Hacker News Reader

By the way, some of the trackers may still be able to track you:

https://panopticlick.eff.org/

(which does not even include all of the potential methods of browser fingerprinting)

Hopefully over time Disconnect, Privacy Badger, and other tools will be able to recognize and interfere with or block a lot of these methods. I'm not sure what I think the long-term prognosis is.

> I recently got tired of all the creepy targeted advertising, so I hit the nuclear option.

Credit cards, mortgage providers, retail stores, and car dealers all sell customer information on the open market. Every cell phone company out there knows what provider you have, stores knows what type of clothing you like to buy.

Wiping your computer clean prevents the ads from appearing on your PC, but the tracking of you is still taking place.

What are some ways in which you can prevent this sort of real life tracking from happening or at least minimize it?

Pay cash ?

Pay cash. Don't identify yourself, unless legally required. Maybe use an alias. As much as possible, buy from local businesses. Or through informal marketplaces. If you really care, travel a few hours by car before shopping. And keep your phone off, in a Faraday bag.

I tried it a couple years ago with Google and once targeted ads were off, I would get many ads about gay dating sites. Once I turned targeted ads on again, these ads disappeared.

I had a similar experience, but it was single women, and there was no way to ask Google to stop showing me those types of ads. At the very least allow me to block adult advertisements. Maybe it's on purpose...

Maybe no-one ever made that call, and it's all just based on the results of continously running automated and fuzzed A/B experiments.

With me it is retirement planning... I am in that age range. I've just taken to either switching javascript off or using one of those hosts files that blocks most stuff.

Bah. I hate their attempts at targeting, either way.

I normally don't see ads (NoScript, JS usually off). But when I do I sometimes see ads targeted at teenage girls (i.e. my kids). If the trackers can't get any info about me personally, they probably just default to analyzing other traffic from my shared IP address.

I tried turning off targeted Google ads on my phone, and got only the worst ads possible from then on. Like, 100% strobing "YOUR PHONE HAS 37 VIRUSES, CLICK HERE TO CLEAN". Eventually I had to turn it back because ad-supported apps are nearly unusable with strobing banners at the bottom, which I'm sure was Google's intent.

Have you considered paying for the apps you use, or using open source apps (such as from F-Droid) that don't include ads?

Many apps don't have paid versions, only ad-supported, and even more apps don't have open-source equivalents. I'm sure you're aware of this.

install something like 3C, root your phone, disable all the analytics/ad-services from individual apps; also installing something like AdAway will block most ads via the Host file

I use an iPhone, although I have used Android many years ago (purely because of open source convictions), and I didn't know this. God, it's awful. I try very hard to use only paid apps on iOS even if there are free apps because I don't want to support the data-mining industry (not that paid apps can't participate in it, but at least I hope it's less likely).

Most apps cost less than a coffee, and personally I get more value out of the apps I use than from a cup of overpriced coffee.

Only ever open in airplane mode!

> 1. Data can we used against you in ways you might not understand or have considered.

> 3. I don't like the idea of people making money off my data without my knowledge

Ditto.

Collecting massive amounts of intrusive data can lead to regulation, possibly intrusive. An (extreme) example of this is in 1984, where the data collect Oceania does (i.e., telescreens) allows them to control the population.