How Online Advertising Accompanies You Everywhere
Online advertising is so aggressive that we can’t blame you for thinking Facebook is listening to your conversations . It probably isn’t, but it helps ad networks track you across the Internet and through their apps. Public policy tech expert Chris Yu recently tweeted 14 different ways that ads follow you online , even when you’re logged out, in incognito mode, on a different browser, or on a new device.
One of the important ones are Facebook trackers, which are embedded in any site that integrates Facebook Like buttons, Facebook page widgets, or other social tools:
Yu’s list includes several ways to minimize personalization. For example, you can reset your phone’s unique ID:
Unfortunately, you have no control over all tracking – Facebook and Google can collect data about you even if you don’t have an account, collecting phone contacts from your friends or logging regular browser data. It is the type of invasive tracking and data collection that has prompted the European Union to adopt the GDPR . So all these “we changed our privacy policy” emails are a good sign, or at least a good start.