Shopsmith Forums

I just logged on to my email and what do I find - Amazon ads, all around the border, pushing Delta Drill Presses.

Why Delta Drill Presses? I assume that this happened because yesterday I was searching the web for information on drill presses. What I was actually doing was trying to see if a standalone drill press provided any functionality that my Shopsmith does not.

I was not soliciting this barrage of data from Amazon Marketeers.

I've had the same problem with Amazon, E-bay and others. I've since set my browser (Chrome) to delete all cookies when I shut down the browser. That way, unless I log into a site, it treats me as a new visitor each time, and while it places cookies, it doesn't know who I am. I shut down the browser daily. The only downside is that you have to log into sites like here on the Shopsmith Forum or Yahoo Groups every day. But Chrome saves login info so that's not a big deal.

If you have an account on Facebook, with Google, with Microsoft, on Amazon, or anywhere else, they are logging your activity - particularly what you search for. Not really because they care about what you're doing, but so they can sell advertisements that are targeted to you. That is the price we pay for the "free" service they offer. Deleting your cookies is OK, but if you are logged in to any of those sites, then they are tracking you while you're logged in, and deleting your cookies before or afterward doesn't really do much.

I have mixed feeling about, personally. On one hand, I understand the services they provide cost them money, yet they are offered for "free" to me. I don't have to pay to be on Facebook. I don't pay for Google searches (and how useful would the web be without search engines like Google) or Gmail or YouTube or Blogger or Google Docs. So if they want to take the information I give them so they can try to serve me with ads they think will be more effective which I end up just ignoring anyway, then what is the harm?

On the other hand, I don't know exactly what info they have on me and how they might be using it beyond targeted advertisements. And that is what I don't like. Google has a page that supposedly will tell you everything they have recorded about you (https://www.google.com/dashboard/ and sign in with your Google account). But how do I know that is complete? And it tells me nothing about WHAT they actually DO with that information.

I do take some precautions. One of my favorite things about the NoScript plugin for FireFox is that I can block Google-analytics. That is a tool for web developers to keep stats on their visitors - things like what country they are in, what browser and operating system they have, etc. Very useful for web developers and they have no way to link those stats to any specific person, but Google itself does (if you're logged in to a Google account such as for Gmail). Google can keep a record of the web sites you visit. So I block it. I also block advertisement sites like doubleclick.net that can also track your web activity.

And even beyond places like Google and Amazon, your internet service provider knows a lot more about you. They have a record of every site you visit. They have to by law. They may not do anything with that information other than respond to copyright infringement notices (if you're caught illegally downloading music or movies by the people that are tracking the sites that offer that copyrighted content) or give it to the government if they come knocking with a warrant for whatever reason. But, they still have the information. AND it is associated with your name, address, and phone number.

The fact of the matter is, anything you do on the internet can become public. There is no privacy online.

I'll add some strange things to the mix. We see ID theft at work all of the time. The number one security question is mothers maiden name. I can probably find out just about anyone's mothers maiden name online and for free or little cost.
Just use Ancestry.com. You can browse the tons of family trees and see if you happen to be on a branch of anyones tree. Of course, your parents no doubt would then be on a tree or two and someone, of course, has used your mothers maiden name on a tree for a different family...and you are a branch from that and so on.
So, if you have Facebook, you give out a ton of info to anyone that can see that page. Then you have your search history by IP address etc. then you have Ancestry.com and then the worst one....SPOKEO.com. I can see a pic of your house a map to get there, who bought it and how much, how many kids live there and on and on....none of these are a danger alone, but together anyone can build a substantial profile of you totally without your knowledge.
Check all of this out if you haven't thought of it before and start using BING.

Why use Bing? That is owned by Microsoft and they do the same stuff Google does. Plus, they link your Bing searches with your Facebook account.

Scratch BING then. Who knows...is dogpile still around? Alta vista?
Nowhere is safe.

holsgo wrote:...Nowhere is safe.

Now you're learnin'...