They’re actually surveillance tools that strangers use to abuse your privacy. Or so they can sell the information to someone else who wants to do the same.

Why go to all the trouble to learn so much about you? So advertising networks can stick ads in front of you that they think will persuade you to buy more stuff. Now imagine hundreds of trackers watching you throughout the day. Think of a tracker like a surveillance camera watching your every move online. Any bit of info that they can glean that might be useful will end up in that profile. This includes personal information like your age, where you live, the identities of your family and friends, what you like to look at online, medical conditions, location data, browsing activity, and many other data points. This profile may contain all kinds of private information that you never consented to sharing.

As you do your thing online, the trackers are quietly working in the background to build a detailed profile on you. They usually contain sophisticated tracking software (trackers). Most ads are served by advertising networks through third-party domains. Still not convinced you need to nuke those ads and trackers? Let’s go into a little more detail on the problems ads can cause: 1. Reasons why you don’t want ads loading on your devices Sometimes they even load adware or other malware that hijacks your browser to inject even more ads into your life. Pop-ups and those annoying multi-minute video ads get right in your face, breaking your concentration and adversely affecting your web browsing experience.Īds are not only a distraction, they also use up valuable space, break the flow of the page, suck up bandwidth, and load your device with all sorts of cookies and trackers that are spying on you. Ads can also seriously undermine your privacy and security. The ads that appear on your screen often slow down your web browsing. Realize too that avoiding ads isn’t just an aesthetic thing.

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