Is Netweather.tv Accessing Your Computer? Big Brother Is Looking!

[Habsish]

Has anyone else noted that when you are accessing the various pages on NW you suddenly find that stuff you have been seaching for elsewhere appears on the some pages? For example plumbworld.

Please can someone explain how this occurs and if we should be concerned?

It seems that if you delete your internet history it does not occur.

Any comments?

Regards

Habsish

[Tubs]

Has anyone else noted that when you are accessing the various pages on NW you suddenly find that stuff you have been seaching for elsewhere appears on the some pages? For example plumbworld.

Please can someone explain how this occurs and if we should be concerned?

It seems that if you delete your internet history it does not occur.

Any comments?

Regards

Habsish

This really rings a bell with me.

P

[Paul]

It's not netweather accessing your computer, google and other advertising companies use 'cookies' to store things like which type of site you've visited etc in order to target you with ads. It's all non personally identifiable stuff, and is used very, very widely across the net.

If you remove your cookies you'll find the ads stop following you, it's nothing to do with internet history.

[andy_leics22]

Yeah it's cookies from search engines, if I type Leicester into Google and then come onto NetWeather, the ad's will say something silly like "Eat out in Leicester" lol. Same for whatever else you type.

[Verglas]

if you are running Firefox download AdblockPlus and Betterprivacy and you'll never see those again

(deletes the LSO 'super cookies')

[Habsish]

Yeah it's cookies from search engines, if I type Leicester into Google and then come onto NetWeather, the ad's will say something silly like "Eat out in Leicester" lol. Same for whatever else you type.

So why does Netweather allow it? Surely they are better placed to put a block on? Unless they get a cut from it appearing of course?

What do they say?

H

[Tubs]

It's not netweather accessing your computer, google and other advertising companies use 'cookies' to store things like which type of site you've visited etc in order to target you with ads. It's all non personally identifiable stuff, and is used very, very widely across the net.

If you remove your cookies you'll find the ads stop following you, it's nothing to do with internet history.

Internet History? cookies? Whatever. I just used the safety icon to clear the down loaded dross.

One thing to put up with this sort of thing if you are accessing Amazon, when searching there but it is another thing entirely when you access netweather which should have no connection.

Why does Netweather put up with it?

[Paul]

As there's no privacy issue on Netweather (netweather only uses reputable ad companies), it's not something that requires blocking - if you want to block ads you can.

Targeting like this is used for advertising across the net - millions of sites have ads and they all use the same type of cookie based targeting. Some people view ads as an inconvenience and choose to block them, but what advertising does is allow sites to provide their content freely - servers, bandwidth and the like aren't cheap so without ads you'd find more sites solely having paid for content or not existing at all.

You also have the choice to block cookies should you wish to from within internet explorer or whatever browser you're using, and can also block specific advertisers from using these cookies.

[andy_leics22]

NetWeather has those ads there because it generates a bit of money for the owner and the owner has to pay for the serves and other things on this site, the money from the ads probably pays for the servers.

[Paul]

For those interested, you can find loads more info on targeting on the Internet Advertising Bureau website:

http://www.youronlinechoices.com/what-is-behavioural-advertising

[KTtom]

Thats a relief! I was surfing during lunchtime and suddenly my companies name popped up at the top of the screen, I thought someone from IT was saying 'caught you!'

[A.J]

I love those cookies, especially the chocolate chip ones......I'll fetch my coat..

[Habsish]

NetWeather has those ads there because it generates a bit of money for the owner and the owner has to pay for the serves and other things on this site, the money from the ads probably pays for the servers.

Well I suppose my search for big&bouncyof bogner.com.co.uk hasn't come up yet.

H

[duckeyh]

Hey all . I 've found a link that installs an opt out cookie to stop this

http://www.mythings.com/English/General/OptOut

[Timini Cricket]

I don't get any ads here, and very few anywhere else. Some ads out there can provide unwanted gifts, even without you clicking on them. I am not in any way saying that Netweather ad links are harmful, but there are many unscrupulous malware ads about.There is a site named Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File. Note the "related utilities" section for some easy to use options.

