Invasion of Privacy

pp111

pp111

pp111

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Joined
22 Oct 2018
Posts
2,451
One thing that really annoys me in this world is targeted advertising.

I guess you are going to have your own opinion, but for me, I find it highly restrictive, because I only see what companies want me to see. I rarely buy anything twice, or agree with their selection of products for me, so their adverts are just really annoying.

I have a work PC that is very anonymous. It uses a VPN, and is never used for any activity that identifies it as mine and uses a fairly rigorous policy of cookie deletion and so on. However, on one occasion, several years ago, I created a Microsoft account for it when I had a support issue. Since then, I deleted the account, but it's pretty obvious that someone has been tracking that PC despite it being hidden behind a VPN. If I browse anything, then there is a high chance that it will appear as a suggested or featured item on Amazon on my other PC ( Which also does not have any form of account ). To my mind there is only one possible way this can happen. It has to be Microsoft. Despite being hidden by the VPN, Microsoft have to know what it's doing and have to be selling that information to Amazon.

Surprisingly, I also find this is very true of ebay too. If I buy something on ebay on my "other" PC, then on that same PC, that day, adverts will appear on Amazon for the same category of items. It surprises me that shop rivals delight in sharing information.. apparently.

This just suggests a level on intrusion that is almost unbelievable. I was wondering whether to order my foil hat, and call myself a weirdo, or are you guys concerned about this sort of stuff too?
 
pp111 said:
One thing that really annoys me in this world is targeted advertising.

I guess you are going to have your own opinion, but for me, I find it highly restrictive, because I only see what companies want me to see. I rarely buy anything twice, or agree with their selection of products for me, so their adverts are just really annoying.

I have a work PC that is very anonymous. It uses a VPN, and is never used for any activity that identifies it as mine and uses a fairly rigorous policy of cookie deletion and so on. However, on one occasion, several years ago, I created a Microsoft account for it when I had a support issue. Since then, I deleted the account, but it's pretty obvious that someone has been tracking that PC despite it being hidden behind a VPN. If I browse anything, then there is a high chance that it will appear as a suggested or featured item on Amazon on my other PC ( Which also does not have any form of account ). To my mind there is only one possible way this can happen. It has to be Microsoft. Despite being hidden by the VPN, Microsoft have to know what it's doing and have to be selling that information to Amazon.

Surprisingly, I also find this is very true of ebay too. If I buy something on ebay on my "other" PC, then on that same PC, that day, adverts will appear on Amazon for the same category of items. It surprises me that shop rivals delight in sharing information.. apparently.

This just suggests a level on intrusion that is almost unbelievable. I was wondering whether to order my foil hat, and call myself a weirdo, or are you guys concerned about this sort of stuff too?
Click to expand...

:cry:
 
You've got a few tracking technologies working against you:

Cookies
Social media pixels
Fingerprinting

Combination of all 3 make it very, very easy to track you across the web. Cookie blockers help, but you're still prone to fingerprinting.
 
In all honesty, I used to care. Like, really care. But it doesn't matter to me as much as it used to. The more you think about these things, the more you try to avoid 'the botnet', the more mad it will drive you.

I used to only use a dumbphone, I stopped using Gmail for personal emails, I used VPNs on occasion, I didn't use proprietary software, I only used non-systemd Linux distributions and always went on about open source and privacy. I would also lecture others on it if I deemed it relevant [yes, I was that guy].

Now I use Ubuntu and own a smartphone. I'm perfectly happy.

My advice: try to relax about it.
 
Its when amazon starts showing you products linked to your porn habits that you need to worry.

"Its a plug for the water butt dear, no need to click on it" :cry:
 
pp111 said:
it's pretty obvious that someone has been tracking that PC despite it being hidden behind a VPN.
Click to expand...

That's not what a VPN does, it won't help you in that situation.
I see loads of adverts/promotion of VPNs on YouTube videos these days (actual content creators trying to sell VPNs, not YouTube adverts on the video) and most of them have no idea what they're talking about either so you're forgiven for not understanding. They always make false claims about how VPNs are some magic solution to keep you completely safe on the internet.
 
touch said:
That's not what a VPN does, it won't help you in that situation.
I see loads of adverts/promotion of VPNs on YouTube videos these days (actual content creators trying to sell VPNs, not YouTube adverts on the video) and most of them have no idea what they're talking about either so you're forgiven for not understanding. They always make false claims about how VPNs are some magic solution to keep you completely safe on the internet.
Click to expand...


I understand what a VPN is.
 
Lysander said:
My advice: try to relax about it.
Click to expand...

resistance-is-futile.jpg
 
Ev0 said:
Some sites block IP ranges used by VPN providers. Not saying that's what happened here, but that's how some sites can sometimes not work when using one of the commercial VPNs out there.
Click to expand...

This is how I see Wiggle, other sites and up until today OCUK when I have my VPN on

vpnwiggle.jpg
 
Puzzled said:
Its when amazon starts showing you products linked to your porn habits that you need to worry.

"Its a plug for the water butt dear, no need to click on it" :cry:
Click to expand...

Amazon seems to have some cross-user content stuff going on behind the scenes - not quite sure how it tries to do it. I'll often get Amazon related ads and/or suggestions for awhile that seem to be based on what other people in my family, household and/or visitors that use one of our regular internet connections are doing and vice versa. Which potentially could be quite disturbing. For instance if my dad searches on Amazon for and then buys say a lawn mower I'll get lawn mower and/or gardening related ads/suggestions for a couple of weeks despite nothing in my browsing habits being related to that.
 
Does anyone else get bombarded with adverts for ‘Grammarly’ on YouTube?! So ****ing obnoxious and annoying, **** off!!!

My grammar is always well good so not sure y they target mee :(
 
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