4 ways you can prevent websites from tracking your shopping RIGHT NOW ⛔

...those pairs of trousers that you've thought you might want — and then decided you didn't want — are stalking you. You're literally being chased through the internet by products you are trying not to buy. They're trying to wear you down...

- Leonora Oppenheim, When the World Stops Shopping

Whether you want more privacy, are trying to curb your spending habits, or just find it creepy, there are ways to prevent websites from tracking your shopping.

Google Ad Tracking

If you have a Google account, you're automatically opted into Google's ad tracking feature . Here's how to opt out on your PC and phone:

1. On your PC, open Chrome and click on your account icon in the top right corner

   > Select Manage your Google account

   On your phone, open the Google app and tap the profile icon in the top right corner

   > Select Manage your Google account.

2. For both platforms, select the Data & personalisation tab

3. Turn off Ad personalisation

Facebook and Instagram Ad Tracking

1. Go through your Facebook Ad Preferences

2. Scroll to Ad settings, go through each section to customize or set all tracking options to either OFF or NO

💻 Reset your advertising ID

Android: go to the settings app > Google > Ads > Reset advertising ID

iPhone: go to the settings app > advertising > privacy menu

💣 Clear your Google ad history

Go to Google's My Activity tool to see what data Google has stored about you and delete your ad history.

🍪 Clear your cookies

Delete your cookies on each of your devices. Follow the instructions in these links for commonly used browsers: Safari, Chrome and Edge.

Make privacy a priority by using these browsers with enhanced tracking protection to stop websites from monitoring your behaviour and extensions that help block ads and tracking .

Browsers

• Firefox Focus

• DuckDuckGo

• Brave

• Tor Browser

• Ghostery Privacy Browser

Extensions

• Ghostery

• Privacy Badger

• AdBlock Plus

• DuckDuckGo for Chrome

If you own an iPhone, iOS 14.5's new ad tracking feature actively allows you to tell apps to not track your activity. One way it does this is through pop-up notifications, which may look something like this:

Choose 'Ask App Not to Track' to stop ad tracking.

A similar ad blocking feature is scheduled to be released by Google later in 2021 and will be available for Android 12 devices .

It will expand to apps running on devices that support Google Play in early 2022.

For a more secure experience online: