I'm being watched online

[chrisott]

I think Google is reading my emails in my gmail account. I wrote a friend about going kayaking and now all I have are kayaking apparel and accessory ads around me when I check my email.

 

[MicroPilot]

I think Google is reading my emails in my gmail account. I wrote a friend about going kayaking and now all I have are kayaking apparel and accessory ads around me when I check my email.

Google does scan e-mails to show relevant ads. They always have and its no secret.

 

[MicroPilot]

...Maybe its time to use a proxy. Can anyone explain how that works, and suggest a source?

A web proxy is a server that you tell your browser to use for all its communications with the web. The proxy server acts as a middle man in all web page requests.

Normally your browser takes the URL you enter in the address bar, submits this to a DNS server to resolve into an IP address, then initiates communications directly with that web servers IP address to load it's pages.

Using a web proxy, your browser submits the URL to the proxy. The proxy takes care of resolving the URL to an IP address, and initiates communications with the web server. Any data that the web server provides to the proxy is then passed by the proxy to your browser.

Using a proxy server hides your IP address from the remote web server, and some can also be configured to hide details like browser, and other machine info. Proxies are typically used in corporate networks to control access by the companies users to the internet. Some proxies even require a username and password to be able to access the internet.

Personal use proxies do exist, and are called Open Proxy servers. Search wikipedia for a full discussion of Open Proxies. Googling for "web proxy server" also results in some articles describing the usage of proxy servers. Unfortunately proxy use is a technical and sometimes shady practice, but it is possible.

 

[California]

Unfortunately proxy use is a technical and sometimes shady practice

That's what I was wondering. How do you know the proxy service doesn't monitor your data. Then for example, open a new credit card in your name.

Passing everything through one proxy looks as risky as letting Google build a profile that they sell to spammers.