Amazon is an online behemoth that doesn’t shy away from throwing their full advertising might at anyone who has browsed their websites. Even if you have some adblock protection enabled on your computer or phone, you may still occasionally see Amazon ads stalking you. The good news is that you can stop these ads following you.

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Advertising and the Internet go hand in hand these days, with almost every website, app, game or program featuring some form of advertising. Online retailers are some of the most persistent advertisers on the Internet with ads for products relentlessly stalking you where ever you go.

One of the most common problems with persistent ad tracking, which people often ignore is its ability to ruin special occasions such as Birthdays, Christmas, Anniversaries, and even engagements. You may be wondering how this happens and it’s actually quite simple. If you have a shared device or account and spend time searching for a specific product, engagement rings, for example, other users with access to the device or account will begin to see ads based on your search requests and shopping history.

Although this isn’t an instant giveaway most people are now aware to some degree how Internet advertising works and can see the signs quite clearly. Even younger children with access to your devices are quite quick at picking up on these trends. Thankfully, there are ways to reduce and even completely stop this kind of ad targeting so follow along as we show you how.

How to Prevent Amazon Ads Following You Across the Internet.

Amazon isn’t the only offender when it comes to aggressive online advertising but they are one of the worst. To stop Amazon ads following you, you will have to visit Amazon’s Advertising Preferences Page. On this page, you will see a small description of how Amazon advertising works and why it’s good for you…. If you have an Amazon account, sign in, then choose the option: Do Not Personalize Ads from Amazon for this Internet Browser and Submit the change.

how to prevent amazon ads following you online

Even if you don’t have an account, you can still disable personalized advertising, however, the option will automatically be reset whenever you clear your browser cookies and cache. If you generally go long periods without clearing this data, this isn’t much of a problem. 

Note: This doesn't block or stop ads, it just prevents Amazon ads suggesting content you have searched in the past or similar content to what you have searched.

What to Do if Ads Are Already Following You.

If ads are already following you the solution to stop them in their tracks is very simple, you just need to clear your browser cache and cookies. This will instantly stop most advertisements following you, unfortunately, if you have an account with a service like Amazon and haven’t manually opted out of personalized ads, your previous searches will continue to follow you within the specific platform.

How to Clear Firefox, Chrome, and Edge Browser Cache.

If you want to quickly change what ads are showing on your account the best way to do this is by searching another completely random product/category. If you have searched engagement rings from your account and now can’t get rid wedding-related ads, the best thing to do is search for something else completely random, car parts, gardening, hunting supplies, and tools are a good way to throw someone of the scent and change the ads that are following you.

Other Alternatives.

Another option is to use extensions to remove the annoyance of persistent Amazon advertising. Four of the best extensions available to manage this on Chrome and Firefox are listed below.

Ghostery, uBlock Origin, Ad-Block Plus, Privacy Badger.

You can also reduce and confuse advertising by using DuckDuckGo as your search engine. If you spend most of your time browsing from a mobile device, you can follow a very similar set of rules to avoid this kind of advertising.

How to Configure Firefox Mobile For Maximum Privacy and Tracking Protection.

As annoying as adverts are, when they are done right they can be useful, so don’t forget to use your ad-blockers wisely and whitelist the helpful little guy whenever you find content helpful. This goes a long way to keeping the Internet free and content flowing.