JoeKayaker

I had a rather disconcerting experience with united.com recently. I was wondering if others had seen it.

I was looking for flights to HNL and did a search while logged into united.com. I did not search on any other websites, no kayak, no expedia, and no other airlines. I did not google hotels, flights or anything else in HNL. I did not e-mail anything which referenced Honolulu. The next day I was getting on-line ads from Alaska Air for flights to HNL.

I thought this was odd, and just to make sure, I did a search on united.com to LHR. I was especially careful to make sure I did not reference London anywhere else on-line. Sure enough, I started getting ads from American for flights to London.

I can only conclude that someone it sifting through the cookies united stores on my computer and is targeting ads based on them. (Partly because I can't believe that united would sell my searches for incremental revenue - they would not want to invite competition like that).

Not sure if its loose security on the part of united.com or my browser settings - either way I find it creepy.

steveman518

Most likely tracking cookies-they're pretty standard throughout the internet

LaserSailor

There are probably a million ways to compromise an home computer or device to collect information much easier than cracking a corporate website

FoulWeather

I see it, too. Looking at the United.com web page and what is going on it is no mystery. They are using Google AdSense to try and squeeze out a few more bucks so there is actually code from Google on the home page (I see an ad for Disney World).

Since United is letting Google in, Google gets your search terms and serves up ads through their network which appear on other sites. Creepy? Yeah, a little, but United signed a deal with the Google devil...

zebranz

If you want to block tracking might consider

https://www.ghostery.com/en/

mduell

It's called retargeting, a standard industry practice on the web.

UnitedFlyGuy

Nothing new, simply how cookies store in your web history, browsing habits, etc. Anything you've recently viewed will pop up in ads.

gtpdiddy

I use ....... free install on Chrome and never see any pop up ads

cblaisd

Or the extensions DoNotTrackMe or Disconnect

mahasamatman

An essential plugin to any browser. I find it impossible to read FT on a strange computer without it.

malgudi

This. No ads of any kind ... not just pop ups!

mgcsinc

If you think United's retargeting is aggressive, you must not use Amazon...

Once they get over the initial sense of creepiness, I think most folks prefer relevant ads, and proper retargeting delivers highly-relevant ads. And I say that as someone with no skin in the game other than as a consumer.

embarcadero1

It's a standard practice for ad networks to resell cookies to advertisers. It's downright creepy.

You can make it stop a few ways:

- dump your cookies after each session. This is a pain and messes up a lot of stuff, so I don't do it.

- if you use chrome, there is a "don't track me" setting that helps tone this down a bit, but only a bit.

- you can click on the teeny little button at the top of these ads and follow the instructions to opt out.

Don't let the comments about being new to the internet bother you. Almost no one understands how ad networks and browsers interact, so you're in good company. I'm in this industry and I find it really creepy. The ad networks make it very hard to opt out because they charge a lot more for ads that make use of these tracking systems.

ZZYZXROAD

Private browsing eliminates all possible tracking, cookies, targeting. Ghostery is good but the private browser option is the best choice.

l etoile

I've deleted several unhelpful and rude comments. If you have nothing of value to add, please don't post. Thank you to those with helpful comments, especially embarcadero1.

l'etoile
UA moderator