Ever wonder why ads pop up on websites for things that interest you

[Rex]

or products that you bought in the past? Yep, data mining is far far more invasive and part of our everyday lives them most people even know about. All those cookies and web spiders crawling around at 3 am in the morning. This is the Information Age, don't be naive in thinking it an oasis in the desert.

Everyone is tracking you on the Internet. You are not paranoid, they really are recording you. Mostly to make money. They don't care what size pants you wear - they want to know what brand.

TIA.

[treestar]

1. And that is the evil corporations

I thought they were even worse.

[Rex]

3. Just to make money, like all corporations.

The backbone is to make money, like how we have to watch crappy ads on Youtube etc.. If there is a market, there is a company out there that supports it. Data mining, sure just ask Google.

[msongs]

2. don't get popup ads anymore nt

[Rex]

5. Or ads embedded in the website.

Strange how it is stuff I was just surfing for last week. Or not so strange.

[kestrel91316]

4. They do it for targeted advertising, which doesn't bother me in and of itself.

The targeting part, that is. The advertising gets tiresome, but that's how we get free internet.

[Rex]

6. Yes true, I remember getting free internet with Juno

back in the day had to watch a few ads. Was worth it for free.

[MineralMan]

8. Juno! I haven't thought of them in years.

Ha!

[Rex]

14. And Netzero

I forgot what hoops I had to jump through to get it for free, but I did.

Just thought it interesting to see if people here really understand that what is going on currently with public records been going on forever with Google and Bing and Yahoo. Data mining in and of itself was meant to make money for corporations online and it does. Freaking out about it after finding out the government does it too, is way too late in the game imo. I mean what are you going to do about it know? Put up a firewall?

It is here and real.

[MineralMan]

7. Yup. And Google takes only seconds to record and use

your searched to target you with ads on Google Adwords sites. I see it all the time, since I do a lot of research on consumer stuff in writing websites for my clients. As soon as I move on to another search and go to a website, I see Adwords ads reflecting the searches I've recently made.

It's funny, though. I'm not in the market for a swimming pool, but I sure see a lot of ads for them, based on my research for the swimming pool company's site I'm working on.

[BeyondGeography]

9. I bought tickets to see the Staatskappelle Dresden off a hockey site

They figured out my whole classical music and hockey obsession. At first it pissed me off and then I found it kind of cool. At least in that one instance.

The Internet is a commerce machine. I'm sure I buy more stuff than I would otherwise because of it. Americans first and foremost want to make money; the model will be continually refined and Moore's Law says the technology will only get more powerful.

[aristocles]

10. Nope I know why.

Just as people don't know that the whole point of television is selling stuff, they don't realize that the point of the internet is now selling stuff.

[hobbit709]

11. Adblock does wonders. So does clearing cookies every time you close the browser.

[forestpath]

21. Ghostery is great too - I use both.

[William769]

12. Don't you mean websites that allow pop-up ads?

[Rex]

15. I do thanks, I got it backwards.

nt.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

13. I was wondering when someone would bring this up.

Looking at what the Government went for, the Corporations trade and sell that info all the time.

Heck, the Government only wishes they had all the info on people that Corps. have on us.

[Rex]

17. Yes they would LOVE to own Google I bet.

The data Google has on us alone must be ginormous.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

19. Or Facebook.

I remember one time doing stuff at the library. I thought I disabled all the location stuff. But as I was posting I looked at some small gray writing. It said not just the city I was in at the time of post, but the name of the Library I was at and what time.

They even keep a record of things you unlike as well as like. And even if you do not "like" a page, they have a record of you going there at one time.

I guess you can say "Big Book is Watching".

[Rex]

20. Big Book, that is a great name for Facebook.

[lindysalsagal]

16. We should all do a catheter/hemorrhoids search once a week

Really mess with the corporatist's heads.

[Rex]

18. You could do that, flash mobs on the internet so to speak.

Mess with their forecasts. Knowledge is power in this time and age.

[easychoice]

22. No I don't wonder.I configure my computer and browser correctly.So,no ads.

Quit using Internet Trashbag for a browser and that stuff disappears.

[hunter]

23. There are ads on the internet???

Who knew?



Actually I redirect most of them to /device/null, except for those sites I enjoy without subscription. The ads on those sites are usually for technical stuff and not irritating.

Cookies on my machine are all ephemeral, and I don't have adobe flash or other sorts of spyware installed.

But honestly, there is no reason for anyone to send advertisements my way. I rarely buy anything but commodity foods and generic meds. Most everything else I find in thrift stores or the trash.

I did recently buy some stuff to fix my kid's old car, but there was zero "brand awareness" on my part. I bought what the nearest auto parts store had in stock. I prefer lightly used or rebuilt parts, followed by union made parts, followed by made in USA parts, followed by Mexico or Canada parts, but that's not always possible. The parts I bought this time happened to be made in Mexico.

[baldguy]

24. Nobody cares when Coca-Cola or Walmart does it to make us a little fatter & a little poorer.

But everyone goes ballistic when the govt does it just to get a few more scraps of info on the people that want to kill us.