Clearing the cookie or whatever is driving ad selection

[bsi]

Yikes,

The only naughty surfing I do at home is terb and backpage. However, now I am getting a lot of ads about "dating women".

So far, the SO has not caught on but it is only a matter of time. How do I clear whatever it is that is driving this ad selection? I might have to reinstall windows if I cannot think of a better way but the problem will just come back.

My SO and I have separate computers but there is no practical way for me to reduce her access to mine. If I say "don't use my computer" or password protect it, that will increase her curiosity.

My ideal solution is one that clears the history process every time I exit the browser or sets the history to look like I should want to be canoeing . I think I am already clearing the surfing history but something is retaining enough to suggest these dating ads on subsequent sessions.

I am willing to change browsers to do this, or limit my naughty browsing to one browser (I currently mainly use Firefox). Or even pay for an app that is zero or one button to clear history.

I can't be the only guy with this problem. How are you guys handling it?

Edit: BTW, in the past, I *was* using a second computer with a KMV switch to change between them. I could revert to that solution but I prefer a software solution so I do not have to explain the extra computer. And there were still many times where I left the "extra" computer as the activated one so the benefit was lost.

 

[enyaw]

have you tried running c cleaner after each session? I use it and it seems to to work

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

make sure you choose the free version lol

 

[interactive]

I would think private browsing and adblocker plus would solve your troubles.
Private will not remember any history - make damn sure you are not logged into your mail account such as gmail.
Adblock is where the 'related' pop ups are coming from. Pages visited translate to the ad you receive.

Also - what I found out is that a search in google (while logged into my gmail) came up as a suggestion on my phone when I started to search using it. Yikes! Fixed it.

 

[SkyRider]

I am willing to change browsers to do this, or limit my naughty browsing to one browser (I currently mainly use Firefox). Or even pay for an app that is zero or one button to clear history.

Firefox has a feature called "clear history", won't this do the trick? Or, am I being too naive?

 

[nofrill]

Yes Private Browsing mode in Firefox will clear your browsing history, cookies etc.

To access Private Browsing:
(1) Windows "Start" -> Firefox -> New private window
(2) you can configure Firefox to run in Private Browsing mode all the time: Options in menu or press top left "Firefox" button -> Options -> Privacy -> check "Always use Private Browsing mode"

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((( One more "just in case" paranoia )))
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If your SO happens to open your own special little browser and look through your bookmarks, she can find the URLs of those naughty websites you saved. Even if she doesn't know how to browse your bookmarks, but she knows that she don't need to go to google or bing to search but only to type the word in the URL box, you should also be careful!

This is because typing in a few letters in the URL box will also search the stored URL (either from the actual URL name eg. "http://terb.cc", or the name you gave to the URL eg. TERB), therefore you should NOT keep the URLs of your naughty websites in that browser.

For example, my TERB website URL contains the word "forum" which is searchable if someone is clever enough and suspicious enough. "Backpage" contains the word "back" which is common word.

Two ways to get around this:

(1) REMOVE URLs of the naughty websites from your browser and keep them in an inconspicuous notepad or wordpad file (no one ever uses these text programs since MS Word), and save the file in an inconspicuous location (NOT on desktop and NO shortcut on the desktop)

This is inconvenient because you have to open the file and copy and paste the URLs into the browser everything you surf those sites.

(2) use a browser that runs from a USB thumbdrive.

The second solution is perfect because nothing is ever stored in the host computer. It may be overkill though since that is your computer.

If you want to read up on Private Browsing for Portable Firefox:

http://portableapps.com/news/2013-05-28--private-browsing-by-portableapps.com-3.0-released

http://www.softwarecrew.com/2013/05/browse-the-web-more-safely-in-firefox-portable-edition-with-private-browsing-add-on/

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P.S. I just think of a third and easiest method to hide the special little browser from your SO:
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You can simply go to the Start menu and delete the link to the browser (the direct one in the "frequently used list" above, and the "program folder" inside "All programs"). You can keep the desktop shortcut to the browser but change the name and icon eg. to Antivirus or some technical sounding things you don't want to mess around with:

to change icon: right click desktop icon of browser -> Properties -> change icon -> copy and paste the following:

C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll

into the box called "look for icons in this file" and press "Browse" button. If another window pops up, enter "shell32.dll" and "Open"

this brings you lots of tekkie-looking Windows icons. Pick on which does not resemble or remind you of a web browser.

 

[Mable]

I am not a techie but I do the following and it seems to work, or maybe I am kidding myself. Comments are welcome. Using firefox, I go to tools, then options. Go to privacy, then tell computer to tell sites I never want to be tracked and never remember history. Hopes this is informative

 

[bsi]

Thanks for the info. I think I am clearing my history OK but still have the original problem of ad selection.

The yahoo and google sites continue to present ads about "dating women over 45". This looks different on my SO computer. I assume my terb and backpage surfing are contributing to this profile.

Ideally, I want to edit this to show me sports ads, not dating. I realize they are trying to send targetted ads so I just want to adjust the target.

There must be other guys with the same problem.

 

[Anynym]

I don't know what websites are serving you the ads you're seeing, but there is a lot of technology available to ad companies beyond your browser history: most difficult to control is a 'signature' of your computer based on what the browser can see as being installed on your particular machine (plugins, fonts, etc). That combination makes your machine more unique than you would care to imagine.

Take a look at https://panopticlick.eff.org/ for more info on this technology. This site is hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a test here won't be used by ad sites, etc. It merely demonstrates to you some of the technology available to the evil ad companies.

 

[nofrill]

Thanks for the info. I think I am clearing my history OK but still have the original problem of ad selection.

Are you also clearing your cookies and preventing cookies from being stored in your computer? Most commonly websites use cookies to track your browsing preference, and send you relevant ads when you browse again if these cookies are not cleared.

Using "private browsing mode" prevents tracking cookies from being stored in your computer in the first place.

Of course this is an old trick and websites most likely have more sophisticated tracking methods.

If you are really paranoid, you should either (1) use a portable browser that never leave any trace in your computer, or (2) use a lesser known browser you don't expect your SO to know about, remove Start menu links to it and "hide" in browser desktop icon as I describe above.