QuinStreet about cname-trackers

[ameshkov]

As I recall, edgekey.net is a domain that belongs to Akamai, i.e. this is a CDN, not a tracker. It's also rather normal for different domains to map to a CDN edge.

[ameshkov]

Tbh, it does not seem as an ad network. Moreover, www.insure.com is just a website.

I suppose Akamai works just like Cloudflare, i.e. this quinstreet.com.edgekey.net is just a proxy that proxies traffic depending on the request's domain. For one domain it may proxy it to some tracker, for some other domain it may proxy it to a legit web server.

[TPS]

I don't mean edgekey.net but quinstreet.com.edgekey.net, which I think is related to moneyrates.com as quinstreet.com is blocked all over it. To me, that feels like quinstreet.com.edgekey.net is the base to be blocked, & then the others would be blocked by CNAME rules. Am I wrong?

[ameshkov]

Yeah, that's right, if you have it in the DNS filter, it will be blocked as a CNAME as well.

Here's the full list of domains that are CNAME'd there:

accounts.bestrates.com
autoinsurance.insure.com
rates.savingsaccounts.com
root.carinsurance.com
secure.amone.com
www.amone.com
www.cardratings.com
www.carinsurance.com
www.databasejournal.com
www.doorandwindow.com
www.improvementcenter.com
www.insurance.com
www.insure.com
www.moneyrates.com
www.oldhouseweb.com

I wonder what are these? Is this an ad network or is this just a single publisher using different domains?

[TPS]

So, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CardRatings.com leads 1 to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuinStreet, which means all those sites, similar to my concerns in AdguardTeam/HttpsExclusions#24, perhaps @ 1 point were legit sites, but now are part of a web of ad/affiliate/tracking network.

[TPS]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuinStreet#History lists those & more as QuinStreet aquisitions. Perhaps they're just using the Google playbook by funding legit business via mainly their own ad network, but I've bumped into those "comparisions" labeled as advertising.