Internet ads are so invasive that we can’t blame you for thinking that Facebook is listening to you talk. It’s probably not, but it is helping ad networks track you across the internet and across your apps. Tech public policy expert Chris Yiu recently tweeted 14 different ways that ads follow you around the internet, even when you’re logged out, in incognito, using a different browser, or on a new device.

iOS: Throughout the day, I always know I should be doing things to better my health and overall disposition: Standing at regular intervals, drinking a lot of water, telling my friends they are great and we should hang out, and so on. And while these thoughts hit me on occasion, they're never enough to create a regular lifestyle pattern. Thankfully, the free iOS app Aloe Bud is happy to help out.

Ever wonder how much money you've blown on Steam games over the years? You might not want to really know, but you're probably curious. And now thanks to Valve's "External Funds Used" tracker, you can finally get a sense of the long-term damage Steam has done to your financial health.

Mac: If you've ever been curious about just how much time you spend in an app, Usage is a simple little utility that will track just that.

Web: There are a million ways to track your habits, but Daybook takes a very simple approach. You add the habits you want to build, then click a counter each time you do the activity and that's it. No dates, no stats, nothing fancy.

Chrome/Firefox/Opera: When Privacy Badger launched a few years ago, it was already a great tool to block third-party trackers, speed up the web and stop sites from watching your every move while you browse. The latest version is a huge improvement, in almost every way.

Google tracks a lot of your data. If you're comfortable with that, it can make your life a little easier. If you're not, it can be a pain to figure out how to turn it off. Fortunately, there's one settings page where you can disable a lot of it.

iOS/Android (Samsung devices): Disconnect has long been one of our favourite tools for protecting your privacy online, and today Disconnect is rolling out a new mobile app called Privacy Pro that blocks trackers across your device.

iOS: You use a lot of online services that track a lot of data, but how much do you really know about it all? Sherbit puts all that data into one place so you can quickly understand how it all relates through attractive visualisations.

iOS: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are often a costly affair, but Opera, the company best known for its browser, released a free, unlimited VPN for iOS today that allows you to access the internet securely from a variety of locations.

iOS: We know that tracking habits is a great way to improve motivation. If you're looking for an app to help you with that, Continuo is easily one of the prettier looking apps for doing so.

At the end of every month, you run out of cash and wonder where it all went. You decide you're going to finally save this month. Before you start cutting expenses, track what you're spending money on to begin with.

For lunch on Tuesday last week, I had a vegetable stir-fry mixed with curry ground beef and a side of rice (all topped with Sriracha, of course). I could recall this meal from a week ago because I track my food every day. Not only does it keep me on top of my goals, but now I have records to look through when things go from "under control" to "oh s**t".

iOS: Runkeeper, your pick for the best smartphone running app, got an update that adds in a new look alongside a new start screen that makes it a lot easier to just hit the streets. The design overall brings brighter coors, new icons and a few new illustrations that makes the app a little more fun to use.

iPhone: We enjoyed the original version of iShows when it launched because it made keeping track of all those TV shows you've been dying to watch easy. Now, an updated version makes it even better.

Most people, when trying to lose weight, obsessively count the calories from foods they eat throughout the day. Although calorie information is easy to find and many people depend on it, it turns out that calorie information posted in restaurants and even on the back of food packages are not even accurate.

The rise of wearable fitness technology is something of a paradox. The surge in popularity of devices that monitor the amount of exercise you do suggest more people than ever are interested in maintaining regular fitness regimes. Just witness the success of the company behind fitness tracking bracelet Fitbit, which investors have just deemed worth $US4.1bn after it floated on the stock market. Yet this comes at a time when physical inactivity has reached levels of global pandemic proportion.

There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who enjoy tracking what they do with their time all day, and the rest of us, who would rather watch paint dry. I used to be in the latter group... until I discovered I was doing it all wrong.

I've been tracking my habits on and off for the past couple of years, but when I went through a brief stint of not tracking habits, I didn't do a very good job of building them either. Something about the process of checking off a habit each day and keeping a log of my progress really improves my motivation and ability to complete that habit each day.