[beagle3]

Use Firefox and install uBlock Origin.

Your credit card company will still sell you out - but that does take a little more time, and will only include one item (rather than your entire browsing history) - meatspace cash is likely to help with that, but that’s much less of a problem in your context, I think.

[martinmunk]

I guess what really baffles me here is that a CC issuer is allowed to sell that data at all. Just. Wow.

I’m not trying to show off my European high horse, it’s not like we don’t have our own problems.

[pen2l]

I use uBlock Origin and have an iphone. Unfortunately getting an adblocker is not as trivial, so inertia took over and I see ads on youtube app and I see ads when generally browsing the web on the iphone.

I notice that over the course of the last year either some really sophisticated newer algos are being put to use, or the collaboration and sharing of information between ad networks has been streamlined or increased in some manner because I'm being served ads that are creepily relevant. But in any case, the clues and data you leave behind, they're aplenty and quite suspect to being compromised and pounced on by ad networks. I think at this point if you wanna play tango, don't only just play defense (ad block), go on the offense as well and use adnauseam to pollute the profiles they've built of you.

I want to articulate as well the annoyance I feel when being served targeted ads: an ad, if it's related to my interests, even tangentially, it does grab me, and no doubt it probably compels me to make some decision one way or the other. Particularly, what gets me, I believe, is both the mental overload of being served ads of "relevant" things which will attract my attention too much and clutter my mind and distract me, and the sheer arrogance of pushing things it believes are relevant to my interests.

[robotmay]

Adguard on iPhone works alright, hooks into the Safari blocker API. It's not as effective as a proper blocker on Android but it does improve the experience.

I also run my iOS devices over Wireguard when out and about to my home network which runs a pihole DNS server. Works surprisingly well and also catches ads in apps that way.

[erhk]

I took a picture of a friend's headphones on Snapchat that they had left in my car. In the next week I started seeing ads for that exact model, and they were distinctly identical. Not a fun user experience.

[shinycode]

I have an iPhone with AdBlock Pro and I use NextDNS on all my devices. I almost never have any ad with NextDNS (paid version) so for me it works really well.

Sometimes it’s « annoying » because I click on links from articles and emails and they are blocked so I can choose to give up or disable NextDNS for this time but it’s my choice to be tracked

[vagrantJin]

> have an iphone.

Well. I would postulate, that targeting iphone users would be numero uno priority at any self-respecting adtech company, since its a strong signal that marketing does in fact appeal to you more strongly and you likely have a lot of "spare change"...

[beagle3]

Magic Lasso works well on iPhone/iPad, and so does Firefox Focus ; I have both installed, not sure how they divide the work, but I hardly ever see an ad in Safari or Firefox on iOS.

(They don’t stop YouTube from showing ads)

[hinkley]

That won’t help with IP tracking. Buying presents from work sounds like a better option. Assuming we ever go back to work.

[cozzyd]

Ublock presumably will block the tracking code, if it's a third-party tracker.

[klyrs]

Don't forget, a VPN, a new email account and a new phone number for "2fa". Also, where is it getting shipped? I can't receive packages at work. The "convenience" of shopping online is a legend from my youth

[yborg]

And by meatspace cash, it has to be pieces of paper and metal. If you use a debit card, the payment network knows anyway. And that might not even be good enough, if you carry your phone, they have your location at that time, so if someone really wanted to, it's probably not even hard to correlate the relatively rare cash purchase at that exact time and place and know it was you anyway.

[refulgentis]

Will Firefox and uBlock Origin prevent my IP address from being discovered? Sibling posts indicate this was probably accomplished via IP address targeting.

[beagle3]

It will block all the 3rd parties that have to do anything with retargeting like Facebook, google, Adnexus, etc.

It’s unusual for sites to conspire directly and share data about IP (but that may change)

[smsm42]

You could just buy a generic giftcard (like Amex one) and use it to make the actual purchase.

[alexanderdmitri]

From the AmEx giftcard holders agreement:

> We also use Cardholder Information for marketing purposes and to conduct research and analysis. We may provide certain Cardholder Information to companies, including our affiliated companies that perform business operations or services, including marketing services, on our behalf. We may provide certain Cardholder Information to others outside of American Express as permitted by law, such as to government entities or other third parties in response to subpoenas. We may develop marketing programs and send you offer for products and services. We do not share customer addresses with other companies for them to market their own products and services.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/2x5vcnvffh4i/7it0e2T8WQ8fl4DmkL...

[smsm42]

True. But if I buy a gift card with my regular CC, my CC record would have a line that says "purchased a gift card", but I don't think the actual gift card number would be there? And on the GC data there would be whatever I bought, but there's nothing linking the GC number to me, is it?

[alexanderdmitri]

Yeah, I guess it depends on the level of data sharing and how good AmEx is at identifying its users based on other data points. Either way they are explicitly stating they're gathering data and passing it on in a much more standardized and defined form than they're willing to share with the consumer. Entities buying the data are probably throwing a lot of capital into joining datasets on a macro level.

Another comment mentions privacy.com as a solution. I've actually thought of creating a little terminal program to leverage it because it's a neat product and super cool they're maintaining a well-defined API for it.

All this ultimately bums me out though. Jumping through so many hoops to avoid this intrusive (and increasingly default) behavior can't be good for mental health. Plus where do you draw the line? When it's so widespread and largely unaccountable while everyone is saying it's up to the individual to avoid it, it really starts to feel rather quixotic trying to take measures to protect yourself.