Ads are a problem, but ad blockers aren't the answer...
Ads are everywhere, and an on everything. You can hardly turn anywhere on the internet without finding images promising cheap deals on things that you want. Ads can be a hassle however. Some some pages I visit there are full 720p advertisement that start running as soon as I visit the page. Not only does it eat up my bandwidth but it also slows my computer right down. Also, they have the sound turned on so as soon as I open the sight I get audibly assaulted with "buy, buy, buy!" and I don't want to.
Ads also sparked the information collection of huge companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft. See, these people get HUGE revenue for selling your information. Companies want to advertise, but they don't want to advertise to just everyone. They want sell to you specifically. They believe they will get a more likely sale if they target their advertisements. This is a little bit disconcerting, it means you are being watch. That's right, that weird feeling you get sometimes that makes you think you've got eyes on you at all times? Well, you may want to listen to it. Sure, how do you think Google can afford to not show ads on their search page? Because they show ads everywhere else, they own 90% of their ads and they run through the Google AdSense service. Advertisers pay Google for targeted advertisement Google makes huge bucks from this.
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AdSense Homepage[/caption]
If you wish to stop Google watching you then sign into your Google account and head to Your Account and go to Activity Controls on the left hand side menu. You should be presented with this screen:
Turn everything off and for good measure delete your history.
If you're signed in from an Android device, they are tracking everything you do on it. (If you Apple fans are thinking this is hilarious, just stop. Apple track you too, it's just not so obvious. At least Google has the nerve to make it easy to stop it). Microsoft does the same, here's how access your "Privacy" settings:
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Privacy settings in Windows 10 (Version 1703). Go to Start > PC Settings > Privacy[/caption]
So, you've deactivated all the tracking settings, but you'll still see ads. You'll probably go to an ad blocker, but is that really a good idea? Ads are (generally) what keep the internet free and available. If you block them, then you stop money coming in that keeps the services free.
I agree as much as the next person. Ads are as intrusive and annoying. Blocking them only causes more problems than you solve. I think that advertisers should stop being so intrusive in their advertising. Ad blockers aren't the answer. I would suggest getting rid of them, or at least deactivating them on sites you trust. If you want to minimise spying, take the advise given in this article. Keep ad blockers on for sites that do intrusive advertising, because sites like that honestly deserve it.
I'm not advocating ad blockers, I'm just saying advertising should be less in your face. If you have a product people want they will come. You don't need to reduce a users overall internet experience with bad ads!
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Just a small disclaimer, this article was not paid for. I was not approached to write an article discouraging the use of advertisements, I'm just a concerned internet user!
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Today's word was:
This was original posted on my blog at WordPress, as well as this it was one of my earlier ones so it may be of less quality than what I now produce. Never the less, I hope it was somewhat useful...