You can inspect your own hosts file at %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (hosts is a textfile without extension that will open in notepad), if you have XP or later and at ./etc/hosts on a linux system (usually the same unix location on Mac OS X, but it is more complicated to edit it, I am told.) (you could also copy C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts to a new tab in your browser, using your browser as a textfile reader)

The hosts file act like a local proxy server. If a website directs your browser to visit an advert link, the host file directs that link to your loopback address (localhost, 127.0.0.1), which of course is not usually* a website with content. So it sends back a blank, which the browser ignores. The worst that can happen is a "site not found" message in the placemarker for the ad. There is also the possibility that the occasional link to a googleads etc., site that you want to visit is blocked, but you can delete or "comment out" that entry in your hosts file.

Blocking ads with a hosts file speeds you up, since the local lookup of the hosts file is almost instant, it is much quicker to load webpages that do not have to gather images from all over the internet to fill those ads. Older systems with small amounts of memory (WinME, Win9x, Win2k) can be slowed up by large (500kb) hosts files, but this is unlikely in modern systems.

*you could run a rudimentary website on your local system and use hosts to redirect all sites to its address - it could just say "blocked!"

[VillagePlank]

Thats a relief! I was surfing during lunchtime and suddenly my companies name popped up at the top of the screen, I thought someone from IT was saying 'caught you!'

Don't worry - we are still watching

I don't get any ads here, and very few anywhere else. Some ads out there can provide unwanted gifts, even without you clicking on them. I am not in any way saying that Netweather ad links are harmful, but there are many unscrupulous malware ads about.There is a site named Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File. Note the "related utilities" section for some easy to use options.

You can inspect your own hosts file at %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (hosts is a textfile without extension that will open in notepad), if you have XP or later and at ./etc/hosts on a linux system (usually the same unix location on Mac OS X, but it is more complicated to edit it, I am told.) (you could also copy C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts to a new tab in your browser, using your browser as a textfile reader)

The hosts file act like a local proxy server. If a website directs your browser to visit an advert link, the host file directs that link to your loopback address (localhost, 127.0.0.1), which of course is not usually* a website with content. So it sends back a blank, which the browser ignores. The worst that can happen is a "site not found" message in the placemarker for the ad. There is also the possibility that the occasional link to a googleads etc., site that you want to visit is blocked, but you can delete or "comment out" that entry in your hosts file.

Blocking ads with a hosts file speeds you up, since the local lookup of the hosts file is almost instant, it is much quicker to load webpages that do not have to gather images from all over the internet to fill those ads. Older systems with small amounts of memory (WinME, Win9x, Win2k) can be slowed up by large (500kb) hosts files, but this is unlikely in modern systems.

*you could run a rudimentary website on your local system and use hosts to redirect all sites to its address - it could just say "blocked!"

Excellent advice Don't forget to backup the hosts file before you change it.

[The PIT]

As Timini says ads can infect your machine if the source gets hacked therefore they are a bad idea.

You can protect yourself by using adblock plus or like I do let my router kill them off by using the inbuilt filtering.

Benefits faster browsing and safer browsing.

Out of interest how much revenue does netweather make via ad's. General the click through rate is extremely small.

[Paul]

That's not really accurate TP - ads are not a security risk at all when you're using reputable sites. People like the IAB and IASH which all the reputable ad companies (and therefore sites using those companies) keep a code of conduct which all members stick to.

The fact is that without ads then the majority of free content available on the net would no longer be available - bandwidth and servers all cost cash and for the vast majority of sites advertising is the sole income to cover that cost.

[The PIT]

That's not really accurate TP - ads are not a security risk at all when you're using reputable sites. People like the IAB and IASH which all the reputable ad companies (and therefore sites using those companies) keep a code of conduct which all members stick to.

The fact is that without ads then the majority of free content available on the net would no longer be available - bandwidth and servers all cost cash and for the vast majority of sites advertising is the sole income to cover that cost.

Sorry to correct you there has been a few reputable companies that have been hacked in recent years which have left end users open too exploits. Out of interest via pm what is the actually click rate through put for netweather????

[Paul]

Reputable companies may have been hacked, but this is unrelated to ad code.

If you look across the net, even the BBC (to non UK visitors) use advertising, the met-office do, the ITV do etc. These are major, major organisations - I think it's reasonable to say that if running ads was a security issue they wouldn't do it.

Yes, unscrupulous sites/ad companies exist- but that's a very different thing to the ads you see served on reputable sites.

[Coast]

I have to admit Esther Rantzen is scaring me at the top of the page - what must I have entered in Google to get her??? :ph34r: