Neighbourhood Support – How to stop being “followed” online

We’ve all experienced it: you search for a specific product and suddenly ads for that exact item follow you across every website you visit. While it can feel like your devices are “listening,” the reality is more technical, but the good news is, you can do something about it.

Digital breadcrumbs: cookies

Cookies are small files stored on your device that help websites “remember” you.

The Good: “First-party” cookies keep you logged into your email or remember what’s in your shopping cart.

The Problem: “Third-party” cookies are placed by advertisers to follow you from site to site, building a picture of your interests so they can target you with ads.

In your browser’s Settings, look for a section called Privacy or Security. Look for an option to block third-party cookies and make sure it is turned on. This stops advertisers from tracking you across different websites.

Many websites greet you with a pop-up asking about cookies. These are often designed to make “Accept All” the most prominent and easiest option, but it’s worth pausing to look for “Necessary Only,” “Reject All,” or “Manage Preferences.” Choosing the minimal option means you’re only accepting the cookies the site needs to function, not the ones that track and follow you.

Invisible followers: tracking pixels

Tracking pixels are tiny, invisible images hidden inside emails. When you open a message containing one, the sender is automatically notified, they can see exactly when you opened it, and roughly where you were when you did.

This is commonly used by marketers to know whether their emails are being read, but it can feel invasive once you know it’s happening. In your email app, whether that’s Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, or another, look in the Settings or Preferences for options related to Privacy, Images, or Security. You’re looking for a setting along the lines of:

“Block remote images”, “Ask before displaying external images”, “Don’t automatically download pictures”

The wording varies between apps and devices, so if you can’t find it immediately, searching online for your specific app name plus “block images” will usually bring up a clear guide.

Blocking images means emails won’t look as polished until you choose to load the pictures manually. For newsletters and emails with lots of graphics, you’ll see a plainer version by default, but you stay in control of when content is loaded.

If you use a Google account, Google keeps a record of your searches, app activity, location history, and YouTube watching. You can review and manage all of this by visiting myactivity.google.com or by going into your Google Account settings and looking for Data & Privacy. From there you can turn off tracking entirely or set your history to auto-delete every few months.