We are living in a remarkable world with personal privacy quickly eroding.
Would love some insight on the following:
I noticed at the top of the Stags Board a banner ad for Nordstrom. It was recommending the same shoes I was looking at on the Nordstrom website a few weeks ago.
Additionally, it was showing belts at Nordstrom that I had used Google to search. I never searched them at the Nordstrom site.
How is this info linking. Is a cookie from Nordstrom being picked up from Pro Boards? Is it Nordstrom and Google both linking the info?
Is there any way to disable this activity in the future. I assume if I delete the Nordstrom cookie, this link will disappear, but how do you prevent this in the future?
Or is it part of the terms and conditions for using the Pro Boards website?
I think I found the answer in their privacy policy:
c. Ad Serving. ProBoards uses third-parties including Datonics for advertising and analytics for pages that we host. These third-parties may place cookies on Your machine, use web beacons, gather IP addresses and log data to collect traffic and activity data in order to deliver relevant metrics, content, and advertising. Notwithstanding anything else in this policy, we or a data provider we have engaged may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable you to receive customized ads or content. These cookies contain no personally identifiable information. The cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to data you voluntarily have submitted to us, e.g., your email address, that we may share with a data provider solely in hashed, non-human readable form. Some ad networks that are a part of the Network Advertising Initiative provide an easy way to opt out of behavioral targeting by utilizing the NAI Opt Out page. You can also visit AboutAds.info for more information and to opt-out.
The Ads are customized to you, and are different than the Ads I see. Many sites access these Cookies on our computer. You can delete all your cookies, but you will lose other info that you might want to keep.
I have a option to turn off the Ads from ProBoards, but that will cost me a monthly fee.
It is what it is. All the ads are based on website cookies from our computers. There are so many pop ups and ads that I too am oblivious to them here but for $6.00 a month (payable at the first of each month) you can make your Stag ProBoard Forum banner ad free. The link is at the bottom of the page.
Post by reindeerfan on May 29, 2014 9:59:56 GMT -5
Yes, cookies are the issue. You can disable them, or delete them if you want. But then you have to sign in again every time you access the site. And if you deleted the cookie a new cookie is created.
I just ignore the ads, although it is interested how much tracking is being done on the websites I visit, it is clearly reflected in the ads. I visited Volvo's website and got car ads for a month. I checked the price of gold on google and started getting ads to purchase gold and silver. I bought a new Kayak and started getting ads from dicks sports and REI. There is zero privacy on the web. Consider anything you do to be a matter of public record.
