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Honored Contributor
Posts: 33,048
Registered: ‎05-17-2010

Everytime I search for something on Google or an online site, it doesn’t take long for an email to pop up “Forget something”? “Still interested”? It’s more than annoying. Any way to say, “Mind your own business”!

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,094
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

[ Edited ]

I noticed that  only happens to me with QVC stuff

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,749
Registered: ‎03-15-2014

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

I think they all do now.  It's the robots' world and we just live in it.  Smiley Sad

Honored Contributor
Posts: 33,048
Registered: ‎05-17-2010

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME


@ValuSkr wrote:

I think they all do now.  It's the robots' world and we just live in it.  Smiley Sad


 

 

@ValuSkr   Annoying, right?

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,327
Registered: ‎02-07-2011

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

If we check out hotels in whatever city or flights, we always get popups on the topic.  How do they know what we've been looking at???

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,180
Registered: ‎04-10-2012

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

DH and I are seeing ads for things we talk about in the kitchen. We may need to learn sign language to have a private conversation!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 11,918
Registered: ‎03-19-2010

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

It's not your computer; it's the internet.  

 

So, the other day hubby and I were watching a news show.  In the background was a large window that looks out onto the street and a big box truck was prominently parked outside.  It was labled Jewelry Warehouse or something along the lines of jewelry supply.  My husband commented on the truck being so well-placed (I would imagine a lot of trucks try to grab that spot specifically for that purpose), and how it makes you want to start up a jewelry business.  Almost immediately, he got messages on his iWatch for pawn shops and jewelry vendors.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,074
Registered: ‎10-03-2014

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

[ Edited ]

Google tracks everything we do online.  All of our searches.  The most intrusive search engine available.  No longer use it.  A good private search engine that doesn't is Yippy.com.  

 

Google has also been accused of being politically biased only bringing up search results they want everyone to see.  This comes from undercover videos of employees where they were caught talking about it.  Videos were on Twitter and Youtube for all to see.  Several Google employees who left the company because Google was doing this were interviewed on TV. 

 

Dr. Robert Epstein, Harvard graduate, who has been researching Google, Bing, and Yahoo has found the same evidence, Google is manipulating its results.  Look him up.  Bing and Yahoo are not.  

 

As for retailers, they can't email you unless they have your email address.  Either you subscribed to receive their emails or you purchased something from them in the past online.  Unsubscribe if you don't want them sending messages.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,113
Registered: ‎09-30-2010

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

@Shanus   Annoying, isn't it?  Your computer is set up to accept "cookies" from the websites you visit.  That is how the differnt websites know what you've looked at.  You can disable them in your setting.  

 

I just did this for a lot of them last night.  But I did NOT choose the "delete all" option.  BUT be aware that by clearning the temporary ones out you might have to sign in on some of your most frequented websites, like your bank.

 

I was careful to not delete my credit union ones, for example.  The results were worth it.  My  2+ year old MacBook is now running much more smoothly so it was worthwhile to make the effort.

 

If you do an internet search you can find the directions for how to do this on your paricular type of device.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,916
Registered: ‎05-10-2010

Re: MY COMPUTER IS STALKING ME

It's the way the internet works.  It's spooky.  It's based on the sites we visit, our FB content,  online shopping.  I'm a big Google user so I know how they stalk and push content at me.  The thing that amazes me is that it happens so fast.  I read something or buy something or search for something and minutes later; I'm inundated with similar things.  My guess is that we can eliminate some of it with our privacy settings.