Sky Broadband: Phorm or some other snooping, or a coincidence?

I don't usually notice/pay attention to banner ads, however...

The other day I was looking at Garmin Forerunner 305s on the Halfords
website as they were on offer.

I've just visited http://www.channel4.com/programmes/themes/3d-week and
lo, on the right hand side there is a Halfords advert for Garmin
Forerunners!

So, are Sky being all Phormy or something? Or is the advert
interrogating cached files on my laptop perhaps? Or a coincidence? And
how do I stop it (moving to another ISP aside)?

Grr...

Abo wrote:
> I don't usually notice/pay attention to banner ads, however...
>
> The other day I was looking at Garmin Forerunner 305s on the Halfords
> website as they were on offer.
>
> I've just visited http://www.channel4.com/programmes/themes/3d-week and
> lo, on the right hand side there is a Halfords advert for Garmin
> Forerunners!
>
> So, are Sky being all Phormy or something? Or is the advert
> interrogating cached files on my laptop perhaps? Or a coincidence? And
> how do I stop it (moving to another ISP aside)?
>
> Grr...

Answering my own question:

I cleared down my browser history, cookies etc. etc. and reloaded the
page a few times. Generic adverts for BT and others.

I then went to Halfords and their Forerunner listings again. Then closed
the browser, clicked the link above and the Halfords/Garmin advert is
back. Great.

On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:11:53 +0000, Abo ate alphabet spaghetti and shat
out:

> Abo wrote:
>> I don't usually notice/pay attention to banner ads, however...
>>
>> The other day I was looking at Garmin Forerunner 305s on the Halfords
>> website as they were on offer.
>>
>> I've just visited http://www.channel4.com/programmes/themes/3d-week and
>> lo, on the right hand side there is a Halfords advert for Garmin
>> Forerunners!
>>
>> So, are Sky being all Phormy or something? Or is the advert
>> interrogating cached files on my laptop perhaps? Or a coincidence? And
>> how do I stop it (moving to another ISP aside)?
>>
>> Grr...
>
> Answering my own question:
>
> I cleared down my browser history, cookies etc. etc. and reloaded the
> page a few times. Generic adverts for BT and others.
>
> I then went to Halfords and their Forerunner listings again. Then closed
> the browser, clicked the link above and the Halfords/Garmin advert is
> back. Great.

I rather like fheking around with the cookie data :-)

Halfords are a sack of shit, I went in there the other day and within
five seconds some moron came up to me whilst I was looking at windscreen
wipers guide 'can I help you?'. My reply 'Do I look like I can't read and
fucking write mate?' Noted the cost of a single blade at £11.49 and came
to the conclusion the place is *so* expensive, they do this to distract
you from it...


--
political correctness: The safety net protecting deaf blind disabled
ethnic minority gays & lesbians with odd religious beliefs from reality

"Abo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:hd1vu4$159$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Abo wrote:
>> I don't usually notice/pay attention to banner ads, however...
>>
>> The other day I was looking at Garmin Forerunner 305s on the Halfords website as they were on offer.
>>
>> I've just visited http://www.channel4.com/programmes/themes/3d-week and lo, on the right hand side there is a Halfords advert for
>> Garmin Forerunners!
>>
>> So, are Sky being all Phormy or something? Or is the advert interrogating cached files on my laptop perhaps? Or a coincidence?
>> And how do I stop it (moving to another ISP aside)?
>>
>> Grr...
>
> Answering my own question:
>
> I cleared down my browser history, cookies etc. etc. and reloaded the page a few times. Generic adverts for BT and others.
>
> I then went to Halfords and their Forerunner listings again. Then closed the browser, clicked the link above and the
> Halfords/Garmin advert is back. Great.

Yes spooky isn't it. All done with cookies AFAIK

I bought a book from Amazon, and months later I went to a totally
unrelated website with an Amazon advert that said "Hi Graham".
I don't think the public at large want or need that sort of thing and,
IMHO, it erodes confidence in companies that use such tactics

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%.

