Google's Behavioral Ad Targeting: How to Reclaim Control

[struggle4progress]

JR Raphael, PC World
Mar 11, 2009 5:50 pm

Google has unveiled a new behavioral targeting system that'll read your browsing history, then cater ads based on where you've been. While Google sells the concept as an user-oriented improvement that'll bring you "more interesting" and "useful" content, you may want to consider the privacy implications of having your surfing habits monitored and monetized.

If there's one site you visit, it should be the Network Advertising Initiative's Opt-Out Tool. NAI, a consumer awareness organization, has created a handy utility that lets you see more than two dozen ad networks that may be pulling your info (even though you've probably never heard of most of them). The page shows you which companies have cookies set on your computer, then offers you an option to turn them off.

· Google's ad system has its own opt-out page here.

· Yahoo's targeting program lets you say "no thanks" here ...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/161096/googles_behavioral_ad_targeting_how_to_reclaim_control.html

[ddeclue]

1. Here's some other thoughts on how to tell Google (and others) to butt out...

Most of these are available for free from www.filehippo.com:

1) Ad-Aware - run it regularly throw those cookies out! Set it to run daily scans.

2) SpyBot - run it regularly also it's even better than Ad-Aware at getting this crap off your machine. Run at least once a week.

3) SpywareBlaster - pre-emptively blocks all sorts of crap from being installed that people want to install on your machine to hijack it and turn it into their propaganda superhighway to your brain.

4) Run a browser like FireFox with AdBlocker installed and all the ad subscriptions installed. Hides almost all the ads.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

There is also a new style sheet you can load for the new Apple Safari that works in a similar manner to block ads.

5) ZoneAlarm personal (or your favorite firewall) - I used to use Norton but now that I'm officially poor I've stopped using it and have opted for freeware solutions.

6) AVG personal antivirus - I used to use Norton but again this is a free one. Set this to run daily scans.

7) Disable the cookies in your browser and only enable them on particular sites.

8) CCleaner - run this regularly to clean all the crap off your machine including MRU's, cookies, temp files, etc. Run at least once a week.

9) For God's sake NEVER install all those obnoxious "toolbars" on your machine - if they are already installed remove them.. AOL, Yahoo, Google, etc. these things are just there to hijack your PC and turn it into AOL's, Yahoo's, Google's, etc. corporate botnet. They slow your machine down tremendously while feeding your info back to their corporate masters.

10) NEVER ever install Windows Live - this is a hideously intrusive bit of software that is like a toolbar on roids that totally hijacks your PC and attempts to assimilate you and it into the Borg Collective.

11) Get rid of Windows and move to a Mac or better yet a Linux or FreeBSD Box.

12) Watch out for GoogleEarth and other Google programs which install their GoogleUpdater.exe onto your machine. This is another bit of spyware you need to disable the updater service and delete GoogleUpdater.exe from your machine and not allow it to be reinstalled.

13) Remove/disable all the auto-updaters from your machine.

14) Be careful to read the updates and why they are necessary before installing them but don't let a machine sit unpatched for security holes.

[ProgrezivIndie]

2. ummm, what ADs?

I use Firefox with several security/privacy/annoyance-stopping ADDONs (plugins, extensions, etc.) enabled. Two of those (NOSCRIPT and AD BLOCK PLUS) mean that I never see an AD from GOOGLE (or anywhere else for that matter).

What's more:

1. NOSCRIPT ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722 ) makes one's surfing SAFE from "mobile code attacks" of any sort... by default it does NOT allow any embedded scripting (but its a simple matter of allowing it, if need be, for sites which you implicitly trust)

2. ADBLOCK PLUS ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865 ) does much more... with Element Hiding Helper ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4364 ) it allows you to actually BLOCK "elements" ... just as one example: I've used it to completely BLOCK/hide "signature lines" on forums where those get completely out of control -- that is to say, a click or two.. and *POOF* all signatures in all posts are no longer seen (and it is capable of much more as well)!

just my 2cents

[BlooInBloo]

3. And flashblock.

[Sirveri]

4. I just ignore them.

So they know what porn sites I visit and that I use hotmail and that I frequent DU.

I'm nobody, so why should I care that some faceless corporation knows where I go?

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Thank you! I have noticed that lately, when I google something, and click on a hit

I am taken to a page of ads...not the page I want to see. I have to go back to the list page and click on the page I want a second time before I am taken where I want to go.

[ddeclue]

6. Your computer has already been hijacked by ad-ware.

likely a BHO - that does NOT stand for Barack Hussein Obama but rather for Browser "Helper" Object.

Not every BHO is bad but a lot of them are.

You need to install and run ad-aware, spy-bot, and do an anti-virus program scan of your entire system. I promise you your system has already been hijacked because that is classic ad-ware behavior.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Thanks!! Will take your advice immediately

[L0oniX]

7. FireFox/Tools/Options/Keep my history for at least 0 days ...problem solved.

[struggle4progress]

9. They're probably not inspecting your cache but tracking through cookies

[L0oniX]

10. FireFox/Tools/Options/ Accept Cookies from sites ...Keep until: I close FireFox

Problem still solved.

[backscatter712]

11. A few Firefox plugins should help you...

Adblock Plus will block the ads.

NoScript blocks unauthorized scripts from running in your browser.

BetterPrivacy blocks and deletes Flash cookies, which end up getting stored in a separate directory from regular HTML cookies, and don't get deleted when you tell Firefox to dump your cookies. Advertisers have been using them as "stealth cookies" for this reason.

You can install all three by going to Tools->Add-ons, then clicking Get Add-Ons. There's a search bar in there, should be pretty easy to find and install these.

[struggle4progress]

13. Thanks! those are interesting.

[FlyingSquirrel]

12. Scroogle it!

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

Results from Google, with

no cookies | no search-term records | access log deleted within 48 hours

[GeorgeGist]

14. Thank you for the info ..

kandr

[myrna minx]

15. k&r n/t