How does product/ad "tracking" work?

[leehljp]

Occasionally, when I click on a link in a post on BT3Central (for a tool that someone mentions), the next time I go to Amazon or FB, that item shows up in an ad or recommendation on FB or Amazon.

If I google a product, it shows up in Amazon or on FB the next time I go there.

I know that this is "tracking" of some sorts, but I don't like it. My business is my business. For those of you in the know - Where, what, how - does this work? Can it be turned OFF, thwarted or stopped? If so, how?

Does it take place here (BT3Central), or is it the product site that feeds the info to FB or Amazon? IS it a part of my web browser or something in cache that feeds this info?

Your input welcome!

[woodturner]

Where, what, how - does this work? Can it be turned OFF, thwarted or stopped? If so, how?

Does it take place here (BT3Central), or is it the product site that feeds the info to FB or Amazon? IS it a part of my web browser or something in cache that feeds this info?

When you visit a website or click a link, a tracking cookie is downloaded to your browser. This information is shared with vendors such as DoubleClick who use that information to target ads. For example, if you have been looking at 21829 saws on the Sears.com site, then open your yahoo mail account, you are likely to see ads for sears and the saw in the yahoo ad window.

Stopping it completely is difficult and arguably detrimental. The admins would have to answer questions about the revenue BT3Central receives from this, but often sites such as BT3Central get some revenue from "click throughs" and tracking cookies. In other words, allowing this tracking may help support BT3Central.

You can clear cookies to stop it, or set private browsing to reject tracking cookies. You could also block cookies, but few web sites will work correctly if you reject all cookies.

[Bruce Cohen]

As a co-worker once said, "never do or place anything on the internet that you wouldn't paint on a 4'x8' plywood sign in the front of your house.
Consider it a fact of life than the word "privacy" doesn't exist on the web.
That includes any info you have on any computer that attached to the internet. Nothing is secret.

Bruce

[leehljp]

When you visit a website or click a link, a tracking cookie is downloaded to your browser. This information is shared with vendors such as DoubleClick who use that information to target ads. For example, if you have been looking at 21829 saws on the Sears.com site, then open your yahoo mail account, you are likely to see ads for sears and the saw in the yahoo ad window.

I get the part about cookies, but it has been only recently, within the last 4-6 months or so that I have noticed the ads reflecting what I recently visited. This tells me that something has changed within that period for me. Maybe with some software update and a browser setting change.

To be honest, I know that some people have been complaining about this specific aspect for some time, but I had not experienced it until just recently - kind of like a person that has remained unaffected by thousands of viruses, and suddenly . . .

[leehljp]

I have "Ad Blocker" and have had it for some time. Somehow it got clicked Off. I think this is what allowed my movements to be "tracked".

The item that irritated me was the Ryobi One Plus Drill & Circular Saw combo for $79 and included 2 Lithium batteries and charger. I bought that set a couple of weeks ago. So, I started looking for a 5 1/2" 30+ tooth blade online. One blade said 10mm arbor, another said 5/8" and another said 5/8 with 10mm adapter.

I googled Ryobi One Plus Circular saw to see what arbor the CS had. I clicked on a link that said Ryobi One Plus Circular Saw. That Link was to the old blue circular saw that used the orange batteries.

The next time I opened FB and Amazon, that BLUE Ryobi CS popped up as an ad! It irritated me. I probably would not have been disturbed if the Lime Green CS had popped up!

I turned Ad Blocker back on. I forgot that I had that. I think that the ads began to come back when I upgraded to Maveriks OS about a month and a half ago, but I didn't pay much attention to it over the Christmas holidays.

