I read an email about my broadband contract now bombarded

[MMfanalltheway]

I had to go into my emails and search for my broadband provider's name within my email account and found the email which shows that I have a further 4 months left in contract with provider - that's all that I was checking. All done silently by searching within my own emails.

Now? I'm being bombarded with advertisements for broadband.
All within 2 hours.

I'm trying to think of how they could know that I'm interested in switching provider.

When you search for something within your email is that recorded by cookies? If so, I'm pretty pissed off.

Is it Gmail? My Gmail "knows" my Google - they clearly taken about me behind my back, but that's ok because they are the same company. Presumably it's how they make revenue?

I dont mind it - all my devices which use Google/Gmail know what I'm looking at.

If I want to look at erotic literature possible birthday present for dh I go to incognito mode.

[quote mainsfed]@sunflowersandbuttercups

You can use incognito browsers if you're worried, or block all cookies.

I don't think Incognito prevents your history being tracked, at least that's what I read in the t&cs.[/quote]
I don't mean incognito mode, you can get browsers like Tor that are much more privacy focused.

@TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe

That doesn't seem to make sense, why would opening an email from supplier A mean you'd get bombarded with adverts from suppliers B,C,D and Z?

1. You open your email. Your action is logged by your email provider.
2. Your email provider informs an ad agency what sort of topics you've been reading emails about.
3. The ad agency targets you with adverts for that topic when you visit a site that uses their agency.

Obviously these things are instant and automatic, the moment you open the email your advertising profile is updated.

Thank you for explaining, it's not something I've ever experienced. Ad getting on my PC is absolutley rubbish, whoever is paying for that it not getting their monies worth as none of the adverts are ever for anything I've ever bought or even thought about buying

I'm asking how the competitors know that you're opened the original email. I'm not naive about tracking on the internet but can't see how that can happen.

Because emails contain cookies. Your browser picks up that you've clicked on an email about broadband costs and then targets a load of broadband adverts your way.

Emails aren't at all private in that respect.

If you don't want targeted ads then use an Adblock. But the reason most sites are free to use is because rely on targeted advertising.

It's like when you come on MN and read w thread about vacuum cleaners and are then targeted by loads of vacuum companies.

I have no issue with ads. I tend to find the ones on MN render the site unusable so I will browse in something which blocks ads.
What I do not like, is what I would presumed to have been private emails, thus searches of said emails also being private, generating a shit tonne of ads on FB.
It basically means that cookies have access to your emails yes?

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair If I understand correctly, it’s more of a chain reaction.

So you open an email from your service provider about renewing your contract, then the next time you go on say Facebook, you see an ad for your service provider.

The following time, because you’ve seen ads about broadband from one supplier, you’ll start seeing them from others. And so on!

And, as a pp says, the tracking is usually done by large ad agencies, who will target the ads you see based on the tracking info they receive - so you open an email about renewing broadband, then you’ll see ads for broadband and that will then trigger the google and Facebook type tracking, and so you end up seeing ads that are more specific to you.

Basically you're emails are not private, you've just assumed that they are. Have you read the terms of service that you agreed to when you opened the email account, it will say in there somewhere about what rights they have to the information inside your email.

The search bar could be logged like Google search entries are and that's what's turned the ads over to broadband.

I understand that you're feeling somewhat violated, use a browser with an ad blocker to not see the ads, that won't fix them harvesting data.

You might be able to go through settings and turn off cookies for adverts but you'd have to use a search engine to figure out how as I don't know what provider you're using so can't help

I noticed this recently too - a company name was mentioned in email correspondence in my work account as a potential supplier for something we are looking to source. No links, no web searches, just the company name written in the body of the email.

Checked Facebook on my phone later that day, and lo and behold, adverts for said supplier popping up all over my timeline!

Well yes that is how it works. It would be in your terms and conditions when you first signed up to the email account. It is how they make their money so that you can have free email.

They are not reading your emails, keywords are identified and this is what is used to target ads to you.

You would have to have agreed to this when opening the account.

Re incognito browsers, Firefox is the best mainstream one for privacy, DuckDuckGo for mobile and as a search engine. I have an add-on for Firefox called Facebook container which stops Facebook tracking you all over the web - not that I use it for anything other than messenger since it’s got more ads than content these days.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is an interesting (albeit long!) book about how it all works.

@MMfanalltheway

I have no issue with ads. I tend to find the ones on MN render the site unusable so I will browse in something which blocks ads. What I do not like, is what I would presumed to have been private emails, thus searches of said emails also being private, generating a shit tonne of ads on FB. It basically means that cookies have access to your emails yes?

Yes.

E-mails are not private in that respect. Everything you do online is connected. That's why if you click on an advert on Facebook (for example), you'll start seeing adverts for similar things via Mumsnet.

Your e-mails work the same way. Yahoo, Gmail etc. wouldn't be able to provide a free e-mail service for millions of people otherwise. Like PP said, you can get more private e-mail accounts but you'll need to pay.

Privacy costs money. Ads make money, so companies need to recoup the costs of you wanting to avoid them somehow. That's why an increasing number of websites have banned adblockers, or ask you to pay to access ad-free content.