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When Opting Out of Ad Tracking Doesn't Opt You Out

Posted by Soulskill on from the out-damned-spot dept.

jfruh writes "Privacy blogger Dan Tynan couldn't help but notice the ads targeting his web browsing for a plus-sized women's clothing store, not least because he's neither a woman nor plus-sized. But trying to figure out why those ads kept popping up in his browser led to some disturbing discoveries. He had opted out of targeted Google ads, and at first glance the ads seemed to come from Google — but digging deeper, he found that Google's DoubleClick was only the intermediary, which meant his opt-out didn't apply. And his opt-outs from other ad services seemed to have vanished."

3 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Just use adBlock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    And solve the problem.

  2. Re:Seems to need an ad blocker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well... I can think of one excuse. Many websites that I like rely on advertising revenue.

    And that's why adblock has a whitelist option so that you can whitelist the sites that don't display intrusive/abusive advertising. It even has a checkbox for "allow unobtrusive advertising" when selecting filters, which lets through things such as the google text based ads.

    Now where's you're excuse?

  3. Don't trust them by Dunge · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't trust marketers to honor the "do not track", they never will. The solution is simple: Install AdBlock, Ghostery, Disconnect.me AND PeerBlock. Death to online tracking.