Yes, that is us, Tynt (www.tynt.com) on all the sites mentioned. Our analytics are tracking hundreds of thousands of sites worldwide. The attribution link feature is something that individual site owners can turn on and off. Also note that we don't track any personally identifiable information. We track content and help publishers learn what content of theirs people are finding most engaging.
What if I don’t want this behavior? We are currently working on a global opt out for users who would rather not have Tynt monitor their actions when they visit a site. In the interim you can opt out on a site by site basis (i.e. the opt out for the SF Gate is here: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/faq.shtml#faq1.5#ixzz0bxLIAb...
What if I don’t want this behavior? We are currently working on a global opt out for users who would rather not have Tynt monitor their actions when they visit a site. In the interim you can opt out on a site by site basis (i.e. the opt out for the SF Gate is here: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/faq.shtml#faq1.5#ixzz0bxLIAb...
More info on Tynt is available in our FAQs here: http://www1.tynt.com/faq-technical-topics#ixzz0bxGzIgPZ