# I knew I was being tracked, but this is ridiculous



## alloy (Jun 9, 2017)

I bought a 160 degree thermostat for my LS2 two days ago.

Today my girlfriend asked me if I was looking for a new Lingenfelter 160 thermostat for a 2008 Chevrolet  Trailblazer SS with a 395  horse LS2?

Well yes I said.  How do you know that?

She showed me her screen.  Amazon sent her ads on HER computer for one and apparently other things I looked up in the past few days.

The only thing in common between the two computer is the wifi connection we have.

This is the first time this has happened.  Just floors me they can do that.

Does anyone know how to stop this?  What if I was looking for a present for her online?  Would kinda spoil the surprise for her.


----------



## Superburban (Jun 9, 2017)

Add blocker plus, stops most of the adds. Won't do anything for their spying though.


----------



## Cobra (Jun 9, 2017)

Run a VPN


----------



## Tozguy (Jun 9, 2017)

OK I'll bite, what is a VPN?


----------



## Cobra (Jun 9, 2017)

Tozguy said:


> OK I'll bite, what is a VPN?



Virtual Private Network.  Software driven solution that allow use of the internet without exposing your identification or location.


----------



## woodchucker (Jun 9, 2017)

alloy said:


> I bought a 160 degree thermostat for my LS2 two days ago.
> 
> Today my girlfriend asked me if I was looking for a new Lingenfelter 160 thermostat for a 2008 Chevrolet  Trailblazer SS with a 395  horse LS2?
> 
> ...



I don't think it's the wifi.
Did you ever log onto her computer b4, or use it? If so you may have some cookies still present.
BUTTT that's not to say it doesn't happen. I have noticed GOOGLE DOES do that. my phone and home, and office computer are sharing google info, because of my phone. I don't use google to search, I use duckduckgo.com I got tired of googles tracking. as a diy guy I didn't want to buy something, I wanted to know how to make it , and google preferred sending me place to buy it. Duckduckgo doesn't
Consider both Amazon and google to be very close in how intrusive they are becoming.
Do you own that Amazon device that you can talk to? If you do that's the breach to your data mingling.
While VPN is an option, not for most of us. I vpn to work, but I am not buying a vpn to ???? where.. just not worth it.  What vpn does is encrypt your data so no one can see it, and creates a direct virtual link to whomever you vpn to.


----------



## kvt (Jun 9, 2017)

When you use your Internet modem,   It has an IP that it uses,   you then use a private IP behind that,   So as far as places like Amazon etc are concerned you both came from the same IP so their big  system tracked that you looked at this via the IP and then says Oh that IP is back we will send them this information based on what they looked at before from that IP.    Often time even turning off Cookies, and other things does not stop all of it.


----------



## higgite (Jun 9, 2017)

Try this.
Log on to Amazon.com.
Put your cursor on “accounts and lists” near the top of the page.
Click on “your account”.
Look under “email alerts, messages and ads” click on “advertising preferences”.
Change your preference from “personalize….” to “do not personalize….”.
Click on “submit”.

Tom


----------



## Mark_f (Jun 9, 2017)

I find that happens a lot. In fact, several days ago I was searching the net for a band saw blade welder. Lo and behold, I log onto the forum here and at the bottom of the page is an ad for a blade welder. In my case, this all comes from Google. They track everything you look at and put ads on your pages for the things you search for. They seem way too nosey for my liking.


----------



## dave_r_1 (Jun 9, 2017)

A VPN (if you buy the service from a third party, not run your own), just masks your location and encrypts the data between your computer and the VPN service (the data between the VPN service and a given web site may or may not be encrypted).  It doesn't really help with ads or tracking, as the same information is still passed back and forth between your computer and the various tracking companies.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to really block tracking, as between ever-cookies and browser fingerprinting, tracking companies can pretty reliably track your specific computer.


----------



## RandyWilson (Jun 9, 2017)

The tracking isn't by IP normally, it's by login. But if you browse without being logged in, they track that by IP.   

 While you can turn off some of the tracking and targeting, it's hard to avoid it all. Google has somehow attached my work computer to my phone and tablet, even though I NEVER use google services that require login from the desktop. And only as required from the phone.

Occasionally I'll get a series of targeted ads. Like a few months back Alibaba was blasting me with bulldozers and excavators. One has to wonder what in the hell I searched for to cause that.


----------



## alloy (Jun 10, 2017)

I have never used her computer for anything.  It's ancient.  She will be getting a new one for her birthday soon, but obviously I can't look it up online now.

