Most of us have noticed that the ads for products we see on the internet oddly match something that we recently searched for. When we are “browsing” the internet, we are tracked and traced by many companies and consortiums. Even after we close the browser (effectively telling the salesperson, no thanks) we are hounded by that same company for weeks in the ads that show up on sites we visit.
This is the ultimate pushy salesperson! One that lives in the code on the internet and follows us around reminding us about every product we have looked at in the past several months. Seriously? If I did not buy your lawnmower then, what makes this code think I will buy it today when I am not even looking at lawnmowers?
Let’s stop those pushy sales folks cold in their tracks!
I use a browser called Brave (Brave.com), which is designed and built specifically to stop all tracking/tracing and ads. I have been using it for about a year as my main browser. Thus far it has stopped 249,555 trackers and ads, saved me from downloading 4.75gb of ads and tracking code, AND saved me 3.5 hours of time waiting for those things to download.
Not only is it more private, but it is way faster than other browsers. OH, and it’s FREE!
In the past I typically recommended Google Chrome. But not any longer. Google knows way too much about us, and it seems prudent to consider ways to decrease their access to more information.
Many of my clients have also started using a different search engine to avoid Google. Brave uses DuckDuckGo as their default Search Engine, and it is quite good. Also, DuckDuckGo is designed with a “NO TRACKING is good tracking” mindset.
In conclusion:
If you want to tell the sales folks on the world wide web “No Thanks! I’m just browsing” and have them actually leave you alone, there are ways to do it.