Make it stop: Interest Based Ads, You're Ruining The Christmas Surprise

[engine]

When we use a shared computer, IBAs are a nightmare. Mrs engine has now got a good idea of what she might be getting.

And, no, it's not a new ironing board. ;-)

I know, I should be using another computer, but, what if it's the only computer in the family!

Another identity, perhaps; sure, but, folks see over other people's shoulders.

Clear cookies;, yeah, I know, I forgot.

IBAs - make them stop!

[lexipixel]

but, what if it's the only computer in the family!

Do a bunch of irrelevant searches to muck up the data... she'll wonder why she's getting paisley camel riding togs, snow shoes and a box of frogs.

[lucy24]

And while you're running those irrelevant searches, don't forget to look at the ads. Ponder the ones that make you say "How in the world did g### know I was interested in that?"

Hmmmmmm. ;)

[Habtom]

Chrome incognito does a pretty good job of hiding things :)

You are right. Google is trying to be friendly with everyone, know what we like and we don't ... it is like a very clingy friend who you end up wanting to avoid desperately. But in this case you can't :)

[engine]

The stupid thing about these ads is that I bought the stuff, already, so STOP showing them!

[piatkow]

The stupid thing about these ads is that I bought the stuff, already

Hear hear.

[buckworks]

That may be the advertiser messing up, not Google.

A savvy advertiser would set up their remarketing campaigns so that someone who had completed the checkout process would be either not shown remarketing ads at all, or else shown something related but different that they're more likely to be interested in.

[DeeCee]

Two options. Go the various DMA type sites and opt-out, or choose the easy option: Install an add-on like Ghostery, and disable all the many, many tracking javascripts and cookies directly, except for sites you specifically whitelist (your own domains and Google for example).

That way they cannot even see what you might be interested in, and cannot track you across every site on the net. You will be chocked to see how many different tracking scripts are running amok watching you.

In addition to all the advertising scripts, you also have Facebook, AddThis, and many others logging away your every move. Every site with a Facebook "Like" or a Twitter counter button tells stories about you.

Kick off sniffer software on your network and watch all the traffic sending your every URL and click off to some site (even some "hiding" in Amazon EC2) in real time as you click around, and you suddenly feel like you are walking naked on Times Square.

I did the other day to check out why some mysterious connections existed from my home system, and did not like what I saw reading through all the TCP frames. Not that I have any secrets, but it still bothers me, when they send every URL, my IP and other information off into the EC2 cloud. When a site you are viewing has AddThis scripts for example, all that stuff is logged in EC2.

[lucy24]

A savvy advertiser would set up their remarketing campaigns so that someone who had completed the checkout process would be either not shown remarketing ads at all, or else shown something related but different that they're more likely to be interested in.

That's assuming he bought the stuff from the site showing the ads. A savvy consumer might look around for a place offering the same product for less-- among other reasons, because their advertising budget is smaller ;)