[LinuxRandal]

Your fighting a BILLION dollar industry (as well as any three letter agencies).
How many browsers do you use? Are they set to different settings? Do you use the privacy/anonymous browsing sessions for shopping? Are you auto logged in at sites (Google, Amazon, etc. etc). Ever considered TOR?

http://lifehacker.com/5461114/fact-and-fiction-the-truth-about-browser-cookies

Algorithms get improved, so targeted marketing also improves. For instance, my brother logged into a shopping site on mom's computer to make a purchase. While not logged in to where he could checkout, it still has the it is him cookie, so EVERYTHING that any of us look at via it, he can see by his past searching history on that site (or screw with him by adding weird things to his cart).

A rule I use, for say, Christmas shopping, would be to 1: Search using a bootable distro (nothing left in the normal pc's history, no autologin's or session cookies).
2: Even then, use the browse anonymous function.
3. Log in only when required (sometimes needed to obtain a URL, which I have used in a different browser that autodeletes cookies as well as running ad blocking software (could be on the pc or on the firewall)

I think this is a good start for you. If you wanted to get even more advanced, it could start to cost you some money, for example, getting the correct processor and motherboard chipset so you can run software that keeps things in separate sessions, so they (and viruses, etc) can't transpose themselves to one another (kind of like using multiple computers that can NOT talk to one another, and addresses being handled by sneakernet)

[Condoman44]

I am annoyed about this also. Sometimes I fool them and search for something I never intended to buy.

I also have put items in my Amazon wish list and a month later changed my mind and delete them.

I was happy around the holidays when I was shopping for a new MOBO and CPU. I started getting emails about discounts on the very products I was looking at. Saved about $50 by using the coupons.

[cwsmith]

"Cookies", I believe, are one of the most detrimental aspects of the web and they are pretty much uncontrollable.

A couple of years ago I got so upset by the size of my "cache" that I called my wife down to show her the hundreds, probably thousands of files that existed. I then manually erased the entire cache file. Signed off, shut down the computer, and then rebooted and signed on... went back the cache file and there were once again several hundred new files, with cookies, etc.

It seems that with any visit to any page, every single entity on that page will deposit a cookie, even if you don't click on it. Click on a picture that takes you to something like "Photo Bucket" and you also get a cookie from anything displayed on that web site.

For a while I was so perplexed that I would erase my cache at every exit, but that also wipes out some good things too, like your password to your favorite website, shortcuts, etc.

Worse perhaps, is that I've noticed lately that "LinkedIn" is actually looking into my personal mailing lists (I'm on AOL), and it then goes about matching those addresses to its membership logs. Next thing I know I'm getting messages that I've asked those people for endorcement or to join my interest group... when I have made no such requests. I've also found that all of a sudden I'm now picking up many of my son's collegues, which means that the site is not only matching my mailing list, but also the lists that are on their computers too.

I know that many of us get really upset thinking that the NSA may have logged our phone number.... but that is nothing compared to what these commercial and private internet concerns are doing!

Between that and what Microsoft updates are doing wiping out old programs and disabling many of my computer's original features, I've taken to keeping a separate, older computer completely disconnected from the internet, just so I have some piece of mind.

CWS

[leehljp]

Worse perhaps, is that I've noticed lately that "LinkedIn" is actually looking into my personal mailing lists (I'm on AOL), and it then goes about matching those addresses to its membership logs. Next thing I know I'm getting messages that I've asked those people for endorcement or to join my interest group... when I have made no such requests. I've also found that all of a sudden I'm now picking up many of my son's collegues, which means that the site is not only matching my mailing list, but also the lists that are on their computers too.

CWS

"LinkedIn": I joined LinkedIn several months ago because of a colleague. I have been sent several requests from others, but never added them or confirmed them. I don't intend to either.

Personally, while I AM in the States now, I still have a paranoid mentality from when I lived overseas - about joining many things online.

[woodturner]

Sometimes I fool them and search for something I never intended to buy.

Sure - but we know you really did want the fuzzy bunny slippers ;-)

[leehljp]

Your fighting a BILLION dollar industry (as well as any three letter agencies).
How many browsers do you use? Are they set to different settings? Do you use the privacy/anonymous browsing sessions for shopping? Are you auto logged in at sites (Google, Amazon, etc. etc). Ever considered TOR?

http://lifehacker.com/5461114/fact-and-fiction-the-truth-about-browser-cookies

Good article there. In answer to your questions, Primarily Safari but on occasion FireFox. My problem was that upon upgrading my OS, the AdBlocker got turned off some way.

