Hyderabad: Stalking by cookies inserted in advertisements on the internet is all set to reduce as web browsers are cracking down on ad tracking ahead of the International Data Privacy Day on January 28. Web browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome now say that help is on the way — no more will you be followed by pesky ads.
Browsing has become a risky affair, thanks to the endless trailing of users that ads do on the web. If you have searched the Net for ‘toys’, ‘pooh bear’ and ‘soft toys for kids’, web browsers, including Google Chrome, begin to guess that you want to buy toys. So for the next few days you will be haunted by images of toys from various online portals on almost every website you visit. Many retail sites also track your shopping habit and web browsing history.
This reaches irritating levels when websites beam out blaring full-page advertisement that you can’t exit, especially when you are at the workplace. A software engineer K. Karthik said, “I searched for sports shoes on my personal laptop. Later during a project meeting, when a page from my laptop was projected on the big screen, my entire team came to know that I was searching for a shoe. Google doesn’t stop when you close the tab and continues to suggest similar stuff on every page you go.”
You searched for anything online and go into the company’s profile, which is then used to target you with online ads. Searching in ‘incognito mode’ of browser isn’t going to help either, as it does not actually make people’s browsing as private as users may believe. There are of course several applications like Adblock, Adguard, Adaway etc with different protocols to block ads.
But finally, web browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome are going ahead and eliminating the issue of ‘reminder ads’ that follow users insistently. Moving forward, users can just right-click any bothersome tab and select ‘mute site’ on Google Chrome.
Google announced on Thursday that it was releasing a new version of Chrome for users this week called Chrome 64 that helps solve that issue. In its release Google noted, “We’re rolling out the ability to mute the reminder ads in apps and on websites that partner with us to show ads. We plan to expand this tool to control ads on YouTube, Search, and Gmail in the coming months.”
Mozilla announced on Tuesday that it has added opt-in tracking protection to the latest version of its browser which enables users to block trackers, many of which are used by ad networks all the time. In its statement, Mozilla said, “We accept things in the online world that we wouldn’t accept in the physical one,” a statement said.
