Unfortunately, people often find themselves targeted by unwanted advertisements when they’re using the internet today. Product marketing and advertising is big business, so it’s not really a surprise. Marketers can make a fortune selling their services to businesses.
However, if they don’t deliver results then they won’t get return customers. In order to deliver results, they spam people with advertisements. Targeted advertisements are an annoyance to most people, even though a lot of people do buy the products that are being advertised to them.
This post will explore this topic in more detail, explaining what you should do if you are targeted by unwanted ads.
Legal Intervention
Depending on the number of advertisements that you’re getting, you could potentially take legal action against your ISP, or the companies targeting you. According to the experts over at https://robocalllawsuit.com/, you could actually be awarded compensation if you’re being bombarded with advertisements. People should be able to use the internet in peace, without being spammed. If you do want to take legal action, then find a company that specialises in taking legal action against online advertisers, like the one just mentioned.
Using VPN
One highly effective way of protecting yourself from targeted advertisements is to use a VPN or a virtual private network. A VPN will conceal your IP address. By concealing your IP address, advertisers won’t be able to track you and target you. The use of a VPN will also prevent your ISP from monitoring your online activity. Unfortunately, it’s very common for people’s ISPs to sell their internet history to marketing companies. Then, armed with this information, marketers begin targeting them. Hiding your internet activity from your ISP will prevent this from happening.
Viral Scans
Viral scans are something else you should consider performing. Sometimes, people are spammed with advertisements because they have a virus on their devices. Viruses can also lead to your personal and financial information being stolen. If you are getting a huge amount of pop-ups then consider investing in some anti-viral software and conducting a scan. If any viruses are present on your device, then they will show up in the scan. The software will then give you the opportunity to quarantine and delete the viruses. Look for anti-viral programs offering free trials.
Using Firewall
In addition to downloading anti-viral software, it’s a good idea to set up a firewall. Most anti-viral programs come with firewalls. A firewall is a protective barrier that stops your device from establishing malicious connections. Firewalls also sometimes have built-in ad blockers. Using ad-blockers can be an extremely effective way of stopping advertisers from targeting you. You may also want to consider enabling your firewall’s pop-up blocker, too. Pop-ups can be just as annoying as targeted advertisements. Most people confuse them, but targeted advertisements tend to be on-site, whereas pop-ups open up new browser windows, and sometimes contain malicious viruses (or redirect people to sites that then infect them with viruses).
Selective Use
Be very careful about the websites you use if you aren’t interested in downloading anti-viral software or setting up a firewall. Really and truly, careful internet use is the only way to avoid advertisements if you don’t want to do these things. Try to avoid visiting e-commerce sites. You should also make sure that you do not conduct searches relative to your commercial interests. In other words, do not look for products you want to buy online. When you do these things, you arm advertisers and give them the opportunity to start targeting you.
Pop-up Blocker
As mentioned previously, it’s a good idea to enable a pop-up blocker (and an ad blocker). While reference was made to these things in relation to firewalls and anti-viral programs, you do not need these things to enable them. It is perfectly possible to download a pop-up blocker and an ad blocker without investing in anti-viral software. In fact, some internet browsers come with them already built in. All you have to do is activate them, and they’re ready to go. Do a little bit of research so you can find which browser has them. Find the best browser that you can, for reasons that’ll be explored later on.
Contacting ISP
If you are being bombarded with advertisements, then you might want to get in touch with your ISP, or internet service provider. As mentioned earlier, sometimes internet service providers sell their client’s internet activity and history to marketing companies, who then use it to target them. If you are getting a lot of targeted advertisements, then you might want to consider reaching out to your ISP and asking them why this is. More often than not, they will deny selling your information, but sometimes getting in touch can be enough to scare them into stopping any further information from being sold.
Changing Browser
One of the most effective ways of avoiding pop-ups and targeted ads is to change browsers. Some browsers are more easily hijacked by advertisers than others. And, as mentioned previously, some browsers also have built-in ad- and pop-up-block features. Downloading a browser that has these features will help you to protect yourself from advertisers. Bear in mind though, no matter what browser you use, and no matter how many safeguarding measures you introduce, you will always get some advertisements coming through. It’s almost impossible to avoid all advertisements online.
Expecting Ads
As mentioned in the last part of the previous section, some advertisements will get through. You need to expect these. If you spend your time on the internet getting angry at every advertisement you see, then you won’t be very happy most of the time. Taking the steps outlined here can help you to prevent advertisements from coming up. However, again, some will get through. The most annoying ads are targeted ones. If you see targeted ads then definitely take action. If you just see normal ads though, then do not bother doing anything (because there’s not much you can do).
Advertisements can be very annoying, especially targeted ones. If you are a regular internet user, then you will no doubt have experience with targeted ads. This post’s guidance will hopefully help you to overcome them once and for all.
