It has occurred to me, while browsing the internet and seeing ads on my browser that are from businesses in the Peterborough/Lindsay area, that my ISP IP address is being used to source these ads.
I do have my browser set to delete all cookies when I shut down my browser.
So I am thinking that maybe I should disconnect the cable from my cable modem, for a few hours, to try and get a new IP address, assigned to my cable modem.
This might help in preventing my computer being tracked for serving up ads and other privacy issues.
What do you guys, think about doing this?
I would imagine that there would still be a new IP address that geolocates you in that area. If you are trying to remain anonymous, run your browser in Incognito or Private browsing mode and consider using a VPN, even a free one. That will mask your IP. Using Tor is also another option.
I think it might have been, when I was on the Hotmail webpage, that I was getting these targetted ads.
I probably don't mind if they target the country you are located in or even the province, but when the ads start targeting the immediate area, you are located in, then that annoys me.
I will probably see if I can cause my IP address to change, just to mess with the tracking record that is being kept, with my current IP address.
I will also start using my PIA VPN, on a regular basis.
Good luck. The only other thing I can think of is to check for Do Not Track option in your browser settings. It's a way of telling websites that you'd prefer they don't keep tabs on you with things like geolocation. They don't have to respect it but at least you're telling them how you feel about it any maybe more websites will respect it. But to be honest, most of what you see in the advertising is because of advertising networks that operating across many websites. There are some add-ons that help with things like this. A few are listed here:
https://lifehacker.com/the-best-browser-extensions-that-protect-your-privacy-479408034
I suspect that a list of IP addresses have been correlated to ISPs and locations, and even if you do successfully propagate a new IP address, the list will still point back to the general region the same as the previous. Probably the target finesse comes from the cookies on your system, but I can say it's been amusing to suddenly find myself targeted as "Barrie, Ontario"... I guess I've just developed the knack of completely ignoring the ad crap on the sides, bottom and top of the page while I'm focused on the content I went there for... Life's too short; eat poutine instead... <^8#