Increase Your Privacy Online. Use "Do Not Track".
When you use the web, your online surfing habits and history are of great interest to advertisers. They like to know what you're interested in, so that they can show you adverts that you're more likely to respond to. Which is why, for example, if you search for a local garage that can service your car, you'll see lots of car-related ads over the next few days on many of the sites you visit.
Most of the tracking that takes place is done through cookies in your web browser. Although the only site that can read a cookie from your PC is the one which placed it there in the first place, there's an easy workaround if one agency places cookies on your computer on behalf of multiple clients.
Antispyware programs, and popup blockers, can help to block ads from appearing on your screen. But they don't address the cause, ie they don't stop those companies tracking your behaviour in the first place.
There is though, an industry-wide standard in place to help prevent tracking. Each time you type a web URL into your browser, or you click a hyperlink to load a different web page, your browser sends a request to the remote web server that contains the information your want. Within that request, there's space for the browser to pass information about you to the remote server, such as which browser you're using, what your IP address is, and so on. That information ends up in the server's log files.
There's also a relatively new feature called Do Not Track. If you configure your browser to send a Do Not Track request, the web server is morally obliged not to track your progress through the site.
Not all sites obey the request, and not all browsers allow it to be sent anyway. But if your browser does support a Do Not Track facility, it makes sense to turn it on.
You can find out how at www.donottrack.us.
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