I'm just curious how this works.

I don't want to be indelicate, but last week I went to Vics Secret looking for racer back bras, and recently I have done some posting(not here) about zip lining.

Over here on the left I see Vic's Secret ads and another reference to Zip Lining in Orlando.

Does my search activity activate these kind of ads on ATP? Or does someone think I need a nudge to follow through and order those bras or book that zip line? No doubt I need to do both. but was just curious.

It's not ATP, Molly. You can narrow your security settings to keep sites & Google, etc. from tracking your browsing & shopping history but there really are no secrets! A good bra is the best investment, in my opinion! I did the volcanos instead of zip-lining in Costa Rica when faced with that choice!

Here's a good article from a bit ago, sums it up:
http://www.theatlantic.com/tec...

Molly, if you want to not see the ads on ATP, there is a way to disable them. Click on the little person icon to go to your profile page. Then click on "change your site preferences". When that page comes up scroll down to the 9th item & it says, "Disable ads on the site?" You can change that preference to be, "Yes, remove the ads". Ta-da! No more ads on ATP! How cool is that?

When you use Google to search, it tracks your activity with cookies. At least some of the ads here are hosted by Google so it customizes the ads based on your past searches. This is the standard practice on most websites. When you delete the cookies, those particular ads will usually go away until you do a search for that product again.

ATP isn't tracking your activity on Google at all, though.

You've been posting long enough that you should be able to disable the ads in your site preferences menu, if you like.

JulieB said: A good bra is the best investment, in my opinion! I did the volcanos instead of zip-lining in Costa Rica when faced with that choice!

Oh lord, I nearly died of laughter just now! When I first read that, Julie, I interpreted that quote as you recommending getting a breast augmentation ( "I did the volcanos" ) rather than going on a zip-lining trip in Costa Rica!

Julie, thanks for the info on the ads. And yes a good bra.....Gotta get them ordered and thanks Vic for reminding me.

A few years ago I connected with a high school girlfriend(40+ years) on facebook. Early last month she invited me to her zip line birthday party in Ocala. I wanted to see her but was a bit fearful of the activity. My son told me to do it as a bucket list thing. So I took a deep breath and dove in. My biggest fear was during and after I walked the first rope bridge. I hated the last rope bridge too. everything in between was great. My old feisty friend kept me going.

Anyway, my little baby sister (37) wants to go too. Googled for our next trip. I expect the ads will keep me on my toes for the next one.

Danita said:
Oh lord, I nearly died of laughter just now! When I first read that, Julie, I interpreted that quote as you recommending getting a breast augmentation ( "I did the volcanos" ) rather than going on a zip-lining trip in Costa Rica!

Danita! I darned near snorted my Diet Coke when I read that

A friend recently sent a private email (regular email, not TreeMail). She tlaked about a procudt in that PRIVATE EMAIL.

She never Googled, searched, or shopped for it. Just named it in a "PRIVATE" email.

Started getting ads on many websites for that product.

Google, Hotmail, or someone HAD TO have read that email and listed her as worth spamming.

She may have accidentally clicked on something that permitted this, but never to her knowledge.

As we said back in the 1980s: never put anything in email that you would not want to see taped to your boss's door or mailed to your grandmother. There is no such thing as online privacy.

Now it's not just the government and hackers.
Internet providers (I guess) let any old company that gives them money read your mail.
it used to be just selling mailing lists. Now they let @#$%^& companies search your emails for ways to scrounge a nickle.
Pathetic Ferengi business practices!

Today, "private" mostly doesn't exist online. My guess is that Dave respects our privacy and protects it more than 90-95% of all other websites and service providers do.

Danita, that's the best laugh I have had in a while.

As far as the advertising, I don't mind that and if it's sending stuff I am already interested in, all the best.

Going back to Danita's post for more as I am not done

Me either, Molly! I can't seem to stop laughing. I actually have tears running down my face!

Julie, Danita & Sandy all have me

I know what you mean Molly. Whenever I'm shopping for a particular thing I let the ads roll on. I figure let them come to me. Makes my job easier. When I'm not looking for anything then I click to not see ads here. Gosh, I just love that Dave is such a great wizard with the computer & provides us with these options we can turn off or on as suits our needs at any point in time.

Danita said:
Oh lord, I nearly died of laughter just now! When I first read that, Julie, I interpreted that quote as you recommending getting a breast augmentation ( "I did the volcanos" ) rather than going on a zip-lining trip in Costa Rica!

RickCorey said:A friend recently sent a private email (regular email, not TreeMail). She tlaked about a procudt in that PRIVATE EMAIL.

She never Googled, searched, or shopped for it. Just named it in a "PRIVATE" email.

Started getting ads on many websites for that product.

Google, Hotmail, or someone HAD TO have read that email and listed her as worth spamming.

She may have accidentally clicked on something that permitted this, but never to her knowledge.

Gmail automatically scans for keywords resulting in targeted ads. You can read about it in this Google page:

https://support.google.com/mai...

See also:
http://www.reuters.com/article...

This latter is dated 2014 and I don't know if anything has changed since then.

Websites can also detect where you are (unless, I presume, you're using anonymous surfing) - I read a British newspaper online but the ads are always Canadian!

Thanks for that link, Sue!

If this is true and not misleading, we don't have that much to complain about:

>> "You can opt-out of the use of your email and other personal information for the personalization of Gmail ads from the Ads Settings page, by turning off Ads based on your interests. "

When Google said that they only scan our mail for keywords, I'm reminded of one landlord that liked to walk through my apartment any time she liked, when I was absent, and do things like open and close windows, which she defined as "necessary".

She said I should not worry about privacy because she "wouldn't look at anything" while inside my apartment.
So I guess it would have been OK with her if I broke into her bedroom as long as I claimed that I wouldn't look at anything?

Oh, well, even wishing for privacy as if it were still possible just proves that I must be very old.

P.S. I would feel better if G####le defaulted to "emails are private" and then relied on people volunteering to let them "scan for keywords".

I don't like being the "product" that G####le sells to their real customers: mass spammers.

BTW, some stores like department stores and supermarkets have installed indoors, directional cell phone antennae.
Now they can tell where you were in that isle when you paused long enough to look at something.

They use that data and can sell it to others that want to "mine" your information.

I have to go re-read 1984 and Animal Farm, just so I can laugh at how naive, warm, fuzzy, and over-optimistic they were about the future!