More specifically, pointed/targeted ads disturb me.
I recently mentioned on Facebook how I was bothered by the fact that all of the ads displayed on my page were targeted at my specific location, right down to the small suburb I live in. Tom explained to me that the Facebook Gods can see where my computer is logging in from, and target me with specific ads for my area. This makes sense in terms of understanding how they find me, but it is still super CREEPY!
Now I am noticing something even more disturbing and creepy! On blogger this morning, an ad popped up about DOG GROOMING! This isn't the first time something dog related has popped up on Blogger, so I have a feeling it's more than coincidence. I imagine they must have a keyword matcher (or whatever the proper computer jargon term for it is) to figure out what might interest me. Aaaaah! Call me paranoid, but I just don't like being out there this publicly.
Anyone have any ideas? When I set up the blog I used the setting that makes it unable to come up in search engine searches, and I thought that was good enough. I've considered taking the blog completely private, but I have lots of people who log on and read from other friends' blogs (like friends of friends who, through blogging, have also become friends). I don't know if I could possibly collect everyone's email address to invite them. Let me know if you guys have any ideas to help me live on my computer a bit more privately.
3 comments:
The "search engine" setting is so that people can find you through google, etc. Doesn't really have anything to do with the crawling robots. They will find you anywhere. I have a sneaking feeling that the "private" setting also only stops humans.
Now I probably really freaked you out ;-)
The ads don't bother me so much: I just ignore them. Ditto spam, but then I'm not getting my e-mail on a blackberry or i-phone.
You're right, totally doesn't make me feel better! I guess unless I go totally anti-technology it sounds pretty unavoidable. Grrrr.
trust me. it IS a pain to make it totally private - and that's why I changed mine back to public once I knew my situation had simmered down some...
I guess I don't put too much thought into it, but yea, now that you come to think about it, it is kinda funny how those ads work, huh.....
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