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In a new twist to the pruvacy issue..


 YCCMB
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OK, it's mildly annoying because I'm only accessing the forum on a mobile ATM, but still.

For the last couple of days, every time I close my browser for a while and then return, a new page has opened, advertising stuff I'm not interested in. Generally, it turns out to be whatever was on the banner at the bottom of the page on this forum when I left it. Currently that's the French Property Exhibition.

At first, I put it down to my fat fingers, but now I'm aware of It, it isn't me hitting the ad, even though navigating around it is a royal pain. For example, as I type this post, the banner obscures everything between the line of text I'm typing and the keyboard.

If I want to click on an advert, it should be my choice, not imposed on me.

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Even more worrying was what happened to yesterday when I was using my tablet - reading a newspaper article. The phone rang so I put my tablet down, leaving the page open, I had noticed that there was an advert in the middle of the article (I think it was the Independent). When I returned a new tab was open with a full page devoted to the advert .. I was cross but puzzled as I hadn't clicked on anything.

Upon researching I found that, using Google Chrome as I do, your interest in an ad is noted and acted upon if you don't scroll down the page where the ad is.

Seems I might need to change browser.
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What a coincidence!  A friend has just been to see me for some help with an administrative matter.  He had tried to get a RV with the Préfecture via the Public Services site.

After entering his postal code, he was taken to a page with what appeared to be adverts to do with financial services.  He is not a habitual internet user but he suspected a scam.  But I see now that it is probably an experience similar to yours.  So even government departments are cashing in on this lark?

I have read that in the UK, councils think nothing of selling electoral lists to commercial companies[6]

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Mint wrote : So even government departments are cashing in on this lark?

Not quite .. it's the browser that you, the user, are using.

If you don't have an ad-blocker then the browser, say Chrome, will use space on the page which you are reading .. whether it is the Indy or even on the government pages. The site itself is not usually responsible for such ads.

Edit : some sites .. such as the Gaurdian .. do advertise their own stuff.

That's why I said I might need a change of browser .. as using an ad-blocker on a tablet really slows it down (or it used to) plus some sites object to a blocker being used and won't let you access their site unless you disable the blocker.

Nothing is simple. But that is me wanting to read the newspapers for free I suppose.
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Are you logged in to Google? If so, have you set your Google privacy settings to stop everything possible? myactivity.google.com

Do you still get the same problem?

You could also change your search engine in Chrome settings to DuckDuckGo. See this page for instructions

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/62636/add-duckduckgo-to-search-engines-list-in-chrome

Or you could download the Adblock browser, DuckDuckGo Privacy browser, or the Firefox Focus web browser which has with tracking protection and content blocking.
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I'm guessing there are dozens of very useful things I could add/change/download to stop the annoyance.

Sadly, as I'm not even currently connected to WiFi (and haven't been since early July) I'm not going to start downloading stuff that I don't need to, as it eats data.

I'll put up with it until I get back to WiFi land and fix it then.
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