A couple of weeks ago I purchased a new teapot. I bought it online from HBC, paid with Paypal. I think that was my big mistake. Now, wherever I go on eBay, I see teapots. Teapots on my landing page, even ads on eBay pages linking to similar teapots on HBC. Teapots on my seller pages, teapots whenever I do any search. Teapots, teapots, everywhere (nor any drop to drink 
).
It's actually beginning to feel a little like being stalked by bots. Obviously some programme recorded the fact that I'd purchased a teapot on HBC and somehow transmitted that information to eBay -- actually to my seller ID on eBay. This means, logically, that eBay must have accessed and utilized through that transaction the only two things that connect my seller ID to my purchase on HBC: my name, and my Paypal account (and I suppose by extension, my email address connected with Paypal).
I did not have eBay open on my computer at the time I purchased from HBC. I know, I know, this is the modern world of shared data, but it just feels a little invasive, or at the very least, importunate.
I honestly don't know whether to blame HBC or eBay for this completely unsolicited incursion on my seller account. More likely they're in cahoots. I just think this is taking selling a bit too far, into the Creep Zone.
Diatribe concluded.
I started using Avast Safe Zone Browser 6 months ago, and never looked back. Fast, no cookies and blocks ads. I can even download videos to view off line on my computer.
@ricarmic wrote:I live in a house with a laptops, Ipads, phones etc.
What I find more interesting is that if I happen to look at "teapots" on my phone, or my IPAD, or my computer, the next time I'm on a different device, I'm still getting the "teapot syndrome" which means its more than just clearing cookies on the one machine. As well it isn't necessarily only eBay. Google, eBay and even facebook seem to communicate somehow that I'm a "teapot" kinda guy....
Yes, this was my thought too. I have a laptop and we have a desktop computer as well. I haven't checked it lately for teapots, but I can recall other categories of items we've purchased popping up on both.
To all of those who mentioned cookies (including the chocolate-chip type), oh yes, I'm well aware of that source of online promiscuity. I thought I had my settings arranged to clear them out automatically after each session. I'll have to double-check.
The suggestion made by 'ypdc_dennis' about using privacy settings may be workable, but I've had to switch it off at times in order to get through an entire transaction. They really don't want us to be completely private...
I recall that you live in a "wee village". I live in a fairly rural spot as well. I'm wondering if living in a rural area may make a difference, i.e. you could be right about the IP location and data being identified and tracked through the router. What I do know is that the teapots dancing everywhere occurred almost immediately after my HBC purchase.
My best guess? Since HBC does run ads on eBay anyway, perhaps they have some sort of commercial agreement to immediately provide data on any purchase made on the HBC site by a person who has a Paypal account linked to eBay. A sort of instantaneously ping-pong back and forth.
I say this because I have not had this teapot syndrome occur after a previous HBC online purchase that I made a few weeks ago solely with my VISA account. As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, HBC didn't always offer Paypal payment. I was surprised to see it, and thought that was better than exposing my credit card directly. WRONG!!
And to those who say that, well, this is how the internet content is paid for, I would remind them that the internet was once entirely free of commercial advertising. Perhaps anyone under 40 years of age may not believe me, but it was the case for a long time. Even eBay didn't have advertising several years ago. Then someone discovered active content, and voilà, this is what we've got.
Now cross-advertising and sharing of data has become so ubiquitous that we all accept it as the cost of having nice, shiny, well-organized sites to visit and the cost of programmers to keep them up. It reminds me of those places where one land owner permits one advertiser to put up a sign, and pretty soon there are dozens, totally dominating the landscape and basically just cancelling each other out in their loudness.
The downsides of such pervasive commercial data-sharing are at least twofold: I believe we're far more exposed than we think, and I think all that busy clutter has ironically made buying on sites like eBay less attractive.
I do buy supplies and raw materials fairly frequently on eBay, and I'm finding it maddening just navigating around the site to get at what I'm looking for. Twitch, jerk, bounce, and freeze is the order of the day. Surely this must be affecting us as sellers too. The fact that eBay is removing active content soon (including apparently a lot of the off-site ads), signals to me that they must be aware how cumbersome things have become.
At any rate, next time I buy a teapot (or anything else) on HBC, I'll use my VISA card.
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