Have you ever noticed that you have searched for a new pair of shoes on the internet and cancelled it, and the next minute when you open a new webpage, you will see ads for different shoes on different online sites? Many people still wonder about this type of advertisement. But when you look at how these advertisements come about, the astonishment disappears, and the lack of understanding increases regarding what is already technically possible and feasible today. Here, we will discuss how personalized advertising works and how you can modify it or protect yourself from it.
How It Works
If you know a bit about artificial intelligence, then you know how it works. It is a technology that helps to analyze the users’ behavior through browser cookies, other data, and device identification. This data and your internet behavior are used to display ads according to your personal interests. Whether you use Facebook, any website, or an app, this online espionage is often referred to as “ad tracking,” which has developed into a highly profitable field of business in recent years. Businesses pay vast sums of money to get hold of such data records and offer potential customers products and services that are as personalized as possible.
To do this, companies turn to advertising networks such as Facebook Ads or Google Ads, which already have a lot of personal user data due to their primary function. Small code modules, also known as trackers in technical jargon, collect data about the respective user on a wide variety of websites, for example, when someone searches an online shop for particular shoes. If other websites also use the corresponding advertising network, a cross-reference is ultimately created, and the shoes appear like an advertisement.
This goes on quite a few times. As long as your cookies are clear, you make a different search on the internet. This is beneficial for the businesses as they can target potential customers. For instance, if a player in the United Kingdom wants to find free spins no deposit UK bonuses, many online casinos can target the customers through such. In some ways, it is also beneficial for the customers as they need something and business are approaching them with the best offers, they have. However, it cannot be very pleasant when this happens very often.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
You have the option of deactivating personalized advertising on a wide variety of websites. Whenever you visit a new website, it asks for your permission to use cookies. You can make changes to the consent. Select only functional cookies and disable marketing and advertising ones. So, it is possible to switch off the customized advertising directly in the settings of Google and Facebook. However, it can also help to delete the cookies from the web browser used regularly. And since most browsers also offer an incognito mode, we strongly recommend using it. This makes it possible to surf the internet anonymously and not leave any traces. The fact that one should generally handle personal data with care does not really need to be mentioned separately.
Two other great ways are to use VPN or an AdBlock on your web browser. VPN allows you to surf the internet anonymously, while AdBlock will block ads from displaying on the webpage.
