Tracking is following where your order has got to. A tracking number, track your parcel, tracking information.
Every parcel gets a tracking number, and the scans along the route produce the updates. The word covers a great deal else: tracking a storm, tracking a satellite, tracking somebody's phone. Online tracking means following what people do across websites, which is what cookies and consent banners are about. Note tracker, both the device and the fund; and that tracking is what makes almost all of modern advertising possible.
1nountrackingFollowing where an order or object has got to.
“The tracking said delivered and the parcel was in a hedge.”
2nounonlineFollowing what people do online.
“Tracking across sites is what the whole banner is asking about.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
tracking is a following.