How 'they' find and target you....
 

Did a Google search on a specific product and service......next day my FB page has ads for the same sites I visited.

I also got spam from sites today using my screen name.

Wonder if there is some way to block this invasion.....?

I have noticed that too. At first, extremely stupid, I was so surprised. How could the computer know I am interested in that stuff?? :rolleyes:

Better make sure not to order anything naughty.. having their ads plastered all over the screen as soon as you log on. Not very job/wife friendly. :D

It's called retargeting.

You can block it but someone announced a cookieless retargeting platform earlier this year.

Don't know how you would block that one as it relies on predictive behaviour.

Kind of how Target knows that a woman is pregnant.

Happens right here on pelican now.

How are they mining the email addresses? I can see PMs but my screen name and email?

they don't need your email address.

do you guys seriously not know this stuff? google and has been doing this for years, its very easy. google logs your search terms, and on websites that adds are placed on them (often times by google), they go back into your search criteria and post adds related to that.

its not an invasion of anything, merely a record keeping of what you have already expressed interest in on the web.

spam me and you lose a customer

You would need to check the privacy policy of every site that you have ever given that information. They likely have a clause that they do not sell your info but they do share with their partners/affiliates.

Say you gave Site A your email address. Site A sets a cookie that contains your email so it can "welcome" you and facilitate logging in when you return.

You visit site B. Site B is an affiliate, "partner", of Site A. Site A shares your data, the cookie, with its affiliate, Site B.

Site B sends you email.

Even simpler if you have gmail and stay logged in.

I go for a swim most every day and have never mentioned (until just today) or searched online, but now I get these banner ads like this. Inviting but why do they bother?



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1373925566.jpg

If you have your own pool, did you search for pool items such as chlorine or filter systems? That could do it. If not, then they simply read your mind....

This is why I clear out my cookies and temp internet files often. Clear them out, and you get less targetted advertising. But instead, you get the "Looking for singles" spam all over the place. rolleyes

-Z-man.

The Restriced Sites tab in the Security section of IE is your friend (if you use IE)

I have a big blank section at the top of this page.

Works good on other sites that want you to pay to have less (but still some) banners :)

*.ad.doubleclick.net
*.googleads.g.doubleclick.net

etc...

There's a way to filter/block it (don't know how yet);

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1373927331.jpg

Was in Toronto, check flights to Toronto appear, same with Dish network, ladders, you name it.

edit: why am I getting pop up banners on movers. Is there something that I don't know?

not safe in a brick store:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper-stores-are-tracking-your-cell.html?hpw

The "web search engine that shall not be named" is pure evil.
Use duckduckgo for an anonymous search engine that won't steal your info or try to sell it or you.
https://duckduckgo.com/

I get ads for things I've already purchased. That's a waste of time and bandwidth. I cleared out my cache not too long ago, passwords and all. Took a little while for the ads to catch up. BUT CL kept all my searches. So I guess some info is going to stay there in your HD.

Using the incognito window in Chrome works.

I have installed AdBlock on my Mac and it really cut these ads down. Sometimes I turn it off to see how much junk it is killing.

Picked up vent shades for the Yukon from AutoAnything.com.

Got their catalog in the mail last week. Cool.

Got their email yesterday, shocks and sway bar package caught my eye so I clicked on it for a closer look.

Today got a targeted email about that exact set.

Unsubscribed.

I don't mind getting correspondence from places, I do mind when it makes me feel like i'm in the store being followed around by a pushy salesman.

I always clear my history.

I search on DuckDuckGo...the owner does not hold info, therefore, he has none to give or sell.

It's not just computers that are guilty of it.

I had time to kill before a meeting in town so I strolled around Armstrong European, the local Porsche dealership and explained "just browsing thanks". The sales guy must have followed me back to my car, got the rego, gone through the Motor Vehicle Registration, payed a fee, then mailed me some brouchures.

Unless he got your DL, it is illegal to get personal info from DMV.....but there are so many mining databases to get that info.

Betya CatFax sells their info.

Problem with AdBlock is it also blocks real content and depending on the site design you would never know it.

Websites are no longer hand coded. They are generated dynamically on the fly.

CMS, content management systems, like Wordpress make it easy for novices to set up a presence and are also employed by name brand sites. Unfortunately some of the modules/plug ins that are used to rotate content grew out of/exhibit the same behavioral signatures of ad rotators. Adblock sees them and prevents them from being shown regardless of content.

