Disabling targeted advertisement
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I have disabled Google's targeted advertisement for reasons several weeks ago, and I have observed something really interesting : most of the advertisement I get now is for ... soft porn comics or for some kind of totally funny medical treatments against cancer ?! At first, I did not get that it had to do with my change of settings, so reinstalled browsers, run anti-viruses etc.. thinking I had gotten some kind of malware, but nothing of this kind, and this was on all my devices - so I realized this seems to be the default kind of advertisement I get when all "personal" settings in Google's ads system are disabled. I wonder how much intention is put in this from Google - I mean, most of these ads are quite embarrassing on the long run, my kids are sometimes using my phone for a quick google search, I sometimes show something from my browser to other people, and coming across barely hidden explicit content is no fun. I would expect anybody confronted to this to switch on again the targeted advertisement, which is why I tend to think this may be intended...
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My list of web sites that Firefox won't handle is growing steadily - but with AdBlockPlus, it doesn't grow, it explodes. I am happy when it is obvious that essential parts are missing, e.g. the page being (almost) blank. Some times, it can take weeks until I realize that I have been missing out on something. This happened e.g. on CP articles: The text was fine, but figures were silently removed by APB. Today, I saw an interesting announcement of a webinar, but APB hid the signup fields. I finally found them, using Edge (I use Edge so sparingly that I haven't yet bothered with any ad blocker), first thinking that this was yet another of those pages not handled by FF. Not until a colleague of mine reported that he could sign up for the webinar through FF did I realize that it was APBs fault. I still use APB. But if I regularly have to turn it off just to make sure that I am not missing out on some essential info, it becomes sort of meaningless. I am not there yet, but gradually getting closer.
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I have disabled Google's targeted advertisement for reasons several weeks ago, and I have observed something really interesting : most of the advertisement I get now is for ... soft porn comics or for some kind of totally funny medical treatments against cancer ?! At first, I did not get that it had to do with my change of settings, so reinstalled browsers, run anti-viruses etc.. thinking I had gotten some kind of malware, but nothing of this kind, and this was on all my devices - so I realized this seems to be the default kind of advertisement I get when all "personal" settings in Google's ads system are disabled. I wonder how much intention is put in this from Google - I mean, most of these ads are quite embarrassing on the long run, my kids are sometimes using my phone for a quick google search, I sometimes show something from my browser to other people, and coming across barely hidden explicit content is no fun. I would expect anybody confronted to this to switch on again the targeted advertisement, which is why I tend to think this may be intended...
Rage wrote:
I would expect anybody confronted to this to switch on again the targeted advertisement, which is why I tend to think this may be intended...
...aaand there we have it. You will be tracked, slave, whether you like it or not. When they make you turn it back on, they won. This is also why I never log onto a browser. A *site* might need to know who I am, but a *browser*, IMO, has no business asking me to log into some "profile". As JSOP mentioned, the solution is Pi-Hole.
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I have disabled Google's targeted advertisement for reasons several weeks ago, and I have observed something really interesting : most of the advertisement I get now is for ... soft porn comics or for some kind of totally funny medical treatments against cancer ?! At first, I did not get that it had to do with my change of settings, so reinstalled browsers, run anti-viruses etc.. thinking I had gotten some kind of malware, but nothing of this kind, and this was on all my devices - so I realized this seems to be the default kind of advertisement I get when all "personal" settings in Google's ads system are disabled. I wonder how much intention is put in this from Google - I mean, most of these ads are quite embarrassing on the long run, my kids are sometimes using my phone for a quick google search, I sometimes show something from my browser to other people, and coming across barely hidden explicit content is no fun. I would expect anybody confronted to this to switch on again the targeted advertisement, which is why I tend to think this may be intended...
Don't switch back, instead install Ghostery and uBlock Origin and make sure to disallow everything that is 3rd party, then on each site you wish to visit open up for the features you wish to use apart from those delivered by that site directly. Some of these, i.e gstatic.com you may wish to allow on all sites as that contains oftentimes necessary scripts for the functionality of that site. Never let them bully you into accepting anything non functional, even if that means that you can no longer use their site. If they make it so or too difficult to opt out of everything with them, simply cancel your membership and move on. That is the only way these spammers will ever learn. Most important, never allow googletagmanager.com as that is the very source of their spyware, if you allow that, a whole host of spyware will attempt to install spyware cookies on your machine, so called "tracking cookies".
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I have disabled Google's targeted advertisement for reasons several weeks ago, and I have observed something really interesting : most of the advertisement I get now is for ... soft porn comics or for some kind of totally funny medical treatments against cancer ?! At first, I did not get that it had to do with my change of settings, so reinstalled browsers, run anti-viruses etc.. thinking I had gotten some kind of malware, but nothing of this kind, and this was on all my devices - so I realized this seems to be the default kind of advertisement I get when all "personal" settings in Google's ads system are disabled. I wonder how much intention is put in this from Google - I mean, most of these ads are quite embarrassing on the long run, my kids are sometimes using my phone for a quick google search, I sometimes show something from my browser to other people, and coming across barely hidden explicit content is no fun. I would expect anybody confronted to this to switch on again the targeted advertisement, which is why I tend to think this may be intended...
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between pi-hole at home and a hosts file that redirects 90% of the ads I don't see much and that is just the way I like it. At work it sometimes sucks. Because we don't have a pi-hole server.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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I have something like 5 or 6 blockers. I have disabled them though on some sites because, well, web sites also live from advertisement, and do not necessarily choose what they get to display. I have no ad block on mobile devices, since ad blocking means installing weird alternate browser app - no add-in on android.
Their web site, their quality control. If they allow "strange" ads, they understand I block them. I never ever seen "strange" ads in :bob: . In android, if you have a Samsung phone you have multiple adblockers that work with their browser, if it's not a Samsung, you can always install firefox (not that weird) or something like that that can use an ad blocker. It's a pity and sad having to spend time and efforts in those things because internet is full of "high quality" ads. X|
www.robotecnik.com[^] - robots, CNC and PLC programming
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@JSOP IIRC you also had a hosts file setup - what made you move to pi-hole ?
Using Pi-hole keeps me from having to periodically update the hosts file on almost a dozen machines. Pi-hole updates automatically, as well.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
I'm using uMatrix, which allows for a bit more granularity on what you allow or disallow per site. Like Cookies, CSS, images, media, scripts, XHR, frames and others, and that per address and per site. But it gives you a very quick insight in who's able to actually program their website and who's just collecting scripts all over the internet. (hint, news sites)
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
The author of uMatrix just recently announced that the project is going into archive status and will no longer be maintained.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
One word - Pi-hole. Get yourself a raspberry pi, install pi hole, and significantly reduce the ad payload on every device (regardless of OS used) in your house. I actually run two pi-hole devices - a primary and a secondary. Because Time-Warner (Spectrum) doesn't allow you to change the DNS server IP's on a cable modem/router, I had to configure each device to use the local Pi-Hole DNS servers, but that's a small price to pay for a relatively ad-free browsing experience. If you're concerned about allowing some sites to push ads (white-listing), have no fear - Pi-Hole supports that.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
The author of uMatrix just recently announced that the project is going into archive status and will no longer be maintained.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Pity, did he say why?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
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Pity, did he say why?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
I don't know. I saw the announcement on slashdot. I don't use uMatrix myself.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
I don't know. I saw the announcement on slashdot. I don't use uMatrix myself.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Seems like he has put his effort into a new extension called "uBlock origin"
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
