Ads across sites

[MozillaMonkey]

Why is this happening? Surely FF must be complicit?

Here's the deal. I was on a commercial site last night, looking at some very niche products.

Today I am logged into some completely different websites and to the side are ads for the exact same products
I was looking at last night!

Heck, even when I was waiting to be logged into THIS site, I saw and ad for one of the products, right
here on mozillaZine!

Can I stop it?

[Frank Lion]

Can I stop it?

Change your cookie options.

[MozillaMonkey]

Can I stop it?

Change your cookie options.

Thanks.
Well I just checked all the FF options and couldn't see cookies.

[Frank Lion]

Can I stop it?

Change your cookie options.

Thanks.
Well I just checked all the FF options and couldn't see cookies.

They'll be under the 'Privacy and Security' options.

[DanRaisch]

You might want to consider updating to something newer than version 43 of Firefox. I believe that version 52.xESR is the last compatible version for users of Win XP. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/

[Tomatoshadow2]

Also to add to what Dan said, you should always be using the latest version of Firefox, if you don't you are leaving yourself open to security holes.

[DanRaisch]

tomatoshadow2, the latest version the OP can use would be 52ESR because they're running Win XP.

[Tomatoshadow2]

My mistake, thanks for pointing that out Dan.

[lovemyfoxy]

Can I stop it?

Change your cookie options.

Thanks.
Well I just checked all the FF options and couldn't see cookies.

To explain: it's not Firefox itself that's following you around. It's sites that are planting cookies, and it happens in every browser. Only 7 sites are allowed to plant permanent cookies in my cookie jar, all the others are per-session or not at all.

[James]

Also to add to what Dan said, you should always be using the latest version of Firefox, if you don't you are leaving yourself open to security holes.

Firefox 52.7.3 ESR is the latest version for security and allowed stability fixes besides the 59.0.2 Release. Firefox 52.9.0esr out on June 26 will be the last major update for Firefox 52 ESR though. Firefox 53.0 and later requires Windows 7, 8 (8.1), 10.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Calendar

[MozillaMonkey]

You might want to consider updating to something newer than version 43 of Firefox. I believe that version 52.xESR is the last compatible version for users of Win XP. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/

Thanks Dan.

[MozillaMonkey]

To explain: it's not Firefox itself that's following you around. It's sites that are planting cookies, and it happens in every browser. Only 7 sites are allowed to plant permanent cookies in my cookie jar, all the others are per-session or not at all.

A few things...

1. Every time I upgrade my FF it messes up my fonts (they become blurry) and I have to fix them.

2. Why didn't FF upgrade to the latest version v.52 when I clicked Help/Upgrade? It only stopped at around v.47.

3. About the cookies. I was always under the impression that sites plant cookies to remember your preferences/settings on their site. I had no idea they were spying on all the sites you were visiting including remembering items that were of interest to you at these sites, so they could then place ads on their site advertising the same items that were of interest to you.

[lovemyfoxy]

1. Wait for someone wiser than me, because this is unusual.
2. You have to get on the 52ESR track manually. I installed it after v. 53, I think, and dumped 53.

3. that was the original purpose of cookies, and it's still used at many sites. Also if you've put items into a "cart" to buy later, the site will "remember" you later.

But on many sites that are free, YOU are the product. Your eyes are being sold to advertisers. Check the current scandal at Facebook, although most cookies don't track you for political agendas.

Many of us use the extension UBlock Origin to block ads entirely.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... ck-origin/

I'm sad about what the internet has become. It started out with such great promise, and I found so many sites that existed only because the webmaster was passionate about something.
Now we spend hours every week trying to keep our info private and secure.

This is long, but you can get the gist from the first few paragraphs:
http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/04/an-a ... lt-it.html

[MozillaMonkey]

1. Wait for someone wiser than me, because this is unusual.
2. You have to get on the 52ESR track manually. I installed it after v. 53, I think, and dumped 53.

Thanks, I fixed the font problem (kept notes on how to do it from the last upgrade).
Yeah, I had to go to the Moz site and do a manual upgrade. v.52.7.3 now.

3. that was the original purpose of cookies, and it's still used at many sites. Also if you've put items into a "cart" to buy later, the site will "remember" you later....

Many of us use the extension UBlock Origin to block ads entirely.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... ck-origin/

...This is long, but you can get the gist from the first few paragraphs:
http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/04/an-a ... lt-it.html

Yes it is sad what has become of the internet these days.
Thanks for the article and ad-blocker tip, I'll check them out!

[siffemoz]

Note that if you disable 'regular' cookies altogether, most sites will break one way or another. But you can safely disable 3rd party cookies, although I have come across one site that required them.