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Cookies. Do you usually "Accept" or "Reject" them?

They can allow the parties who set the cookies to track you across the internet. So they can build up a profile of your interests, habits, personal preferences, etc, and use that to market stuff to you or otherwise seek to influence your behaviour or choices. They may also sell that profile data to others who can also use it to influence you without you knowing.
Well, I’m getting a “Black Friday” advert on this page for make up. Lip gloss, mascara and fillers. It’s not filler I need, it’s more Jewsons.
 
No sultanas is definitely bad news in my book.

You need to state your raisins in the currant climate.

As PsB mentions above, the simple expedient of accepting or rejecting cookies is annoyingly presented as a dog's dinner on occasion; like him, I give up and return to base.
 
usually only eat my own cookies as i know the strength roughly. if eating ones made by others i only eat a small bit until i can assess the strength. mmmmmmm nice
 
PS If I could figure out how to do it I’d get this site to just show a picture of my middle finger to anyone running an ad-blocker!
I have disabled my ad-blocker for PFM, but it still won't show ads! There is just a space at the top of the page with the word "Advertisement"!
But generally I reject all, plus I don't use Google, just DuckDuckGo via Firefox. And I have taped over my laptop camera!
 
They can allow the parties who set the cookies to track you across the internet. So they can build up a profile of your interests, habits, personal preferences, etc, and use that to market stuff to you or otherwise seek to influence your behaviour or choices. They may also sell that profile data to others who can also use it to influence you without you knowing.

That’s a bit misleading as it is anonymous data, e.g. google ads track browser movements so they know you’ve been looking at new guitars etc, but they don’t know who you are. There is absolutely no connection between say the ads at the top of the page here and your pfm user account. They do not have access to personal data of any kind, it is just a way of fielding ads that might be relevant to the browsers past movements.
 
That’s a bit misleading as it is anonymous data, e.g. google ads track browser movements so they know you’ve been looking at new guitars etc, but they don’t know who you are. There is absolutely no connection between say the ads at the top of the page here and your pfm user account. They do not have access to personal data of any kind, it is just a way of fielding ads that might be relevant to the browsers past movements.
That may be the case for PFM, I don't know. But I think the whole 'real time bidding' ecosystem does process immense amounts of personal data, often tied into device ID such as IMEA, etc.
 
That may be the case for PFM, I don't know. But I think the whole 'real time bidding' ecosystem does process immense amounts of personal data, often tied into device ID such as IMEA, etc.

It is a bugbear of mine, I guess because I’m both an IT guy and run an internet business. I know you know your stuff, but many seem utterly befuddled by what identifying personal data actually is or how cookies and the internet itself actually works.

The actual stuff that really identifies a person e.g. full name, home address, telephone number, bank details, employment etc etc tends to exist in very few places and obviously everyone knows, or should know, where they have entered such data, and should be very careful where they enter it. None of this, and I really mean none, is accessible by things like Google or Amazon advertising cookies. Even if it was legal to do so, which it isn’t, there is no mechanism for such data to get between the secure website you entered it (e.g. a bank) and a simple anonymised ad tracking cookie.

I certainly advise people to be very, very careful where they deposit real information online, but suggesting visiting the Independent, Allmusic, pfm or whatever has access to any real personal information is just BS IMHO. They just don’t at all. To be blunt I can’t even identify people and I own the site! If I’m trying to ID a troll or sock-puppet chances are I have nothing more than a burner email (gmail, hotmail etc) and can track to a broad geographic region and ISP assuming they aren’t using TOR or VPN (where I just assume guilt and delete the account!). To be honest the technical side is useless, I detect trolls, sock-puppets and other time-wasters as they are always so thick they revert to past recognisable form, e.g. folk banned for racism just start being racist again!

PS A device isn’t a person. As I say targeted ads work via browser history, they are designed to field content of interest. They don’t know *who* you are, only that that browser has been used to look at CD players, bicycles, bathroom taps and catfood or whatever in the past 24 hours, so it makes sense to field more of that sort of stuff rather than car tyres and woman’s shoes. It really isn’t as scary as some folk (especially idiot politicians) make out.
 
I use two Firefox extensions:
  • Cookie Auto-delete
  • I don't care about cookies
The latter auto-accepts cookies everywhere while the former deletes them again as soon as I close the tab. Websites get to think they're tracking me. I don't have to see the annoying cookie banner. Everybody wins.
Can you exclude/protect cookies for sites where you want to stay logged in outside of the browser session?
 
It is a bugbear of mine, I guess because I’m both an IT guy and run an internet business. I know you know your stuff, but many seem utterly befuddled by what identifying personal data actually is or how cookies and the internet itself actually works.

The actual stuff that really identifies a person e.g. full name, home address, telephone number, bank details, employment etc etc tends to exist in very few places and obviously everyone knows, or should know, where they have entered such data, and should be very careful where they enter it. None of this, and I really mean none, is accessible by things like Google or Amazon advertising cookies. Even if it was legal to do so, which it isn’t, there is no mechanism for such data to get between the secure website you entered it (e.g. a bank) and a simple anonymised ad tracking cookie.

