How to clear cookies and avoid “repetitive” ads while browsing

If you have ever searched for a product to buy online, you must have noticed that advertisements for the same product start appearing in different corners of the internet. This “stalking” is one effect of the use of cookies: text files that a website deposits on each computer, indicating that that person has actually visited a particular page.

You know when you move to a new location and then there is demand for you.”Accept cookies‘To continue browsing? That’s where it happens. cohm The data they record, brands define your profile and start targeting ads specific to you.

But this is perhaps the least of the problems. Cookies can also track and identify sensitive information, which is then shared or even sold to third parties.

Have you always regretted clicking “yes” to this blessed question? You don’t have to blame yourself too much. First, many Brazilians also accept cookies from all websites. According to a recent survey conducted by Avast, a digital security company, 50% of respondents said they followed this line. The survey heard 1,000 people over the age of 18 living in Brazil.

Second, because these records can also bring benefits, such as improving services Siteindicating the resources most used by the visitor, identifying errors that need to be corrected, remembering the preferences of each Internet user, facilitating navigation.

“I am watching”

Frequent ads are part of a marketing technique called “Retargeting(“To aim again.”) It’s not much different from an pushy salesperson in the physical world: The website identifies that you’ve searched for a product and starts reminding you that it’s selling that product (sometimes, even at a discount, to try and close that deal once and for all). ).

In many people, this evokes a sense of surveillance: “Someone sees what I’m accessing on the Internet.” So, according to research by Avast, among Brazilians who refuse cookies:

• 60% say they do so out of concern for the information collected.
• 22% do so because it makes their browsing experience worse.
• 23% because they do not like receiving targeted ads.

Creator and creature

in january, The French authorities imposed a fine on Google and Meta (The company that owns Facebook) in an amount equivalent to 1.3 billion Brazilian riyals due to the use of cookies. According to the French investigation, both facilitated their acceptance rather than their rejection.

American programmer Lou Montoli is considered the “inventor” of the cookie, and in the face of much controversy, He felt he had to come out to the public to justify it Because this “Frankenstein” has apparently rebelled against his creator.

“My invention is in the technological heart of many propaganda schemes, but I had no such intention,” he said in an interview with AFP. “It’s just a basic technology to make the web work.”

Montoli said the idea was just to use “initial” cookies, which the page itself visited and deposited into the device to determine whether or not it was the first visit of an Internet user. So, for example, it will not be necessary to log in more than once when returning to the same site.

However, “third party” cookies appeared soon, and were also deposited on your computer when you visit the page, but were not developed by that page. When you see an advertisement for a brand on a news site, for example, the cookies for that advertisement do not belong to the site, but rather to the advertiser.

“Personalized advertising is only possible thanks to the collusion between several sites and an ad network,” Montoli said.

Clear cookies

It is important to clear cookies from time to time. Not only for privacy, but also for better navigation, because cookies accumulate (and occupy memory) with each new session you start in the browser.

To do that, just follow the steps below.

in Chrome

• In the upper right corner of the browser, Click on the three dots
• In this menu, go to More tools
• click in Clean Mobility Data
• Select option “Cookies and other site data”
• click in “remove data”

In the fire fox:

• In the upper-right corner of the browser, click Three horizontal lines
• In this menu, tap “Options”
• Access the option “Privacy and Security”
• Go to item “Cookies and Site Data”
• click in “clear data”

*with Article by Guilherme Tagiaroli and Rodrigo LaraPosted on July 27, 2021