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Newegg tracking me?

Majic 7

Majic 7

Senior member
Had something happen today that I'm not too happy with. Yesterday I was looking through heatsinks at Newegg, not logged in, just window shopping. Today I get a email from them, "Hi costumer, looking for heatsinks, bla bla". Too much information being stored somewhere.

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Hi

This issue has nothing to do with Hardware and its technical aspects.

Moved to the Security Forum.
JackMDS
Super Moderator.
 
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Welcome to the internet. The cookie monster can not save you here.

That said, I don't think newegg has ever emailed me as a result of any searches I did. I looked at my mail box, it looks like they send their usual news letter out every couple of days with multiple items in the headline. Nothing tailored to searches I have done recently.

A look at the Newegg Notifications shows nothing of the sort.

Do you run any kind of ad blocker? I do, so mayb there is an ad agency that knows your email address and does email reactively like this?
 
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Never had this happen before. Running ABP, Defender and Malwarebytes Premium. I do have an account there.
 
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Happens all the time to me if I have a Newegg cookie on my device from logging in at some point. Usually it's just a "Still interested" email, but they have also at times attached a promotional discount code to try and sway me. Rare, but it does happen based off of your purchase history with them.

If you have cookies on your computer from any site, Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. will display ads based on you looked at. Heck, even the Anandtech forums sometimes has a banner at the top that does the same thing.
 
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It's called cookies. Newegg is tame compared to Amazon and Facebook, for example.
 
Never had this happen before and I usually check something there at least once a month. Don't care for this at all. Not sure what the future holds for me and any site that does this. Micro Center will probably get all of my business not just most of it.
 
Majic 7 said:
Never had this happen before and I usually check something there at least once a month. Don't care for this at all. Not sure what the future holds for me and any site that does this.
Click to expand...

You can use Incogito/Private windows, or block/delete cookies on exit. VPN would probably help as well, but there is nothing they are doing that is out of the ordinary or privacy invasive.

Micro Center will probably get all of my business not just most of it.
Click to expand...

There's no reason not to, provided they have what you want. They will price match Newegg and Amazon.
 
Majic 7 said:
Never had this happen before and I usually check something there at least once a month. Don't care for this at all. Not sure what the future holds for me and any site that does this. Micro Center will probably get all of my business not just most of it.
Click to expand...

Just don't use a credit card. Or have your phone on in the store (if they have wifi, companies now create unique identifiers based on people pinging their wifi and some can connect to purchases at the register). Or give them your email for any sort of loyalty club or discount. Or have your face uncovered when you walk in the store. Or leave any fingerprints on anything. Or exhale or leave DNA behind.
 
I have been a customer of Newegg since it was an off-shoot of ABS. Bought my first real computer from ABS. Never seen this from them before, for me an unwelcome change.
 
I opted out of their emailing list when they started doing Deal of the Day or whatever it was. I haven't had any email from them for quite a while. Only for order confirmation. Longer than three years I'm sure. Like I said it was something completely different for me.
 
You need to run your browser in Sandboxie and turn off caching and delete cookies on browser exit.

I use Pale Moon which is like Firefox and use the addon Betterprivacy as well. That will delete flash based cookie crap.
 
Really not sure how they do it, but they can through cookies somehow. The scary part is how they can know your email address. Guessing some kind of javascript to look at your thunderbird, outlook etc settings. Internet browsers these days are ridiculously insecure, the whole idea that browsers can let sites do these things is pretty bad.

Adblock, Noscript etc should help.
 
AnonymouseUser said:
You can use Incogito/Private windows, or block/delete cookies on exit.
Click to expand...

John Connor said:
You need to run your browser in Sandboxie and turn off caching and delete cookies on browser exit.
Click to expand...
A problem i have, at least with Amazon & my credit card co. is that if i delete their cookies, when i do try to log in to my account they say they don't recognize my computer & send me a temporary password to my email to use to log in. That's not a good way of doing things either.
 
They probably have your IP address. If you visit or log in they have your ip addy. If you log in they associate you with your ip when you visit later and keep track of what you're looking at. Either that or you have a cookie stored which is your fault.
 
No, no, no. A cookie from your account was set in your browser and they know who you are every time you visit the website. Since your E-mail is in the records for your account they know who to E-mail. Nothing more nothing less, nothing too nefarious.
 
Spacehead said:
A problem i have, at least with Amazon & my credit card co. is that if i delete their cookies, when i do try to log in to my account they say they don't recognize my computer & send me a temporary password to my email to use to log in. That's not a good way of doing things either.
Click to expand...

I just logged into my Amazon account on my tablet using a private tab in Fennec F-Droid (Firefox). I have never used Fennec to log into Amazon before, and did not get any email requiring anything more from me. Maybe you have something enabled in Amazon settings that I don't, but I couldn't find anything.

I do get an email whenever I sign into Gmail, though, because I refuse to sign in to Gmail unless I am using Incognito/Private mode. I do that because I will not allow Google to track me any more than they already do, so every time I do they send an email that a new sign-in occurred. I get that it's a pain to protect your privacy, but I do it because I value my privacy.
 
Every time you Google something I'm sure your IP address is used to categorized and easily reference what you looked up. Cookies not needed. Check out Startpage or DuckDuck Go.
 
John Connor said:
Every time you Google something I'm sure your IP address is used to categorized and easily reference what you looked up. Cookies not needed. Check out Startpage or DuckDuck Go.
Click to expand...

I'm well aware of Startpage and DDG, and how Google tracks everything. I don't even have any Google apps installed on my Android phone (Cyanogenmod minus Gapps plus ownCloud). Google is a search engine with the occasional Gmail and Webmaster Tools to me. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
John Connor said:
You need to run your browser in Sandboxie and turn off caching and delete cookies on browser exit.

I use Pale Moon which is like Firefox and use the addon Betterprivacy as well. That will delete flash based cookie crap.
Click to expand...

I'm quite sure the lso/flash cookies are no longer an issue with common browsers like firefox which will delete them on exit depending on your cookie settings.
Firefox 45 does have a pending bug at the moment with cookie deletion but privacy mode does work.
 
Majic 7 said:
Never had this happen before and I usually check something there at least once a month. Don't care for this at all.Not sure what the future holds for me and any site that does this. Micro Center will probably get all of my business not just most of it.
Click to expand...

You have a conundrum. If you order tinfoil online you might get ads for tinfoil because they are watching you :sneaky:
If you go to the store to buy it they'll see you on camera.
What to do...
 
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