Block Targeted Ads When Browsing Online

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Pretty much all of the US citizens should be aware by now that their search history and online actions are not being kept private anymore. For months now, your Internet service providers have the permission to sell your data to whomever they wish and use it to make a profit in any way they see fit. Before, they at least needed your consent or some sort of approval in order to be able to legally do this. Now they don’t and nothing that you do is private anymore.

This also means that you’ll be bombarded with more ads since your history and interests are especially interesting to advertisers. If they know what you want, and what you like, they can be more precise with what they offer. And so, they’ll make sure that they know exactly what interests you, which is why they’re buying your search history from the ISPs. These privacy breaches aren’t only reserved for the US citizens, however. Many of the countries have the same or similar policies, and this doesn’t help much when it comes to feeling safe while using the internet.

Still, all is not lost, and there are lots of ways to decrease the number of information that others can collect and use by studying your activities. Today, we are going to explain what can you do to reduce these privacy breaches or at least the amount of info that you’re giving away. So let’s start.

Use ad blockers

Ad blockers are among the best solutions for getting rid of ads. They are a type of software that mostly comes in a form of browser extensions, and their purpose is to completely block ads or at least reduce their numbers as much as possible. They work on social media, website pages, applications, and many other platforms. They’re pretty efficient at their jobs, and they do it in several different ways. One of the methods is preventing the images from loading, or stopping Flash animations. Most of the ad blockers can be found on both computers, as well as smartphones.

Do not allow cookies

Block Targeted Ads When Browsing Online

All of us have seen notifications by different websites in which they’re informing us that the website in question uses cookies. These are small pieces of data that the website sends to your device, and they get stored there while the website is being used.

This is the method that websites use in order to remember info about you. The information in question is mostly related to things like, what have you viewed while you were using the website or the data that you’ve entered into the potential forms that can be found on the site.

Cookies are exactly the kind of details that advertisers are interested in, and they can be used for narrowing down the type of ads that are most likely to work for you since they’re representing your interests. That’s why it’s imperative that you delete them regularly.

Delete the browsing history

If you’ve noticed that the ads that appear on the side of your screens are suspiciously similar to your recent web searches, that’s not accidental. A lot of browsers would analyze your searches, and then use that information to present you the relevant ads. You can prevent this easily, by either deleting your history regularly or turn on the option to not even record any history at all. Another option is to use private browsing mode since that one doesn’t record any history by default.

Opt out of ads based on your search history

Sometimes, the browser won’t only admit that they’re using your own history to deliver specific ads, but they’ll actually inform you about it. However, even in these cases, they won’t mention that you have the option of ‘opting out’. This means that you can turn off the analyzing of your history in order to get these specific ads. All it takes is little exploring, and you can find these options even on websites like Facebook.

Google too offers such an option, but if you choose to opt out, it’ll only work for Google ads. Ads that are being shown to you by the advertisers will still appear, and that can only be turned off with another method, like ad blocker. The opt-out option is offered by many browsers, websites, and services, and this includes Facebook, Apple App Store, Firefox, Amazon, CNN.com, and much more. You’ll probably be able to find these options on other websites that you use if you look hard enough.

Use the VPN

Probably the best way of protecting your data is to use a VPN. Not only will VPNs prevent advertisers, browsers, websites and alike from bombarding you with ads, but they’ll also protect your online activities. That means that customization of ads won’t even be possible, since all of your data will be encrypted, and your online actions hidden. None of your online traffic will be available to anyone, including your ISP.

VPNs provide you with this, and many other features that you might find useful. When it comes to choosing the right one, you can try to explore your option by yourself, or you can try out one of our recommendations. Our choices are TorGuard, PIA, GhostVPN, and IPVanish. These have proven to among the best ones, and even the more experienced users agree with that.

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Conclusion

Having ads constantly pop up is annoying enough, but even more concerning is the realization that you’re being studied and analyzed. Nobody wants their every move to be dissected and studied, especially not for something like figuring out which ads have the best chance to work on them. That’s why we’ve prepared our guide on how to protect yourself. If you use our methods, not only will you see a lot fewer ads, but you’ll also enhance your online privacy, and that’s something that we should all try to achieve.

Passion for Cyber Security and Technology.

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