So in short you may be missing stuff you actually want without knowing it.

Run Little Snitch and browse a few web sites - you'll be stunned at how much crap content from unrelated addresses gets loaded with a particular site. Start denying outgoing packets to those sites and you cut down on a lot of the profiling junk and still get most of what you want. Couple that with Private Browsing, deleting cookies after each browsing session and running AdBlocker and it helps quite bit. Very little junk/ad/crap/malware/profiling nonsense.

cross site tracking cookies

I'm less worried about the ads that appear than I am about the amount of data on my activities that is collected, bought, and sold. I suspect the ads I see are just the tip of the iceberg of what my information is used for.

I had to look and see what was at the top of the page. It just seems like background noise now. Anyway, it was an ad for Lumber Liquidators, as I had looked there for hardwood flooring awhile back.

Try this... seems to work. YMMV

Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File

Better off using Little Snitch or comparable product.

They work dynamically on the fly, give you complete real time control, allow toggling in case you need to turn off a filter for a specific site/purpose.

I don't mind a few relevant ads.
It helps the website, and promotes business.

However, the internet stalking thing is out of control.

Big Data Rules

Little Snitch looks nice

Little Snitch = Mac only, $34.95

Host File = Any platform, Free

Just saying

Firefox and AdBlock+

I don't want to hear any crap about how websites won't make any money without the ads. They had their chance, and shot themselves in the dick with all of the dancing baloney and tracking.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1373981792.jpg

If you run Chrome, try the Collusion extension if you want to see what is going on and how you are being tracked. Earlier, I reset Collusion and visited one site only which is our local newspaper. I didn't click on anything. I just visited their homepage. The results are below.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1373982561.jpg

This is just a simple example. Install the extension then take a look at all of the sites that have been informed of your activity at the end of a day.

BTW, the above shot only represents the connections that would have been made from my laptop. I use intentional DNS poisoning at the router to eliminate the traffic to most of these site. It is akin to using a host file on your PC.

I downloaded the Collusion extension for FireFox

Doesn't pick up much with AdBlock Plus enabled

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1373993207.jpg

I used another browser that rhymes with "dome" and set all the security settings to no cookies etc. Spybot found cookies every time after I closed the browser.

IE is pretty good at stopping most cookies if you set it correctly to dump history on exit. Read each check box carefully to make sure you are setting it correctly.

Just as an aside, I was looking at one of the page one threads here on PPOT yesterday and after leaving it, got a banner ad for birth control.... and it wasn't even in a PARF thread...:D

Yea but the company behind that (rhymes with "moogle") is one of if not THE worst offenders insofar as personal privacy data-mining and profiling. I quite deliberately avoid ANYTHING they create - analytics sites, software (other than Sketchup because it rocks) because I just don't and won't ever trust them.

Try: https://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php

I installed their free software and it blocks tons of those damn tracking cookies, and shows who's trying to track you or if it's OK site, etc. So far literally thousands of tracking cookies blocked and far fewer 'targeted' ads.

If you start seeing adds for divorce attys, hide your valuables! ;)

My computer is still running scripts and locking-up.
I noticed one of the processes is still not being blocked, and did a search for "synacor ghostery" on Bing and Duckduckgo.
They are the exact same.

How can Microsoft claim "they don't track you"?

Here are the crap first page search results:
USING BING:
Error in Internet Explorer 9: "We were unable to return you to ...
Various startups Advisor profiles | LinkedIn
Need /etc/apt/sources.list - Linux Archive
David Perlmutter | Facebook
Archive News & Video for Tuesday, 12 Mar 2013 | Reuters.com
IE9 tracking protection list - Scribd
netgroup.uniroma2.it
lists.freebsd.org
Top sites Angela Merkel: siječanj 2013
SOURCE - Robtex
David Perlmutter | Facebook

USING DUCKDUCKGO:
Error in Internet Explorer 9: "We were unable to return you ...
Various startups Advisor profiles | LinkedIn
Need /etc/apt/sources.list - Linux Archive
David Perlmutter | Facebook
Archive News & Video for Tuesday, 12 Mar 2013 | Reuters.com
IE9 tracking protection list - Scribd
netgroup.uniroma2.it
lists.freebsd.org
Top sites Angela Merkel: siječanj 2013