Buying on line

[xtrailman]

Anybody else noticed how "big brother" is watching?
Often after visiting a site, amazon, screw fix, etc.
The side and top advertising banners show the product, or similar, that i have just been looking at recently.
Quite clever?

Or intrusive?

 

[Reg]

The information is stored on a cookie which is planted on your system so you should remove cookies off your system on a regular basis. There are several ways of doing it in both Firefox - Tools, Options, Privacy and tick "Clear History when Firefox Closes". Internet Explorer is similar I can look it up if you can't find it.
Another thing worth doing on a regular basis is to run "CCleaner" This is an excellent programme for getting rid of all the junk files.
Download from http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner.

 

[Parksy]

Anybody else noticed how "big brother" is watching?
Often after visiting a site, amazon, screw fix, etc.
The side and top advertising banners show the product, or similar, that i have just been looking at recently.
Quite clever?

Or intrusive?

My Kaspersky anti virus software blocks banner adverts so I never see any. As Reg mentioned, I also regularly clear cookies using CC Cleaner and I also run the freeware E Using registry cleaner every week or so to keep my computer running fairly quickly.

 

[OmOnWeelz]

If you use an Iphone or Android / Google phone you may be interested in this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1340107/How-smartphone-keeping-track-Apps-secretly-monitor-users-target-advertising-campaigns.html

 

[Reg]

Parksey

Is the "E Using registry cleaner" better than the one in CCleaner?

 

[Parksy]

Hi Reg
In my opinion it might be although the one in CC Cleaner offers a choice of how many overwrites to use which E Using doesn't.
I intsalled E Using before I knew about CC Cleaner and because the process is visible on the monitor screen E Using seems better than CC Cleaner to a novice like me who is easily impressed by the appearance

I sometimes tick the reg cleaner box on CC Cleaner and occasionally it will pick up on one or two missed items but not much.

I also occasioally use the freeware version of Obit Advanced System Care to scan for hijacked settings on Windows.

http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare-Free/3000-2086_4-10407614.html?tag=mncol;txt
Used occasionally and in conjunction with each other although I only have the 2mb Virgin Broadband my download speed is fairly quick because of the lack of clutter and obsolete files on my computer.
A lot of of the registry detritus is generated by my anti virus system, E Using allows the user to view what files are being cleared.
The E Using reg cleaner also automatically backs up files so if problems occur after a reg clean the system can be rolled back to a previous setting.

 

[mullsy1]

On Windows XP or Vista ,press the start button ,click control panel,click internet options,click delete on browser line.No additional programs necessary
Mike

 

[xtrailman]

Thanks all for the tips.
I thought i already had cookies blocked, so will check.

 

[Parksy]

On Windows XP or Vista ,press the start button ,click control panel,click internet options,click delete on browser line.No additional programs necessary
Mike

That will clear the cookies and delete the browsing history but it's not a registry cleaner. You may need to save your passwords before deleting cookies.

.....I thought i already had cookies blocked, so will check.

Cookies may be re-installed on every occasion that you visit a commercial website Ray. This means that you could spend a great deal of time repeatedly deleting them.

Advertising is a fact of internet life, nothing is really 'free'. Put it down to 'cleverness' rather than 'intrusiveness' because the only effective way to block banner adverts is to invest in software where an adblock is part of the package.

 

[xtrailman]

Thanks Parksey and Reg
I found the cookie filter set to default, but i also found if i increased the setting then i couldn't delete posts from my hotmail account, so thats now back to the default position.
I really don't understand this cookie thing, and would of thought that windows 7, would give me options to filter out these adverts?

Anyway after attempting to install cc, and getting a request to register, i then went for the other option E,
After installing and running E, it did find a couple of hundred faults, or so it said. Which it removed.

Then blow me every account i was logged onto had logged me out, but to make things worse i then couldn't logged back in!

This was due to my explorer cookie filter, which as previously mentioned i had altered from default (medium) to some were higher up the slider.
So as you say, cookies are required, its just a same that i can't just have the cream ones, that i like.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I never delete cookies because I'm registered to so many sites I would find it a pain in the reticulum to keep typing my email/passwords in again. Cookies are harmless anyway and take up hardly any room. I also find it a benefit at times when visiting Amazon, e_Bay another, and seeing the last products I've either bought or viewed. It saves me time in searching if going back to the site to buy the item. Whether a person finds it intrusive or not depends on their views on personal privacy. Some complain about CCTV but I'm not one of them. Life is too short to be paranoid although that doesn't mean you don't have to be careful using common sense.
CC I've used for a long time now and you have to register and they inform you of updates. Another program I use is WinOptimizer which I got free with Computeractive. I run one after the other and it's surprising what one of them picks up to delete after the other has finished.
While posting about CC, Piriform the developers also do another excellent program called Recuva. Although free I have made a donation in the past.
If you have any pics, music, emails, video, documents etc. that you've accidentally deleted from your puter hard drive or external hard drive/ memory card it will do it's best to recover them for you. It's worked for me in the past and is simple to use following the wizard.

 

[Reg]

Firefox will remember your passwords. I have never lost them by deleting cookies.

 

[graham_somersham]

Yes Firefox is pretty good at remembering passwords and deleting normal cookies but by default it does not remove LSO cookies that are installed by small Flash applications that you probably never notice. There is a free Firefox addin names Betterprivacy that will remove these and it is surprising just how many sites use these in addition to 'normal' cookies. Also if you are interested in intrusive advertising take a read about how Google use information that they collect about you when using any of their applications.

 

[Surfer]

You can opt out of google collecting info.

 

[Reg]

Hi graham_somersham
I have just loaded the Betterprivacy add-on and sure enough it found some. Firefox still retains passwords so far.
Thanks for that
Reg

 

[RegandPat]

Hi , the one I use.
http://www.stevengould.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=69
Hope it works the link that is.
Reg and Pat
PS link is working.