RDUSA201905

Targeted

ADVERTISING

Yes, you were looking at those expen-

sive sneakers online. Next thing you

know, ads for them are showing up in

your browser. On your favorite news

sites. Hounding you to buy, buy, buy.

Companies collect information about

the sites you visit by using “cookies”—

digital evidence you’re interested in

their product—and then share your

preferences with marketers. Clicking

on the small X in the upper right of an

ad will make it go away for the moment,

but here are some longer-lasting fixes,

according to the New York Times:

1

Clear your cookies. Apple,

Google, and Microsoft all provide

instructions on how to remove cook-

ies from popular browsers such as

Safari and Chrome.

2

Reset your advertising ID. Your

Apple or Android phone assigns

you an advertising ID to help market-

ers track you. You can find the re-

set button on an Android device

inside the Google Settings

app. On the iPhone, the reset

button is located under

Settings in the Privacy

menu, under Advertising.

3

Purge your ad history.

Go to myactivity.google

.com to find out what data

Google has stored about

you and delete what you

want to get rid of.

4

Install an ad blocker.

For browsers, try uBlock

Origin. On the iPhone, you can try

1Blocker X. Note that Android users

can block ads only by using a private

browser, as Google banned ad block-

ers from its Play store.

5

Use a private browser on mobile

devices. Try Firefox Focus,

DuckDuckGo, or Ghostery Privacy

Browser, all of which have built-in ad

and tracker blocking.

Always losing

YOUR KEYS

1

Focus. Wandering from room to

room in a frenzy doesn’t allow for

a thorough search. Finish searching

one area before moving to the next.

2

Seek out clutter. If your keys

were in plain view, you probably

would have found them already.

Research has shown that we waste a

lot of time looking in obvious areas.

3

Retrace your steps.

Form a mental pic-

ture of where you

were the last time

you remember hav-

ing your keys: the

time of day, who else

was there, what you

were doing, etc., recom-

mends Irene Kan, a profes-

sor of psychology at Villanova

University. This is called “con-

text reinstatement.”

4

For the next time: Make a

plan. Go low-tech by setting

up a designated place for your

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Cover Story: Survive Anything