Is Big Brother watching me?

[Sally-Anne]

ahap, it is good advice to run cleaning software (CCleaner is very good as well - completely free), but ultimately many, many websites such as this rely upon income from "clicks on ads". The ads will always be there.

Your ad turning up on the RH side is something else though ... Which browser do you use? Are you on an iPhone/tablet?

I will draw this thread to the attention of Programmer.

S-A

[yoyo123]

I have the 5 foods you mustn;t eat one at the moment, I really fancy a banana now

[ahap]

I use Firefox and it appears on my work PC. It doesn't happen on my Home PC. I just asked my DS and he said to block pop up ads and he has done that to the Home PC. I will try the CCleaner tomorrow and if it doesn't work I'll try the block ads. Top and bottom ads on the websites are okay. It does not interfere with what I'm doing. The ad on the RH side might be something else probably like you said. I will see what I can do tomorrow and will let you know. Thanks S-A.

[programmer]

Hi scary mum,

Maybe someone technical can tel me if I'm just paranoid or if EPE is watching me!
Are the adverts at the bottom of the login page personalised? I keep getting ads coming up for the place we are going on holiday in the summer and it isn't a terribly well known place - I have never seen adverts for it before, but since looking at the prices etc on line, there they are when I log in (it's a nice reminder of things to come!). Also yesterday I looked at some air fares on a well known price scanning website, and now there it is at the bottom of my page! Own up EPE, are you tracking the sites I visit or is it just co-incidence? I do get them for a health care company too and I don't think I've ever visted their website.

Thank you for bringing this up. EPE is not tracking your online visits. Actually these advertisements that you see in the EPE forum are provided by Google. At the moment, we only use Google as our third party advertisements provider. You can choose to opt out from customised advertisements from Google by going to this webpage: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/?hl=en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are other companies that also does similar tracking using the cookies. You can read more about it here http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perhaps you may wish to opt out from customised adverts from all at once by going to http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you need help with any of these, please do let me know either by replying to this thread or by sending a PM. Thank you.

[scary mum]

Fantastic, programmer, thank you. I'm not that bothered about them, it just seemed weird, but I might well do some opting out, just because I can. I wonder if I will see half of EPE on my summer holidays, or whether that one is due to a cookie!

[ahap]

All done. No more RH side ads, no more shrinking of forum page and taking me to the wrong page. No more word to word ad on threads. Sometimes words are highlighted on a thread and if you just place the curser, an ad pops up and also if you click on it it goes to their website. So sometimes I found it hard to read a long post. If I move the mouse an ad blocks some part of the post. I was just ignoring these problems and thought a virus must have got in to the PC, but not a dangerous virus but one that like to sell stuff. What a relief now that Mr. Parkinson won't come to remind me about savings for my funeral, nor would I see lingerie ads, nor would I see floor boards covering very interesting posts. Thanks to scary mum for bringing this up.

[programmer]

hi ahap,

Your experience with the forum advertisements is unusual. For instance we do not have right hand side adverts. Our ad placements are only at the top of the page which is controlled by EPE and the one at the very bottom which is delivered by Google. Also I notice that you have mentioned you are seeing links highlighting the words in the posts. We do not have any thing in place which does that. It seems to me that your web browser has installed some software which is displaying such adverts. I would suggest you to use a different web browser such as Chrome to see if you still have these issues and recommend getting your computer checked by an expert for any possible virus or spyware. Thank you.

[ahap]

Thank you, programmer.
The adverts on the RH side have gone now after I downloaded adblock for firefox. But those links on words have come again. I will follow your advice. Thank you.

[Amber]

I have had some of these adverts on here for the first time today. One is inviting me to become an Avon representative; the other to join a 'mature singles' d ating agency, the only representative of whom seems to be 'Rebecca', who lives just 3 miles from me, handily. Though if she goes out in that red dress today she will surely catch her death.

I wear barely any make up and certainly don't buy it online; and I have never attempted to find love (or anything related, with women or men) over the internet. So if this is 'targeted advertising', I really have no idea how or why.

[StJamesDad]

So if this is 'targeted advertising', I really have no idea how or why.

Does anyone else use the PC Amber?