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In a time when most of us spend a significant amount of our day online, or at least on a computer, it’s no surprise that a significant amount of our spending happens online. From Amazon to Zappos, there’s a whole bunch of companies dedicated to making online shopping easy and relatively cost effective.
It saves time & hassle, gas, let us compare the prices, sizes, options with no crowds, or pushy sales people.
But... most of their websites use cookies (files that remember what websites you have visited), and how many times you have looked at certain pages.
When you look at a particular item without making a purchase, the store website knows you have shown interest in their stuff and may raise the price next time you visit.
And some actually do, I tested it several times, simultaneously using my laptop and computer at work that uses different browser.
To ensure you’re getting the best bargain for your money, clear the cookies on your Internet browser, or log on to the seller's website with an browser you don’t typically use. For example, if you normally use Chrome, try Firefox or Internet Explorer.
I noticed this frequent behavior when shopping for airline ticket or at Amazon.
I'm not too happy with all this Facebook, Twitter and other octopus tentacles-like connections between everything on the internet. There's an awful lot of personal info that can be gleaned by following all of one's internet activities.
I should add that the best is to clear cookies just before internet shopping, during and just after you finish, to completely remove every trace of your shopping activities.
Check your browser advanced content settings (I use Chrome), and make sure you have third-party cookies blocked and all cookies set to clear after browsing sessions, and clean your cookies especially after your internet shopping, banking, and other personal activities.
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Great tip, EL! Something I always do is clear my cache (w/cookies) often as most every site is tracking us and our habits on the internet these days.
However, changing browsers will not have any effect, since what they're using to track you - besides their cookies - is your computer's IP address.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SATX56
I'm not too happy with all this Facebook, Twitter and other octopus tentacles-like connections between everything on the internet. There's an awful lot of personal info that can be gleaned by following all of one's internet activities.
Thanks, elnina, that's a very useful tip. I knew that shopping sites tracked our activities using cookies, but I hadn't realized that shopping sites could change their prices because of how many times you visited. That's kind of scary!
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