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Amazon.com still insists on offering me “product
recommendations” based on brief searches I did
months or even years ago. Also, I've noticed that
looking at products on one site will now set a cookie
that triggers advertisements for those products on
completely unrelated sites. Even if you're
not normally
concerned about privacy, the amount of targeting
advertisers engage in these days is rather unsettling.
This software aims to counteract this. It runs in the
background and continuously browses to shopping sites
that engage in such targeted advertising, performing
searches for random items. The end result is that
advertisers can't figure out whether you're a goatherd
from Sheboygan who's planning a trip to visit his
Swedish aunt, or a Panamanian bowling enthusiast
interested in purchasing a new set of power tools. The
ads you see will thus be effectively randomized,
negating any attempts at tracking your shopping
habits.
Article about a "Mad Apple patent"
http://www.theregis..._data_clone_patent/
I suspect that the trouble I'd have with this is adopting its randomly assigned interests. [Loris, Mar 27 2013]
Similar.
Continuous_20Random_20Activity_20Provider
[DrBob, Mar 27 2013]
http://xkcd.com/576/
[hippo, Mar 27 2013]
another solution to another version of this problem
Smeared_20Online_20Identity
[calum, Mar 28 2013]
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Annotation:
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So, you're setting yourself up to receive spam from
everyone? |
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Deleting all the cookies on your computer can help - also you can go into your Amazon profile and ask it to not use certain things for recommendations. |
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Not having ads on your computer works even better. |
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I exercise a total boycott of Amazon over their tax avoidance antics in the UK. |
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Why not confuse them even more? Check out Nun outfits, marijuana seeds from Amsterdam, socks with no toes, paint, mouse traps etc. |
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[xandram] That random approach could be dangerous - see link. |
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Oh yes, I guess you are right [hippo]!! |
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Here's the annoying thing about them to me, at least with Google. You Google something, and you get an ad that is somehow related, but not quite, and in an awful way. |
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So let's say that you are Googling the Philippines, because you are concerned about the South China Sea crisis. Next thing you know, your wife is seeing ads for mail-order brides from the Philippines, featuring buxom filipinas in bikini tops. |
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Or even worse, lets say that you are Googling the Philippines because you are indeed thinking of getting a mail order-bride from the Philippines. Next thing you know, your wife is seeing ads for mail-order brides from the Philippines, featuring buxom filipinas in bikini tops. That really sucks. |
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Did you know you can get free shipping on mail-order brides if they are over 30? |
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Seedy nuns notwithstanding, those socks with no
toes are an abomination. |
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Given how non-specific Amazon's recommendations
tend to be, I wonder whether this is even necessary.
"We see that you're interested in music" (I
bought the 30th anniversary version of Rumours) "
and books" (One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch).
"Perhaps you'll enjoy these." (One Direction's latest
offering and a "A French Affair" by Katie Fforde.) |
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Hippo, I used to joke about borrowing a friend's
department store loyalty card and buying weedkiller,
sugar, batteries, wire, alarm clock etc. on different
days. |
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