I will log onto amazon and see what I can do there. I do not own any amazon devices.  

I also see ads on my phone that came from my computer.   Frustrating to see all this stuff pop up.   I hate going to a site to look up something and there is a popup and you can'tt get rid of it without closing the web page. They are losing business that way.


----------



## darkzero (Jun 10, 2017)

Like kvt stated, if you are browsing the internet through you will get the same result on any device connected to you wifi router network since your modem is assigned one IP address by your ISP. Websites will see all the traffic from your router that's connected to you modem (or built in), doesn't matter what device you are using.

PC browsers are easy to install ad tracking blockers. But for phones & tablets not so much. Most of the ad blocking apps don't work well or at all. If you have an Android & are rooted you can block ads pretty well.

Another option to prevent your GF from seeing related ads when your browsing is to use you phone provider's internet assuming you have an internet plan, ie, not browsing through you home wifi network. Or go to Starbucks & use their wifi when you need to search for gifts. 

If you have an Android device or Chrome, you can browse using a "Secret Tab" (that's what it's called). Cookies & browsing history aren't saved so your GF should not see anything related when browsed with that.

I have a different issue, I buy lots of stuff from Amazon & my GF uses my account too so she can see all my browsing history & purchases. But at least I have ebay.

Unfortunately there is no anonymity on the internet. A VPN will help but you can still be tracked if "they" really want to. Free VPNs suck, if you really want something that doesn't suck you have to go with a paid one like PIA.


----------



## Tozguy (Jun 10, 2017)

I get the same as Mark mentioned above and have been wondering what can be done about it. From all your comments it seems that it is the price to pay for 'free and easy' use of Google. For now all I am doing (with iPad and mini-mac) is to never click on the pop-ups. If I do  purchase something I will order straight from the suppliers web page and avoid using the 'convenience' of unwanted ads.


----------



## darkzero (Jun 10, 2017)

Tozguy said:


> I get the same as Mark mentioned above and have been wondering what can be done about it. From all your comments it seems that it is the price to pay for 'free and easy' use of Google. For now all I am doing (with iPad and mini-mac) is to never click on the pop-ups. If I do  purchase something I will order straight from the suppliers web page and avoid using the 'convenience' of unwanted ads.



Before I rooted my Android I used to use an app called Ad Guard. It worked fairly well for an app but it still let some things through. Downside is that it runs in the background all the time but I never noticed a slowdown in speed.

I just checked & it looks like they have it for Apple as well. I'm not sure how well it works on Apple or if the free version is limited but it's worth a try. Downside to blocking ads is when you do want to click an ad (like a product ad you searched for) the link won't work. But with Ad Guard you can toggle it on & off. For my Android I can't do that if I ever wanted to, I have to uninstall a modified system file & reboot.

If you or anyone else does try Ad Guard for Apple, please let us know how it works.

Sometimes I hear guys talk about the ads on this site & I think to myself "what are they talking about". I've been using ad blockers for so long I forget & just think it's normal not seeing ads on forums & such.


----------



## dave_r_1 (Jun 10, 2017)

Tozguy said:


> I get the same as Mark mentioned above and have been wondering what can be done about it. From all your comments it seems that it is the price to pay for 'free and easy' use of Google. For now all I am doing (with iPad and mini-mac) is to never click on the pop-ups. If I do  purchase something I will order straight from the suppliers web page and avoid using the 'convenience' of unwanted ads.



This will not necessarily prevent your purchase from being tracked.  Many websites use Google to provide analytic services (to notice trends of how people use their web site, how many follow through with purchases, lots of stuff), and and Google gets all that info about what you appear to be interested in because of it.

Same with facebook or twitter likes or sharing buttons, or using a twiiter/google/microsoft/facebook/amazon login.  And even if you logout, they have been caught retaining the login info to keep the tracking info associated with "you" after you have logged out.

You can use things like ghostery or Privacy Badger to limit the tracking somewhat, but it is a game of cat and mouse.  They work really hard to weave their tracking code into websites so if you block the tracking code, the web site stops working properly.  A LOT of time, money and effort is put into making it so you can't prevent yourself being tracked.


----------



## LucknowKen (Jun 11, 2017)

CCleaner:
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Choose the free version. I use this program and the standard windows firewall.
No anti virus or other adblocker. Never go to MSN updates. Never had a problem.
Best free program imho. My system is at the top of the pics.
Here is some screenshots of my setup fwiw:


----------

