So DU tracks our searches! WTF?

[bif]

The other day I did a search for customized headstones for a lark. The the ad banner on DU featured tombstones on sale. I just did a search for Nikon lenses to see if DU does track my searches, and sure enough, the ad banner was for camera lenses. I'm a bit disappointed. Big brother is indeed watching us!

[hlthe2b]

1. Not DU... but google ads which helps fund DU, I'm guessing.

Get thee to an adblocker plug-in for your browser.

[marym625]

2. of course

How else can they make money off ads? It's the price of being a free site. Or so I'm told.

[HappyMe]

3. I think it's google, not DU.

[petronius]

4. Lark headstones are pretty expensive. I'd just go with a generic parakeet headstone, myself

(My pre-coffee morning-mind took a moment to figure out your first sentence... )

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. lol

[pintobean]

5. Ghostery says there are three trackers running on this site

Adknowledge, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. They track you so they can personalize ads you see. If you donate to DU, it all goes away.

[orleans]

6. it might all go away, but aren't they tracking you anyway & you just can't see ads? n/t

[hay rick]

7. I assume so.

You can make the Google part go away by using DuckDuckGo for searches.

[pintobean]

8. I assume so, too.

I fight them a lot, but they always seem to sneak in once in a while. I'm not a donor, but I use ghostery, adblock plus, and better privacy. I ran Superantispyware this morning and it still found 17 tracking cookies. I run it about once a week and it usually only finds a couple, if any.

[orleans]

10. it's a busy week...valentine's day. maybe they were "valentine" cookies! lol. n/t

[BlueJazz]

12. LOL! good one.

[olddots]

11. the google ad glom factor is so wrong

The random idiocy shows their ignorance .

[MH1]

13. I tend to be amused rather than angered.

What's especially funny is that I'll decide I need to buy something, do some research, go to Amazon or wherever and buy it, then head over to DU, Facebook, or just some random place on the internet to relax, and boom there will be ads for what I just bought. MORONS: I JUST BOUGHT THAT THING!! Don't ya think if I needed 2 of 'em right now I would have just ordered 2??

I guess it's good that they apparently don't know when you actually purchased the thing.