Intrusive marketing

[frliss]

Hi all,

I just read a response in the PC Tech thread by EricF about the technical aspects of his wide screen monitor. I then read a few more posts in other threads. The next four or five posts had ads for wide screen monitors from my local Office Max across the top of my screen.

Was that a coincidence or can the advertisers sense what we are reading? I don't mind advertisers throwing ads at us for a potential sail. What I am concerned about is there anyone reading my emails as well. I don't know if it is true or not but I have heard that if you have a gmail account google keeps a copy of every email you have ever sent on that account.

Just curious.

Fred

[rdayt]

Google will use key words in your emails to tailor your experience. Nothing is free.
You can go into your settings and turn this "feature" off but you'll still get adds , just not targeted.
I don't think "Google" will hang onto your emails in perpetuity but they're not going away.

Randy

[derekmorton]

Its all done from cookies.

I have always had an adblocker installed.

[frliss]

Its all done from cookies.

I have always had an adblocker installed.

I use an adblocker as well. However it is set to automatically shut off on this site.

Fred

[wacampbell]

The advertising companies - Google, Adchoices, Facebook etc - pay web sites for an advertising spot on their page. They then track your interests - what do you search for on google, what keywords are in your emails, what web sites do you visit, what are your friends interested in, etc. And based on your interests they tailor the ads that you see. Its spooky, but I guess its better to get ads that are interesting than to see ads that are totally random.

[EricF]

My two favorite ad and tracker-blockers are uBlock Origin and Disconnect.

Also, never search on Google while logged on to Google services (Gmail, Google Drive, etc.). If you're logged on, all your search and browsing activity gets correlated into a marketing profile.

[frliss]

I don't believe it!

As I am reading the responses to my post guess what ads are being displayed.

Across the top is a pitch for ad creation software and across the bottom is an ad for key word detection software!

I have always known that if I click on an ad for widgits for about a week I will be seeing nothing but ads for widgits no matter what sight I go to. Here it seems as if they know the subject of the post I am reading.

Fred

[ebnertra000]

You could always look up really random things just to see what the algorithm comes up with. They've been trying to figure me out for years...

[derekmorton]

>As I am reading the responses to my post guess what ads are being displayed.

I think you have an infection.
I use adwcleaner when I get these.

ONLY download from here:-

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

[metalangel]

It crosses platforms, too. I looked at an advert for Crucible (the new Amazon team FPS game) on Facebook on my phone, now all the ads here on my *ahem* work laptop are for it.