I certainly advise people to be very, very careful where they deposit real information online, but suggesting visiting the Independent, Allmusic, pfm or whatever has access to any real personal information is just BS IMHO. They just don’t at all. To be blunt I can’t even identify people and I own the site! If I’m trying to ID a troll or sock-puppet chances are I have nothing more than a burner email (gmail, hotmail etc) and can track to a broad geographic region and ISP assuming they aren’t using TOR or VPN (where I just assume guilt and delete the account!). To be honest the technical side is useless, I detect trolls, sock-puppets and other time-wasters as they are always so thick they revert to past recognisable form, e.g. folk banned for racism just start being racist again!

PS A device isn’t a person. As I say targeted ads work via browser history, they are designed to field content of interest. They don’t know *who* you are, only that that browser has been used to look at CD players, bicycles, bathroom taps and catfood or whatever in the past 24 hours, so it makes sense to field more of that sort of stuff rather than car tyres and woman’s shoes. It really isn’t as scary as some folk (especially idiot politicians) make out.
Your distinction between 'real personal data' (ie that directly identifies a person) and 'personal data' is a bit outdated, TBH. And, with the greatest of respect to your IT experience, modern 'big data' analysis can throw up all manner of unexpected discoveries about a person, and there are all manner of ways in which the profile can be tracked back to a real individual, if you have access to enough datasets and processing power. Like Google, Facebook, and the other big players in the online ad serving marketplace have. And let's not get too relaxed about 'it's only advertising'; the sort of profiling that gets done here is exactly the same as the sort that leads people into social media bubbles, and creates an ecosystem where antivaxxers, or right wing nutjobbery can flourish (to take just two pertinent examples).

I'm not fully up to date with this stuff, but the ICO has done, and continues to do, a fair bit of work in this area.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/our-work-on-adtech/
 
Being bone idle that that is my method also.:D

Mine too. I delete everything every couple of months just as a matter of housekeeping. I’d also advise anyone concerned, especially those who venture to more dubious parts of the internet, to use more than one browser, e.g. keep one as entirely anonymous where you know you have zero personal data at all. I have Safari as my main browser and Chrome as the ‘never logged in or registered’ one. As an example if someone posts a political Youtube video here that looks vaguely interesting I’ll visit on Chrome as I’m logged into YouTube on Safari and my TV, and I don’t want the algorithm fielding me any political crap!
 
Your distinction between 'real personal data' (ie that directly identifies a person) and 'personal data' is a bit outdated, TBH. And, with the greatest of respect to your IT experience, modern 'big data' analysis can throw up all manner of unexpected discoveries about a person, and there are all manner of ways in which the profile can be tracked back to a real individual, if you have access to enough datasets and processing power. Like Google, Facebook, and the other big players in the online ad serving marketplace have. And let's not get too relaxed about 'it's only advertising'; the sort of profiling that gets done here is exactly the same as the sort that leads people into social media bubbles, and creates an ecosystem where antivaxxers, or right wing nutjobbery can flourish (to take just two pertinent examples).

There is an aspect of truth to that, but I still view it as 94% fear-mongering and it is businesses like mine that will be driven off the internet if people start blocking everything.

The simple reality is if people want to enjoy an independent internet they have to grasp they either put up with advertising or pay very hefty subscription fees, or all they get is commerce, vanity publishing or covertly-funded propaganda. The independent businesses and reference sites who absolutely need to make a living will obviously be driven off as their revenue streams are strangled.
 
... And let's not get too relaxed about 'it's only advertising'; the sort of profiling that gets done here is exactly the same as the sort that leads people into social media bubbles, and creates an ecosystem where antivaxxers, or right wing nutjobbery can flourish (to take just two pertinent examples).

I assume that climate heating denial is also included in the list of potential 'bubbles'. I guess I should assume that left-wing nutjobbery isn't, though?
 
I assume that climate heating denial is also included in the list of potential 'bubbles'. I guess I should assume that left-wing nutjobbery isn't, though?

Again I don’t see Facebook as being nearly as bad as those of a more authoritarian bent seem to. It’s an algorithm designed to feed you what you want to see, e.g. you’ll get page after page of bollocks demonising the EU, I get loads of stuff about vintage Tannoys, TD-124s, new jazz records etc. My Facebook stream is almost entirely cleansed of politics, the only stuff I get to see is actively shared by friends as I block anything else. As everything else in life it is just a tool, and a highly configurable one. I fully understand people use it for bad things, but humans use every conceivable invention for bad things. I don’t believe in dumbing-down so I can live with that. Some people are going to be stupid ignorant shitheads in every walk of life. They are what they are, if they break the law go after them, not their communications medium. It’s like blaming a PA system for spreading racial hatred whereas the issue is clearly the racists.
 
I mostly use a light browser with Javascript off. Then delete most added cookies after the event. When using FF I choose only the cookies that are 'necessary'. Then delete them if I doubt I'll be needing them for another visit. Basic rule is to delete / clean out.

I've never used any Javascript or cookies on my own webpages, so at least some of the 'net' is free of the cruft.
 


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