Graham. wrote:
> "Abo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:hd1vu4$159$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Abo wrote:
>>> I don't usually notice/pay attention to banner ads, however...
>>>
>>> The other day I was looking at Garmin Forerunner 305s on the
>>> Halfords website as they were on offer. I've just visited
>>> http://www.channel4.com/programmes/themes/3d-week
>>> and lo, on the right hand side there is a Halfords advert for
>>> Garmin Forerunners! So, are Sky being all Phormy or something? Or is the
>>> advert
>>> interrogating cached files on my laptop perhaps? Or a coincidence?
>>> And how do I stop it (moving to another ISP aside)? Grr...
>>
>> Answering my own question:
>>
>> I cleared down my browser history, cookies etc. etc. and reloaded
>> the page a few times. Generic adverts for BT and others. I then went to
>> Halfords and their Forerunner listings again. Then
>> closed the browser, clicked the link above and the Halfords/Garmin
>> advert is back. Great.
>
> Yes spooky isn't it. All done with cookies AFAIK
>
> I bought a book from Amazon, and months later I went to a totally
> unrelated website with an Amazon advert that said "Hi Graham".
> I don't think the public at large want or need that sort of thing and,
> IMHO, it erodes confidence in companies that use such tactics

Graham,

Why not simply delete your cookies and temporary internet files on a regular
basis [1] if you want to stop that happening.

As a matter of interest, I have permanently stopped Google 'dropping'
cookies [2] on my browsers (IE and Firefox) - and I have set up Firefox to
delete cookies on shutdown. Ok, it causes a little more typing - but what
the hell!

And I *NEVER* allow *ANY* third-party cookies - even though this seems to
cause Hotmail to bitch on shutdown lately when using Firefox.

[1] Mine are cleared every night - with one exception.
[2] That was around a year ago - after reading an article on the amount
of information Google permanently stores on the searches etc that you make,
along with the how they use their cookies to 'track' what you are doing
online - it was a little disconcerting to say the least!

Call me paranoid if you wish, but...

> I then went to Halfords and their Forerunner listings again. Then closed
> the browser, clicked the link above and the Halfords/Garmin advert is
> back. Great.

If you use Firefox, download the "adblock plus" plugin and use the
"easylist" filter set.

Then grab yourself Crap Cleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com and use
it regularly :-) (remember to untick the yahoo toolbar option as you
go through the installation though)

Andy Burns wrote:
> On 06/11/09 23:14, Colin Wilson wrote:
>
>> Then grab yourself Crap Cleaner remember to untick the yahoo toolbar
>> option
>
> Crap Cleaner, sponsored by Crap Installer huh?

I've *never* had a problem with CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) 'dropping' spyware,
scamware, scareware, malware etc, onto my system during its installation -
and I've been using it for several years now.

If you have information that this sort of 'shit' is definitely being
installed by CCleaner, then please show the links as to where it can be
found!

> > Then grab yourself Crap Cleaner remember to untick the yahoo toolbar option
> Crap Cleaner, sponsored by Crap Installer huh?

No, it's entirely up-front about it and optional.

On Fri, 6 Nov 2009 23:50:21 -0000, Colin Wilson wrote:

>>> Then grab yourself Crap Cleaner remember to untick the yahoo toolbar option
>> Crap Cleaner, sponsored by Crap Installer huh?
>
> No, it's entirely up-front about it and optional.

There's also a 'lite' version w/o the toolbar and portable as well - no
installer.

Simple way: with Opera I have cookies off by default and set to delete
cookies on exit; only the sites where I want cookies (forums, to save
logging on etc.) keep cookies.
As for searching, I just played with Google and Yahoo! advanced search to
get what I wanted, edited the urls and now have my preferences w/o cookies.

Example (UK-orientated):

http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_sea...ghts=&safe=off

--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, Abo chose the
tried and tested strategy of:

> So, are Sky being all Phormy or something? Or is the advert
> interrogating cached files on my laptop perhaps? Or a coincidence? And
> how do I stop it (moving to another ISP aside)?

It's probably not Sky using Phorm - I'm sure we would have heard screams of blue
murder by now if they were. It's more likely that the two sites concerned use
the same ad network. To Adblock, I would add Noscript and Flashblock [or just
uninstall Flash] too. Some might find having to whitelist sites to allow
Javascript a PITA, but it's up to you to decide what the balance is. The reason
I mention Flashblock is that Flash has it's own cookie thing called Local Shared
Objects:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object

and clearing private data in Firefox will not eliminate these, and neither will
disabling cookies.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
10:52:24 up 20 days, 10:16, 4 users, load average: 0.09, 0.13, 0.15
"Stupid is a condition. Ignorance is a choice" -- Wiley Miller