On 13/07/2018 23:14, Ralph Fox wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jul 2018 17:03:05 +0100, Brian Gregory wrote:

On 24/06/2018 02:55, Paul wrote:

That's not the question though.

If I visit Newegg and look for a product like say a
SATA cable, then visit my favorite news site, should
I be confronted with a 6" x 2" banner advert from
Newegg, full of SATA cables ? Some of these banner adverts
packed full of images of stuff, are sucking the life out
of the browser, and you can barely scroll.

The adverts got there by tracking. Tracking that's
very difficult to get rid of. All it takes is your
browser logging into Google and collecting info
for "places.sqlite" or the like, to identify who you
are, and bring back the Newegg adverts again. That's
because just as many Google cookies are used to track
you as Newegg cookies.

It's one thing for Newegg to keep a cookie and show
me SATA cables the next time I visit Newegg. It's another
to turn my browser usage into a constant barrage
of Newegg adverts.

Â*Â* Paul

Turn off third party cookies and set the do-not-track flag?


I do not turn off third party cookies any more. Instead,
* I configure my browser to only keep cookies until I close it
* After logging out of Google, I close and restart my browser
to clear cookies.
* I use a master password so my browser cannot log into Google
by itself.

I found that some sites could not work without third-party cookies.
For example, I could not top up my mobile phone. The phone company
outsourced payments processing to a third party who does it securely.
The third party used cookies to track through the steps of topping
up. With third party cookies turned off, I kept going around in
circles on the top-up page.

Then you enter the mobile phone site as an exception to the no third
party cookies rule.

The do-not-track flag is like putting a sign outside your home saying
"do not burgle" -- a sign which real burglars will ignore. Set the
do-not-track flag if it makes you feel good, but do not expect much.

Well yes, but presumably a few people are obeying it.

--

Brian Gregory (in England).