OMG...the Internet scares me sometimes!

DDD

Well-Known Member
I posted right here yesterday about a present I received. A few of you tried to help me figure out exactly how the artist and the present intertwined. I went on IE and AOL and entered the artist name and the object. GUESS what? My post from the CD WC popped up. I think that is scarey! DDD
 

klmno

Active Member
I've had that happen several times- which is exactly why I'm so focused on what gets posted as far as personal info (names, location, etc) in the same post or thread as discussions about work issues or court issues ans stuff like that.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
OMG I don't like that.

I couple weeks ago I researched toilet bowl seats because I had heard of the new ones that you just turn the hinges and lift the whole seat off to clean and now toilet seats pop up whenever I'm online. There have been things I wanted to look up on google with regard to drug abuse but I won't do it because I'm afraid they will think I'm interested in that and I'll get all sorts of ads about it.

I can see it this becoming a big problem anytime someone is arrested and their computer is seized.

Nancy
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Nancy, you're right. It is and would be an issue if someone's computer were seized if investigators weren't computer savvy. Luckily, most are.......at least they bring someone in who is anyway. If you wipe your cookies you should get rid of the ads. If that doesn't work, empty your temp internet file folder. But see, most people don't know to do that, so if you type in a certain combination of key words, well I'm sure most of us have been shocked at what came up as results.

I wanted to know the appropriate diet of a nursing dog years ago. Just let me say don't ever ever type in anything related to that subject. You'll be scarred for life. omg Using medical terminology only made it worse. Until I wiped my cookies and temp folder.........I had the weirdest ads popping up you ever saw.

But this is why folks don't use real names in forums and most don't give real locations either. It's why we strongly encourage anonymity here. I don't worry about it because my kids know I come here and they know what it's for and if they have an issue with me having a place to unload and ask questions and such they can just get over it. Then again, I've not dealt with any real sensitive issues either.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Lisa thanks for reminding me....I do delete my cookies but not very often because I hate retyping passwords and such, but it's good practice to get into.

Nancy
 

klmno

Active Member
You can make sure passwords don't get deleted if you check or uncheck (I can't remember which) in the options before you hit "delete all". Sorry- I can't remember the exact term they use but you can choose what is to be deleted and what isn't- I normally don't delete my passwords for the same reason.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Right now, below the first post in this thread, there is an ad from Amazon for a book that I was looking at and will probably order!
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I know this is "silly" but my initial post had to do with a present that triggered questions I wanted answered before I sent a thank you note. So... I described the artist by name and the description of the object hoping you guys could answer the question. The woman who gave me the present would not (99% sure) look up the artist etc. but I feel embarrassed just realizing that she "could" do so and realize I don't know what to H the present is. Sigh. DDD
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
DDD

You knew what the present was, just not how special it was until you looked it up. Now you never know, but that might have been why it was given to you. Lots of people I know who give art or unusual items do so to trigger the person's curiosity or to expose them to something new they might enjoy. So the person who gave this wonderful gift might have known you didn't know about the artist, but knew you well enough that you'd figure the rest out. I honestly think it's pretty cool myself. Sort of like a gift within a gift. You have a lovely new purse, but now you know it's not just an ordinary purse but one made special by an artist. :)

I've done this a few times. Given one of the kids a handmade terrarium for insects, had them look at me like I'd totally lost it (kids don't embarrass easy lol ) and then see them totally excited as they found insects and such to fill it and learned about them. Gave Aubrey child size (but adult quality) gardening tools and gloves. Everyone thought it was so she could pretend to be like Nana.......uh, Aubrey got it when she learned how wonderful it is to plant a seed and watch it grow and know you played a part in making it happen, along with many other things that branched off from that.

IF your gifter had stumbled across your post, she probably would've grinned ear to ear as you solved the mystery. :) (my opinion anyway)
 

klmno

Active Member
I think I'd be just as confused- if you can post a photo it might help us all decipher it. If you want to delete the thread, that's understandable too.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
First off, I'm a tech-head. I know TOO much about the internet and how it really works... at least, way more than I really want to know.
As a result?
I store NO passwords, ever. I enter them every single time.
Cookies are a privelege - which means, every time a page stores a cookie, I have to give it permission. If a website is a heavy cookie user? I just don't go there, because there's no way any site needs that many cookies.
Pop-ups are also on-by-permission. A few sites use them intellegently (like this one). Most pop-ups are garbage.
I erase history, and cookies, and temp files, on a regular basis.

Do you ever look at "who's on-line" on this forum?
If you do, you'll see the web-crawlers... bing, google, etc. ... scanning through this forum to create links back for their searches. THAT is most likely where the links came from on your search for the purse.

At some point, I'll just "vanish" from this site. Or rather, my current "person" will. I'll just show up as somebody else and start over. Helps confuse the search engines, helps preserve privacy. (but not quite as much fun as having history...)
 
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