Technology

So - honest advice. I remember magazines - some with more ads than articles. You just flip past them. It’s different now because websites know your scrolling rates and FB wants you to engage. It’s why I actually click though a couple of ads every so often. Merrill? Great shoes. Osprey? Yeah, nice backpacks. Anycubic? I’ll probably want a new resin printer some day. Sure, with 2-3 clicks I can - and do - switch to the chronological “friends” feed that is exclusively friend-posted content with some paid ads (not engagement content) to pay the bills.

As for private browsing, I hear you. But, also, your IP is part of your online fingerprint. You don’t need cookies or tracking pixels from previous sessions active for FB to know - through the aggregation data they buy (possibly even from your Internet provider) what you’re looking at.

[Disclaimer - this next bit is anecdotal, no data to support the following theory.]I had a friend who suddenly was getting a ton of MAGA and alien conspiracy ads of his FB page. He doesn’t track his outgoing IP but I suspect that he was just re-assigned an outgoing IP that has previously been used by someone else (his locality is very red, politically, though he ie not). I know for my IP I’ve had my IPv4 for at least 7 months. It’s one reason that my wife, daughter and I all get intertwined ads on what we search.

To attempt get around this, one option is a vpn. Add to that a separate private browser (it’s how I did my online Christmas shopping, and it’s kind of a pain). You’re still in danger of machine fingerprinting, but it’s usually too much hassle for just marketing to wind its way back to you.