Unwanted ads appearing in your browser

This may have happened to you. In fact I am sure it has. You go to a site, perhaps researching something you need to buy, and forever after images of things you have looked at keep appearing in your browser. I first experienced this with glasses direct, and banned them from my website, and then I noticed it was happening with other sites and images, as well as unsolicited, unwanted advertising and services. If you notice this has happened to you, follow the procedure given below - "how to stop this happening". 

In many cases all you need to do is click 'Tools' on your browser, go to 'Internet Options' then 'Privacy' then add the name of the website giving you trouble under 'Sites'. Click 'block' and you're done. If the ads still appear, you will need to perform the 'delete cookies' option since once they are in there with a cookie, listing them under 'block' does not always work. I tried it and it worked a treat with 'mail2web' which had considerably slowed down due to being littered with ads of stuff I didn't want to know about, some of it offensive (ie pictures of sex-obsessed women). Try blocking 'google' it works a treat.

Glasses Direct infected by Criteo.com

Glasses Direct has been removed from pendlepeople.com. This is because anyone who goes there will be infected with advertising panels generated by criteo.com - the glasses you looked at will appear in your web browser wherever you go. If this has happened to you, the way to stop it happening is listed below: (instructions for internet explorer only, go to criteo.com, or click on the advertising panel appearing on your browser, for instructions for other browsers)

Note: on the criteo website it says if you go to glasses direct again, you will be reinfected. So don't go!

These instructions can be applied to any other website which is using these techniques - if they use criteo they will automatically be blocked after you perform the instructions above - if using some other agency, simply type the web address in step 4.

How to stop this happening

1. Delete all cookies

Internet Explorer - for other browser instructions click here

Tools

Internet options

General

Under 'Browsing history' - Delete - Delete cookies

2. Block future cookies

Internet Explorer

Tools

Internet options

privacy

sites

type in 'criteo.com' (or name of website you wish to block, you don't need add http or www) and then click 'block'. Other browsers may require you to click 'refuse'

Interesting note on Ebay

I noticed that Ebay had got in on this act, and so I followed the procedure above. However, next time I went to ebay and clicked 'My Ebay' it refused to let me onboard, saying I 'needed to reset my cookies' - the cookies were set at the required level and had not been altered. What it meant was that I had to unblock it from sending me ads! There appeared to be no way round this and since we cannot live without Ebay (unfortunately) I have had to give them permission to litter my browser and pester me indefinitely.