Stalked by Advertising

[Aggie]

I've noticed in the past 24hrs that things I've searched for and/or sites I've visited are starting to feature prominently in banner ads at various sites.  This seems to be much more noticeable all of a sudden, and very specific.

It's creepy and I don't like it.

I unplugged the TV because of advertising, DON"T MAKE ME UNPLUG THE INTERWEBZ YOU BASTIDS!

[ivor]

I've been playing with Firefox+NoScript+Cookie Safe.  It's pretty good but painful to get used too.  I'm also using Chrome+NotScript. 

Firefox is a pig but at least it isn't crashing anymore.  Chrome is really nice but the built-in cookie management sucks and all the cookie manager extensions are lame.

If you'd like any help with either of those I wouldn't mind at all.  Be good to share and raise my understanding of it too.

MB

[Opsa]

It is creepy, but it's just a machine doing it. Of course, if you've been shopping for private things, it can be embarrassing. Also, if you've shopped for a particular gift as a surprise and suddenly there are ads all about that item all over your screen when the recipient is in the room, that can be irritating, too.

We've been trying to cancel our TV satellite service and they won't turn it off! We are now attempting to stop payment. Hopefully that will do it.

[Aggie]

What specifically is allowing these buggers to track me around the 'net?  IOW, exactly how does Ad Company A get the information that I've just visited Retail Site B and then continue to pester me with ads for Retail Site B?

I'd like to understand it as much as stop it.  I'm ranting more about the fact that it's come to my attention twice in the last few hours than that it occurs at all.  I am full of horrific visions of the future web where you'll be bombarded by ads as fast as you can type a search term (like Google's instant search, but with visual ads), and the process from thought to purchase gets nearly obliterated. Think-click-buy consumerism.  *shudder*

Thanks for the offer of help, MB - there are a few things I'd like to untangle myself from (gmail is one) but can't be bothered to go through the hassle of.  If I get some time and presence of mind I may tap you for some help.  That'll be spring at the earliest.


@Ops: It's not so much the 'big brother' factor that bothers me (I have no illusions of my privacy online from the admachinecomplex), but I like to work for a purchase, damnit!  I am quite capable of researching and deciding for myself, and if I've looked at snowshoes at your site once, I know how to get back there.  It's the internet equivalent of overly-aggressive clothing store attendants that pounce on you as soon as you walk in the door and then hand you extra clothes while you are in the change room - it makes for higher sales overall, but it will drive a certain percentage of consumers away.  Following me around the Net just pisses me off and makes me feel like boycotting the brand.

The thought process went something like this, while catching a banner ad for snowshoes on the side of some news site or the like:

->Hey, there's a picture of snowshoes, I'm looking at buying snowshoes!

->Wait a minute, I think I looked at that website yesterday.

->What's the chance of seeing a random ad for snowshoes?

->Ya bastids! I've been hosed!

(at least I didn't click it)

This type of advertising will work, I'm sure, and many consumers will like it, but it makes me want to go hide in the bush.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Cookies.

Most sites use cookies to store stuff like your cart or what you recently saw, etc.  It isn't too difficult for a site to learn to read the cookies of its competitors and apply that to it's behavior and so on. As MB says, No Script, Cookie Safe, I personally use Ad Block and while it's a bit bothersome at times to allow scripts, etc, you can prevent most transgressions.

[Aggie]

I bailed out on Hotmail (years ago) when they started using cookies.  Then they became too ubiquitous to dodge.  Looks like I will have to saddle up and do battle with 'em again.

If it's worth the hassle.

[Sibling DavidH]

Problem is, if you don't allow cookies, a lot of sites won't let you on.  In my case, that includes my bank.  I use Chrome and have played with the  option to ask before accepting any cookie, but it gave a lot of trouble and in the end I gave up.

[Aggie]

Yes, that's my experience as well.  I don't mind accepting them for my bank and a few others; heck, I don't mind having them ID me when I revisit a site, but I DON'T want to be tracked by advertisers all over the place.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I found this Add on for Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/?src=collection&collection_id=da116914-0678-82b1-9d0f-f15c93dd0e60

It may do the trick.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I've noticed in the past 24hrs that things I've searched for and/or sites I've visited are starting to feature prominently in banner ads at various sites.  This seems to be much more noticeable all of a sudden, and very specific.

It's creepy and I don't like it.

I unplugged the TV because of advertising, DON"T MAKE ME UNPLUG THE INTERWEBZ YOU BASTIDS!

As MB pointed out, there are methods.

I use a combination of Firefox, NoScript and AddBlock+

As such, I seldom see actual advertising that I'm not specifically searching for.

[ivor]

I found this Add on for Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/?src=collection&collection_id=da116914-0678-82b1-9d0f-f15c93dd0e60

It may do the trick.

Yeah, that's important.  This is blocking the new "batch" of cookies.   Got to be careful about using it though.  Companies are moving their media licenses into it so you don't want to delete everything or you might delete your media licenses too.

Here's a link to the Flash Web Storage Panel: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

It's fairly configurable.  You can lock it down.  Just remember that if your web sites go wonky, check your settings for the site.  The real problem is that companies hold their services hostage, Like DavidH mentioned, unless you let third parties have access to your cookies and local storage.  Like Pandora...  I can't get the nifty profile without letting them have access to my Facebook profile. 

I want a feature to encrypt cookies so the originating site can get to it's data but a third party gets encrypted garbage. 

Or maybe we should just all share cookies with each other and muddy the water... 

[Griffin NoName]

There should be an Internet equivalent of the telephone and mailing preference systems. = the ones that stop cold calls.