These tracking cookies

Quasar

Hi all

I'm running an AVG scan right now (I have AVG 8.5) and it has already picked up the following tiresome tracking cookies I alway seem to be plagued with:

doubleclick
revsci
tacoda

What are these, and are they particularly sinister? I ask because only AVG seems to pick them up and I'd rather not run the scan daily as it takes over an hour.

spybot, ad-aware, superantispyware and malwarebytes don't seem to pick them up.

Thanks.

mr_fishbulb

They track which sites you visit so they can show you adverts tailored to those specific interests. Not really a security risk - more of a privacy one.

Quasar

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

They track which sites you visit so they can show you adverts tailored to those specific interests. Not really a security risk - more of a privacy one.

Thanks for that. I have my pop-up blocker on so I don't get much in the way of ads. I'll delete them weekly then, as usual.

kwikbreaks

It's a pity AVG don't put their efforts into finding real security threats rather than harmless tracking cookies.

If you don't want them stored on your PC at all then check your browser options and set it to not store third party cookies (usually in the privacy section of most browsers).

There are lots of ads that are not popups - popups are just the most annoying intusive ads. There is a FireFox addon called adblock plus which removes all adverts. If everybody used it the internet would have a lot less content though as adverts fund most of the web.

esuhl

You can set Firefox to delete all cookies every time you close it (as I do), or use CCleaner.

Alternatively, there's an add-on called TACO that creates "opt out" cookies which will prevent a number of sites from tracking you:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11073

esuhl

kwikbreaks wrote: »

There is a FireFox addon called adblock plus which removes all adverts. If everybody used it the internet would have a lot less content though as adverts fund most of the web.

{BEGIN CONSPIRACY THEORY}

That would be a great improvement! Sponsored content cannot always be trusted to be impartial.

Some TV advertisement agencies have stipulated that their advertisements may not be shown before/during/after programmes containing certain themes - those critical of the military, for example. If every ad. agency had the same requirements, it would mean that political freedom would not exist for commercial channels.

If someone is saying something to make money... can they really be trusted to use good journalistic practices... or is it just the money they care about?

{END OF CONSPIRACY THEORY}

Just a thought...

mr_fishbulb

esuhl wrote: »

{BEGIN CONSPIRACY THEORY} Some TV advertisement agencies have stipulated that their advertisements may not be shown before/during/after programmes containing certain themes - those critical of the military, for example. If every ad. agency had the same requirements, it would mean that political freedom would not exist for commercial channels.
{END OF CONSPIRACY THEORY}

TV Adverts always target the demographic of the audience.

esuhl

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

TV Adverts always target the demographic of the audience.

Yes, but commercial TV companies only make money from advertisements, so they are unlikely to want to alienate advertisers by screening programmes that no advertiser would feel comfortable being associated with.

I'm not saying how much advertisers get to decide/veto the programmes we watch - perhaps they have very little say in the matter, perhaps not. But it's important to be aware of the fact that the commercially-funded media only have one objective: to make money.

That doesn't necessarily mean that commercial media will always kowtow to advertisers or sponsors, but it does mean that they have an incentive to. And they don't necessarily have as much of an incentive to display journalistic integrity, for example.

MJLawson1

Hi,

I can tell you that "doubleclick" is Google adwords cookies.

These are from when you click the sponsored links at the top and on the right hand site when you search on google.

regards,

Matthew