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Yes, I use Safari! I actually have cookies set as "from current website only" - I wrote the wrong one and edited. I suppose it's possible that one of my contact

Yes, I use Safari! I actually have cookies set as "from current website only" - I wrote the wrong one and edited. I suppose it's possible that one of my contacts entered in my personal email in some new website/app referral and that's how it was mined, but I clear out my cookies fairly often and don't remember clicking on anything in the recent past. Here is the note on the bottom of the email from Tradesy/Criteo: To opt-out of receiving Tradesy emails, click here. This message is personalized by Criteo Email based on your previous browsing behavior. To understand why you received this email and access Criteo Email privacy policy, click here. If you want to opt-out only from Criteo Email personalized emails, click here. When I went to their email privacy policy, it doesn't explain how they got my email address. I am very disturbed by this kind of stealth data mining. Is there a way to set up my browser to become more anonymous on the internet? Clearly my ghostery and ad block is not effective. I deleted my Facebook and Linked in after Linked in somehow spammed me to link contacts that I sold random crap to on craigslist (and probably spammed them too.) Somehow they both still deposit cookies. I am willing to pay someone who is familiar with this landscape to block trackers from invading my internetting. Or block websites that use criteo and similar. Is this possible? I'm not one of those people that wants to go "off the grid". I use credit cards, I use amazon, I know what I'm getting into. It just seems like Criteo has crossed a line.

r721 10y ago
This all is actually puzzling, because ghostery should theoretically protect you even if Safari doesn't block all third-party cookies. You can try to switch to uBlock which is similar in functionality. Are you sure you don't have some shady/little-known extension/plugin/app? Those can share browsing history with advertisers. Some freeware firewalls/antiviruses can too (just googled an example: "AVG, the Czech antivirus company, has announced a new privacy policy in which it boldly and openly admits it will collect user details and sell them to online advertisers for the purpose of continuing to fund its freemium-based products. This new privacy policy is slated to come into effect starting October 15."). Maybe try to communicate with someone from Criteo (not support, but somebody higher) and describe your weird case?
- corvallis 10y ago
  I went to confirm that I only had the three extensions (ad block, ad block plus, and ghostery) and when I clicked into the ghostery settings, it turns out that none of the trackers were selected to be blocked!!! Not sure how long it was like that, or how, but it's fixed now. Do you think this explains how they got my personal email address? I am still not seeing the connection, but there are obviously many things I don't understand about this space.
  - r721 10y ago
    I don't quite understand how Safari's third-party cookie blocking works :( According to the link I posted it's more relaxed than Chrome/Firefox's third-party cookie blocking, so some cookies are allowed. But how is that decided? Theoretical possibility then: You still use that personal email in the same browser? That means you visit Yahoo website, which can set some cookies identifying you, including third-party ones (advertising/tracking), if those are not blocked by Safari. The same tracking cookies can be used by Tradesy, so that site can tie your visit to your Yahoo identity.
    - corvallis 10y ago
      I think you solved this! I actually use the Apple mail client, so I get my spam mail and my personal mail in the same interface. My angry deleting of cookies and web history following the Criteo email would have cleared any log ins, but I haven't used the yahoo mail web interface for many years. However!! I remember going to flickr briefly about a month ago, and since it is a yahoo service, it would have been connected to my personal yahoo ID/email address (correct?). It's possible that I never logged out, so could it have mined my address that way? I am still incredulous and outraged that Criteo could use this to mine my address and spam me, but this could be how they got my personal email/yahoo ID. Thank you so much for your insightful comments and for "investigating" with me! Even though this is still somewhat mysterious, I've learned from this and also discovered my ghostery settings were off which was very valuable. Now I just have to figure out how to block Criteo and similar invasive species. I may have to go off the grid after all.

r721 10y ago

This all is actually puzzling, because ghostery should theoretically protect you even if Safari doesn't block all third-party cookies. You can try to switch to uBlock which is similar in functionality. Are you sure you don't have some shady/little-known extension/plugin/app? Those can share browsing history with advertisers. Some freeware firewalls/antiviruses can too (just googled an example: "AVG, the Czech antivirus company, has announced a new privacy policy in which it boldly and openly admits it will collect user details and sell them to online advertisers for the purpose of continuing to fund its freemium-based products. This new privacy policy is slated to come into effect starting October 15."). Maybe try to communicate with someone from Criteo (not support, but somebody higher) and describe your weird case?

corvallis 10y ago
I went to confirm that I only had the three extensions (ad block, ad block plus, and ghostery) and when I clicked into the ghostery settings, it turns out that none of the trackers were selected to be blocked!!! Not sure how long it was like that, or how, but it's fixed now. Do you think this explains how they got my personal email address? I am still not seeing the connection, but there are obviously many things I don't understand about this space.
- r721 10y ago
  I don't quite understand how Safari's third-party cookie blocking works :( According to the link I posted it's more relaxed than Chrome/Firefox's third-party cookie blocking, so some cookies are allowed. But how is that decided? Theoretical possibility then: You still use that personal email in the same browser? That means you visit Yahoo website, which can set some cookies identifying you, including third-party ones (advertising/tracking), if those are not blocked by Safari. The same tracking cookies can be used by Tradesy, so that site can tie your visit to your Yahoo identity.
  - corvallis 10y ago
    I think you solved this! I actually use the Apple mail client, so I get my spam mail and my personal mail in the same interface. My angry deleting of cookies and web history following the Criteo email would have cleared any log ins, but I haven't used the yahoo mail web interface for many years. However!! I remember going to flickr briefly about a month ago, and since it is a yahoo service, it would have been connected to my personal yahoo ID/email address (correct?). It's possible that I never logged out, so could it have mined my address that way? I am still incredulous and outraged that Criteo could use this to mine my address and spam me, but this could be how they got my personal email/yahoo ID. Thank you so much for your insightful comments and for "investigating" with me! Even though this is still somewhat mysterious, I've learned from this and also discovered my ghostery settings were off which was very valuable. Now I just have to figure out how to block Criteo and similar invasive species. I may have to go off the grid after all.