEl EspectadorEl HeraldoSemana
Distinct names that left the machine3303432071958723
· advertising1541569889347
· trackers35322331114
· telemetry000000
· on no list that knows them14115586754212
Advertising + trackers + telemetry1891881211204511
The site's own domains224211
Requests the pages made (distinct names)3313412071918718
Names the browser blocked000000
Blocked names that reached the DNS anyway000000
The machine's other services in that time (other apps; not published)473420211935
Attempts to use someone else’s encrypted DNS (the “DNS evasion” signal)000000
Measured from the inside (DevTools)yesyesyesyesyesyes

El Tiempo

Advertising, tracking and telemetry it loads (189)

The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.

Its own domains (2)

Portafolio

From the same group as El Tiempo; it shares a good part of the advertising load.

Advertising, tracking and telemetry it loads (188)

The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.

Its own domains (2)

El Colombiano

Advertising, tracking and telemetry it loads (121)

The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.

Its own domains (4)

El Espectador

Advertising, tracking and telemetry it loads (120)

The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.

Its own domains (2)

El Heraldo

Advertising, tracking and telemetry it loads (45)

The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.

Its own domains (1)

Semana

Not comparable: Semana shows a consent notice (consentmanager.net), and until “accept” is pressed the front page barely loads — 18 names in all. It is the only one of the six that waits for consent before loading its advertising; the test did not accept, so its figure measures the notice, not the front page.

Advertising, tracking and telemetry it loads (11)

The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.

Its own domains (1)

What can be claimed

What cannot be claimed

What you can switch off

Data and method

Full data: seis-periodicos-colombianos-2026-09-14.csv. Method: each site opened alone with site/src/radiografia/navegar.mjs (Chrome, empty profile, no scrolling, 20 s + 15 s); names taken from the machine's GUARDIANA ledger for each time window, this machine's queries only; only the ones the page asked for are counted. The tools are in the program's repository (site/src/radiografia/); anyone can repeat the test with GUARDIANA installed.

Brands named as the names of their owners. If you are the owner and something here is inaccurate, write to hola@guardianagroup.com: it is corrected, with the date.

All x-rays

See it with any website. In the ZERO browser, the X-ray shows you who each page talks to, with no account. Enter →