and its only going to get worse, cookies are identifiers, think of them as wristbands.

when browsing the web, you often unwittingly collect a wristband from every site you visit, some sites will give you multiple wristbands, many advertising specific.

The records of what wristbands you have are collected then assigned to a unique profile that is ALREADY being written about you. (this is stored FOREVER and you CANNOT delete it)

things are getting a lot more invasive, very quickly.

Google Inc. is NOT your close personal friend, it is a business.
A very large business that makes a lot of money by selling advertising/targeting you.

stay aware, the media won’t keep you informed as they are complicit, remember media is often funded by advertising.

I’m not against advertising, but I am against invasion of privacy.

privacy is a right, not something you should have to request.

Opt out of behavioural advertising.

more on googles latest spy engine here

Stop looking at those nasty sites your soon to be wife definitely won’t approve of, and you’ll be fine I’m sure….

DrP

just use a different PC/Laptop to look at your porn on

WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!

OH NOES. Cookies used for targeted marketing? Is it 1995 again?

Since about generation 2/3 of most web browsers there has been the option to turn cookies off. More importantly users have the option of not visiting sites which store profile data in cookies to enhance the user experience.

Use security settings to prevent this. I have about 3 different options depending on what and where

“They” really are out to get you, you know.

dam someone got the tinfoil hat one in there first

lets assume, hypothetically, that they are “out to get me”

what, exactly, do they “get”??

information on my browsing habits, so they know that im NOT interested in fat pr*n, but DO have a thing for “pink stiffees” and “suicide girls”

god forbid that the adverts that i got shown actually interested me!

bring on the day when adverts are tuned to the viewer/reciever box.
i look forward to being bombarded with “rad” bike adverts, and then not buying them

yeah it’d be great to have some corporation decide what is advertised to me

god forbid I shouldn’t fit into their profile, I’d hate to be given choice, that’d be shit

I’m not sure this is particularly limited to cookies. If you go to a site then you may be identifiable by many different things (e.g. IP address or user name).

So if you go to say Amazon and look at a particular book then they can tie that book to your IP address. If you then go to a book review site which happens to carry Amazon ads, then those ads may now be advertising the book you just looked at in Amazon.

I’m not convinced that this is anything to get worked up about to be honest.

theyre not taking away your choice MrMW, your choices remain the same, choices that are usually made when looking at the price on the shelf in the shop surely?

i can honestly say i dont think adverts affect my day to day choices in ANY way.
the only time they do, is then they advertise an unusual offer on an item that would already interest me (cheap computers at currys, when im already looking for a computer, for instance)
in which case, surely its better to be targetted?

cheap toothpaste, dont care, cheap bike parts, do care.

if i bought a Cannibal corpese album from amazon, a side bar advert offering me U2s latest piece of landfill, is nothing more than a waste of valuable pixels?

i can still go buy the Landfill if i REALLY wanted to, no choice has been removed?

IMHO what people tend to object to with these schemes isn’t really the advertising. It is the fact that despite having a deep and multi-faceted personality that makes them a unique and special snowflake, they can still be easily categorised, profiled and sold to.

Moreover, the profile of their online interests may be entirely accurate, but it might not fit with their own self-image.

“Well yes, I only ever read the classics. I’m currently engrossed in Tolstoy. I think that all writing should move you deeply from within.”
(Profile: spends 8 hours a day reading PopBitch)

Did anyone say Phorm?

We’re being watched on the interents SHOCKER!

I’m not worried about the advertising, it’s the fact that information stored about my browsing habits may reveal that I look at websites critical of the British or American governments or whatever…

But, nasty noncing **** have been caught through their traffic being monitored. So, it’s a tricky one.

But I’m more concerned with the fact that freedom of speech and thought is slowly being strangled. If your government does not in any way deem it suitable, for you to look at whatever you choose, then they can prevent you from doing so. That’s censorship, which exists everywhere anyway. Possessing a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook, for example, is apparently illegal. Downloading it is illegal. Distributing copies is illegal.

There will be other ways of spreading information developed. One of the largest growth industries in IT, is in document data encryption.

MrNutt; so, you being targeted by companies supplying goat keeping equipment, then?

Big Brother has been with us for some time. It was only a matter of time before the internets fell. I’m trying to find a way where I can distract the watchers, with mountains of Hello Kitty and My Little Pony content, so’s I can carry on with my evil plan…

http://stopabductions.com/
very interesting website

I have nothing to hide and beared all as Mr May in a magazine once and recognised by a lady who said her gay friend had my picture-doh!

STW annoys me as it has tracking cookies but I have nothing to hide and my desktop pic is of sexy women-so what?

Nothing to hide and not doing anything dodgy so they can probe as much as they want-as long as its not an anal probe.

I’m not a member of the tin foil hat brigade, I don’t believe in aliens, ghosts, water divining, black helicopters, the healing power of crystals or copper bracelets. its all toss.

I do however find the fact that the corporate & media sectors feel it acceptable to build extremely detailed personal profiles, of activity commonly considered to be private, which they will then sell to whoever they please, to constitute a gross abuse of public privacy. Deeply unBritish.

Does private browsing in Firefox 3.1 not stop this problem ?

would you mind the postman opening all your mail to give you a “better class of junk mail”?

how about having your phone tapped to give you more relevant billboards down your street?

What about a camera in your living room to ensure that you get more interesting commercials on TV?

now tell me if you think that Behavioural Profiling by the advertising/media industry is acceptable.

Advertising & media are forms of entertainment & titillation, they have no right to invade a persons privacy simply “so they can make a bit more money”

for example, Peter Bazalgette, the former chairman of Endemol:

“I’ve spent 30 years in the content industry, and I’m asking myself how are we going to pay for content in the future?”

“Quite a lot of content in the future is going to have to be paid for like it was in the past – by advertising. But advertising online is going to be done in a different way.

“And when I hear all these privacy guys talk about privacy, I never hear them mention the importance of commerce online. All I hear them talk about is their rights.

“I get very irritable with these people – and I did this morning – sitting around, droning on about privacy, which is one issues that’s very important, without ever acknowledging the importance of commerce.”

you idiots, yes you have rights, but that’s NOT AS IMPORTANT AS MAKING MONEY

what a cretinous pussfulled advert boil Mr Bazalgette is, no surprise he’s seen steping out with the likes of the Phorm chairman, you really can judge a man by the company he keeps.

SCUM.

no private browsing does not stop deep packet inspection. (aka Phorm / BT Webwise)

No Script, Adblock etc are equally as useless when it comes to DPI

The spy “tracking” cookie can be blocked but your better off running something like peer guardian.