That was interesting about Flash. While many people love flash, what lifehacker said about flash is scary, particularly if one does not like to be tracked.

I am back to normal now. I am autologged into Amazon & FB, about the only sites besides this site (BT3C). The FB site has stopped showing me ads!

[mpc]

Flash is one of the sneakiest ways advertisers use to track you since the "clear all cookies" commands in browsers do not affect files created by Flash applications. Web sites use Flash to create cookie-like files that are stored in a totally different area than browser cookies. Ergo Flash tracking files survive a lot longer - and often store more info than simple little browser cookies. I keep Flash disabled on my browsers except when I actually need it - to view some specific item/video for example. It'll be nice when Flash is no longer needed for web videos or animations; HTML5 will allow video to be streamed (instead of downloaded) which is a common use for Flash. Once HTML5 is dominant on the web, the legitimate needs for Flash will drop considerably... most Flash use will probably be the underhanded advertising tracking.

Many many many web sites link to multiple advertising web sites each time you a) first go to that web page from a Google search, a link from an email or other source, etc., and then b) each time you click a link, picture of an item, etc. on that page. Adblock and many other tools try to intercept and re-direct such "3rd party" stuff. On many links from Google or other programs, you'll see a really long string of gibberish text if you hold the mouse cursor over the link (don't click it)... and the initial part of this text is NOT the URL of the web page you want to visit; instead it's a link to a tracking website. The gibberish text contains info about your email address or whatever method describing how the link was first sent to you (i.e. the "source" information for the trackers), info on your IP address, info on your browser, etc. Somewhere in there, either in plain-text or encoded in the gibberish, is the URL to the web site you actually WANTED to visit. Clicking such links takes you to an advertiser/tracking middleman that records stuff and then forwards you to your desired web destination. Often you can copy/paste just the final web URL and skip the middleman.

Another way to reduce the tracking is to use a Windows feature that translates web URL to IP translations (i.e. the translation of "www.bt3central.com" into the IP address 216.224.178.61 or whatever). The file \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (on WinXP, it's in similar directories for other Windows versions) is a simple plain-text file that you can edit to add your own translations. The IP address 127.0.0.1 is a Windows built-in "test" (aka "Loopback") address to your own computer... so any web URL that you map to 127.0.0.1 instead gets processed by your computer. Adding lines like:
127.0.0.1 ads.aymedia.com
to the hosts file basically prevents your computer from ever going to ads.aymedia.com via hidden URL references in web pages you view. Not only does this reduce the tracking but it'll actually speed up your browsing as there will be fewer side trips to 3rd party sites. And it reduces the quantity of data sent/received for folks that have limited monthly web bandwidth. The web site "http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm" contains a list of many tracking web sites, malicious web sites (those that try to install viruses onto your computer), etc with a downloadable "hosts" replacement file to block lots of junk. It's soooo big (over 16,000 entries!) that it actually slows down your web browsing: it takes Windows a bit of time to compare every URL reference in your desired web page to this list. I had this list on my older laptop with limited memory... and it brought browsing to a crawl. Just goes to show how much crap is out there on the Internet. Note: I've heard Windows 8.1 might use 0.0.0.0 for the loopback instead of 127.0.0.1

In most browsers setup/tools area there is a button or other user control to view the stored cookies. In older versions of Firefox (what I use) it's Tools --> Options --> Privacy tab --> Show Cookies button. Try it... and you'll likely see hundreds of web sites you don't recognize. That's a record how many side trips your browser got sent on while you viewed normal web pages... Social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and Google typically have the highest number of 3rd party links per visited web page. I'm sure Amazon makes many side trips too each time you click something.

mpc