[QUOTE 5322837, member: 9609"]its difficult now to have privacy, we're pretty much monitored by the giant mega companies no matter what we do - my wife has a nectar card and we both use the internet so they know what we buy and what we do. But I do try and draw the line at carrying a tracking device around with me or installing a "Listening" device in my own home. very strange how people complained back in the 90s about big brother and CCTV in town centres, and now they have rolled over to have their tummies tickled with smart phones and alexa
yes, I know dumb phones can be located through a sort of triangulation, but I'm quite happy for the police to find me when ever they want, I just don't want some giant american corporation keeping some file on me of everywhere I have been, or if I'm about to cycle past some shop that might want to sell me something that my wife viewed on the internet 3 weeks ago.[/QUOTE]
I totally agree with everything you say here but there are some simple measures that you can take to reduce or stop targeted ads. One of the first things that you should do is to use a mail provider that encrypts your messages and has a good privacy policy regarding the way it handles your mail. All of the large email providers will snoop into your mail, Google even admitted to it the other day and people are still using Gmail. Use a search engine that doesn't track you, and set your browser up so that it does not keep cookies.
These are good places to start.