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Retargeting Ads Stalk You For Weeks After You Shop
eldavojohn writes "The New York Times is reporting on a new kind of web ad that takes products you were looking at purchasing on one site and continually advertising them in front of you at subsequent sites. After looking at shoes at Zappos, a mother in Montreal noticed the shoes followed her: 'For days or weeks, every site I went to seemed to be showing me ads for those shoes. It is a pretty clever marketing tool. But it's a little creepy, especially if you don't know what's going on.' The spreading ploy is called 'retargeting ads' and really are just a good demonstration of how an old technology (all they use are leftover browser cookies) are truly invasive and privacy violating. Opponents are clamoring for government regulation to protect the consumer and one writer mentioned a consumer 'do not track' list — adding that retailers really show little fear of turning off customers with their invasion."
That mother deserves a Zappos stalker. When done with a site LOG OUT. Flush cookies and cache (set limits on them). And stop being a sheep. In the end, it's a (relatively) free experience being online. If she's not happy and not responsible with it, go back to VHS tapes, you'll have far few worries.
Everyone starts using adblock at the same time. Then, you see a crash of the economy of the free internet. Good plan.