Permacookies

[french frank]

For the thread about the glass artworks at Kew, I was intrigued by something dover said about Japanese gardens and looked on the internet for some images of Japanese plates and bowls depicting gardens - which I then posted.

Since then, I've been plagued by online ads from the firm that was selling them. So, I went to my cookie cache, duly found the cookies and deleted them. Yet still I see the ads. It does seem that some of these cookies can be recreated and thus cannot be permanently removed - they are 'permacookies' (which if so, so much for all the EU cookie legislation).

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2868410/cleared-your-browser-cookies-it-wont-stop-ad-company-using-verizon-tracking-header.html

Any thoughts?

[kernelbogey]

Only that I had a similar experience with a firm that claimed to have 'reinvented the slipper'. I went to their website once. Thereafter they plagued me with their adverts, mostly in online Guardian.

In a complaint I composed in my head, but never wrote or used, I compared this to going into a shop to ask the price of something in the window, and the sales assistant pursuing me down the road trying to get me to buy it; and rushing out of the shop every time I passed, exhorting me further.

Not long after, they went bust.

(And anyway, there are fewer and fewer shops with shop windows, or assistants interested in selling you anything.)

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes - I made the mistake of looking at something on the HELLO! magazine website months ago - and ever since, every few days, a red banner shoots in on the top right-hand corner of the screen with some story about Harry & Meghan or some pop star I've never heard of

I've deleted all their crap from the computer, and even written to the magazine asking how to eliminate it (no answer) - can't seem to eradicate it.

[french frank]

I have (re)enabled my adblocker for sites I would prefer not to because I recognise that they need the advertising revenue, so it does appear that I'm now blocked from reading The Independent. I'm more inclined to pay for access (as I do anyway for the Guardian) if that gives me ad-free access. But I don't seem to have seen much by way of complaints about this practice.

[Frances_iom]

Why join the sheeple - use Firefox + get addons requestblock + noscript and regain almost total control but like driving takes a little practice to get used to it - if you add the 'remove css' addon you can more easily avoid all the junk that is pushed to you - typically 95% of your download is junk you don't need - there for pretty printing or tracking

[french frank]

Why join the sheeple - use Firefox + get addons requestblock + noscript and regain almost total control but like driving takes a little practice to get used to it - if you add the 'remove css' addon you can more easily avoid all the junk that is pushed to you - typically 95% of your download is junk you don't need - there for pretty printing or tracking

Does that solve the problem of being blocked from sites you want to access but are prevented from doing so unless you allow the ads?

[Frances_iom]

Does that solve the problem of being blocked from sites you want to access but are prevented from doing so unless you allow the ads?

I don't usually read the indep but I seem to be able to read the stories by just allowing access to the site - no ads other than the self hosted inline ones suggesting I subscribe (these seem to be at end of most news stories) - they do however try to access maybe another 20 sites all of which are blocked, some of which are adservers + others trackers - I usually also restrict the CSS so that pages display as simple type in a font size + style I want (just as the web was originally intended to be)

havn't had any block tho do need to drop down to bottom of page to avoid the very long index section

[french frank]

I don't usually read the indep but I seem to be able to read the stories by just allowing access to the site - no ads other than the self hosted inline ones suggesting I subscribe (these seem to be at end of most news stories) - they do however try to access maybe another 20 sites all of which are blocked, some of which are adservers + others trackers - I usually also restrict the CSS so that pages display as simple type in a font size + style I want (just as the web was originally intended to be)

havn't had any block tho do need to drop down to bottom of page to avoid the very long index section

Thanks. My loyalties are towards the Guardian though I have found on receiving the newsletters from that and the Indy, that the Indy often has the edge in terms of interest so I may well decide to support it with an annual subscription. I gather the Guardian's 'business model' (if that's what it's called) has been a great success, attracting millions of reader supporters from all over.

[Anastasius]

I don't usually read the indep but I seem to be able to read the stories by just allowing access to the site - no ads other than the self hosted inline ones suggesting I subscribe (these seem to be at end of most news stories) - they do however try to access maybe another 20 sites all of which are blocked, some of which are adservers + others trackers - I usually also restrict the CSS so that pages display as simple type in a font size + style I want (just as the web was originally intended to be)

havn't had any block tho do need to drop down to bottom of page to avoid the very long index section

Interesting thread. How does one restrict CSS ? I tend to use Safari on the Mac although a lot of sites now refuse to perform properly and I'll then use Firefox. The preference for Safari is simply because all my site login details are saved in Keychain Access. I use Chrome as a last resort because I resent Google stealing my CPU cycles all the time with it's 'hidden' 'phone-home' strategy. I have to remember to go in and nuke GoogleSoftwareUpdate every time after using it.

On a slight aside and as a possible reminder to folks to be aware of the rather sneaky strategy that British Airways use (and probably many other sites, airlines etc) regarding cookies. LOML went in to look for a cheap return flight from Heathrow to Newcastle and saw one for £65. She went back a few minutes later having booked her outbound flight to see that the £65 had disappeared and replaced with the cheapest flight of some £278. I went in and deleted the BA cookies and Bingo! The £65 seat became visible once more. Sneaky.

[Serial_Apologist]

If you put permacookies in the deep freeze, will that help to stall the melting of the permafrost?

[french frank]

If you put permacookies in the deep freeze, will that help to stall the melting of the permafrost?

Are you suggesting that permacookies are contributing to global warming?

[Serial_Apologist]

Are you suggesting that permacookies are contributing to global warming?

Nothing surprises me any more these days, ff!