Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 11:36 AM

Exactly, Jeri. I'm looking at what is going on when the permission is asked and looking to see who is asking. It speeded up a lot to tell Earthlink NO to all of the nonsense it was trying to post.

In the past I've fooled with this, but got out of the habit when I installed some of the Symantec products. Last month I took out the Norton Internet Security, which contributed to this investigation of mine now. There is obviously a tradeoff. Do I want Norton slowing me down with their little annoying programs, or, upon evicting Norton, all of the ads slowing me down? Better the devil you know?

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: Jeri
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 07:57 AM

SRS, there ought to be a check-box to tell the 'do you want to accept a cookie' prompt you answer 'yes' every time. You click it once, and for future cookie-bestowing attempts from the same exact bestower, it will just decline without asking.

The down side is, if you accidentily permanently decline one you want, you have to go into permissions, a bit harder to find, and tell it that address is OK.

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 11:08 PM

SRS - You really appear to be serious....AND you SHOULD be!

The stuff "tacoda" (and google) and hitbox and doubleclick are leaving on YOUR machine (you bought it, you pay the line fees) is "marketed" under euphemism "easier interface browsing."

It IS customized advertizing - a niche market that the Nelson Ratings once had an almost exclusive throne.

Personally, I would recommend EVERY TIME!!! You close out your browser you should run a simple free program called CCleaner (for Crap Cleaner).

It will make your machine faster. It will make things like "MudCat Cookie ID" more difficult.

IF you like the convenience of the SRS id as a member - find your mudcat cookie ID (use find or sherlock etc) cut and paste it onto the notepad (I have several hundred that could be "spoofed" but with IP address (which MAX/JOE should have used years ago) a safety feature should be in place.

OR when/if you run CCleaner - select the cookies you DO NOT want erased.

Your solution is free - your solution requires a few more key strokes - but remember ALL internet postings live, on and on and on.....like slug trails on the stained skull of a long gone cadaver.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 07:27 PM

AND--even though I opted-out of tacoda's cookies, it was still trying to place them, even after a restart of the computer. So much for the usefulness of that exercise.

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 07:12 PM

I set up the "prompt" setting, to find out that it is my internet provider, Earthlink, using Tacoda so heavily. Geez.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 03:02 PM

Tacoda is the leader is the behavioral targeting (BT) space. BT is a technique web publishers & advertisers use to more accurately target advertising based on other sites the user has visited.

EVER taken a LOOK at what MAX has done with the MC and Google advertising at the bottom of your page. KYBO Keep Your Browser Obfusicated.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 12:31 PM

I have my computer's Internet security settings set to open a prompt window every time some site wants to place a cookie on my system. It asks me "Do you want to allow this?" and most of the time the answer is no.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: Tech: Ad cookies- opt out information
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 11:41 AM

For those of you who pay attention to such things, this is FYI:

This morning I ran AdAware, something I do every week or two. Imagine my surprise when it showed, in the 11 critical items, 1,353 hits from someplace called "tacoda.net". So I visited http://www.tacoda.net and found (to their credit) easy information about opting out. At least, some of the sources of cookies will let you opt out, others are tougher to shake.

In particular, look up Tacoda's "Use of Cookies Statement" and find the opt out information. From there, you can visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp to attempt to opt out of the rest of them.

SRS