Tracking cookies....how do they work?

[slowmotion]

There is an ad for MatureDatingUK that appears when I log in to CC. If I leave CC and go in search of a site about Frank Lloyd Wright, the same advert appears on that site. Then I go (sad, I know) to find a YouTube clip of Wishbone Ash, and lo and behold......

.........the lovely Rebecca is back stalking me.

How on earth does this work? Is a tracking cookie at work. If so, how?

Thank-you.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

If you don't want to be tracked the first thing you should do is get rid of all your browser toolbars. All toolbars track including the Google toolbar you have.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Toolbar

You should also drop internet exploiter and use a better browser such as Firefox or chrome.
You can then use plugins to prevent you from being tracked.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/extensions/privacy-security/

 

[slowmotion]

Thanks V. I may take steps, but I'm not particularly fussed about being tracked. My attitude is that everything you do on your computer, when on the web, is probably pretty much public so I'm not going to get too worried. Having Rebecca following me around is faintly amusing.
I'm not very well up on the technical aspects, but could you explain, very simply, how tracking cookies work? Explain it as you would to an idiot, if you can.

Thanks again.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

The idea behind cookies is to give a personalized web experience, when you go to a website such as this forum and it recognised you.. well that's a cookie.
They can do more such as change font size, language, and show you products you typically might be interested in based on how you may have used that site previously, think of amazon recommending products, that's a cookie
The problem with cookies however is they are unique and can be read by anyone, so they started being used for different purposes such as being followed though websites for statistical purposes and by reading them you can see what sites the user has come from, gone to and viewed previously. As such it permits very targeted advertising but does so without any intelligence what so ever, this means if you like Ford cars and start searching the web for cheap escorts... your future targeted advertising could be interesting.

Some browsers are better at addressing privacy concerns than others. IE is pretty rubbish by all standards

http://www.myid.com/how-to-delete-tracking-cookies-do-not-track-online

 

[slowmotion]

Thanks V. That was a brilliant explanation!

 

[Leedsbusdriver]

Ditch IE would be my advice.But if you really must use IE then uninstall them toolbars then click the safety button ,find tracking protection and add a tracking protection list.This will block ads,though not as clean as the Firefox/ Chrome adblock it does the job.

 

[Chris S]

The lovely Rebecca is also 3 miles away from me. Geography isn't my strong point but I'm sure Birmingham and Leeds ar more than 6 miles apart

 

[Night Train]

Rebecca must have found her man. There is now Sarah, but she is 4 miles away, much too far to cycle!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Well, Firefox must be gluten intolerant, he can't digest my cookies!
He wants to set me up with pretty Jenny, fit cyclist from Glasgow, while I'd rather meet up with hunky Bob, bodybuilder from Greenock!

 

[slowmotion]

Rebecca must have found her man. There is now Sarah, but she is 4 miles away, much too far to cycle!

I'm not so sure Night Train. Rebecca still seems to be keen to make my acquaintance. She's popping out all over the place.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm being stalked by Michael Parkinson! (That'll teach me not to search for info. about Sun Life.)