Pop-up ads. They are everywhere, you just can't get away from them (unless you pay) and WF is no exception although, to be fair, I don't find them too intrusive on this site but today I found them quite amusing. Obviously, I do a lot of research on my lappy and I'm guessing that the way these pop ups work, is that they somehow pick up on the cookies and other crumbs left in my laptop's memory by certain sites I've visited which flags up an "interest" which then shows me an ad related to the search. Which is why I get ads about YSL, Next, Films, Writing, Publishing ... you get the picture but what I have never done an internet search on, is feminine products. Hey, I'm 41, married and a mother. What I don't know about feminine products by now, is not worth knowing but yesterday I had to buy some. So I did. Today, I log on and the first advert that pops up on the banner is for feminine products! HOW DOES IT KNOW!?
I use fire fox for a web browser and have added a few blockers for ads, I haven't had an ad on my screen for a long time.
I'm not supposed to tell you because the site makes money on ads, (but I never click on them so no money lost there), but Adblock will block all the popups for you. As for how do they know? It's all in your cookies. Funny thing is they often get me wrong, like thinking I'm a guy because I browsed for tires.
Ad Blocker works (mostly) for me, too, but the whole thing is a lot more complicated than simple cookies. You said you bought some feminine products. Did you buy them online? If so, the cookie is probably the culprit. If not, do you have any sort of 'loyalty' card from the store you bought them at, or did you pay with a credit or debit card? Ad firms can use those associations to track your purchases and, if your loyalty account is tied to your mobile phone number or email address or Facebook user account, that may be the way they knew to serve that ad. Remember, if you aren't paying at least the provider's cost for Internet products and services received, you aren't the customer, you're the product.
I wrote a book that involved horses and one of the characters (human) died, and for months afterwards I kept getting targeted ads for large animal crematoriums. Like, I think, big ovens you could put a dead horse in and burn it? I don't know, I never clicked, but those ads popped up for MONTHS. I guess I'd e-mailed parts of the book to myself, gmail read the e-mails and decided to help me out? Thanks, gmail, but... I'm fine. Don't need a crematorium right now. But it's sweet of you to have thought of me.
That's why I don't put my email address on the store cards, give my phone number as 555 1212, and stay off of FaceBook as much as possible. Target is infamous for sending baby diaper coupons to a family who didn't know the oldest daughter was pregnant. But I think they were using cookies. Of course, Best Buy bribed me for my email address and Safeway got my phone number because I rent DVDs and FB follows you around whether you are logged in or not, not to mention when I get around to marketing my book I will need FB, so I'm losing the battle by attrition. I did find the majority of the popup ads were using cookies. It's how their ad programs work with Google.
Glad it's not just me! As I said, most sites don't cause a problem, it just got me giggling on this occasion because it was something I'd not searched for but, yes, as @stevesh suggested, I got them from tesco and paid with debit card while also flashing my tesco club card for the points which is linked to my email address etc. Wonder what today's ads will be
I use my Yahoo address for all online purchases - they're just a spam magnet anyway - and use FF's ad blocker. You also have to really read those TOSs and click the right boxes, because yeah, your info can be sold (or "shared").
