I don't believe all that stuff. I am being hunted by plumbers' merchants , all advertising, ever since I posted a question about plumbing.No computer could do that.If I'm not being paranoid, it's a conspiracy involving the Ed , I tell you ! I leave you to judge...
No you're not being paranoid, you are being tracked by advertisers, as is the site. Not all, but some adverts are displayed in response to your own search styles and others relect the contents of the posts you're reading.
Check over in the motoring section for clear examples of targeted advertising.
How is it you think Google makes all those billions?
You go and search for something then you come here and Answerbank runs Google adverts - it picks up the cookies stored on your machine when you did the search and shows adverts targeted at the things you were searching for earlier.
Advertisers pay good money to target their ads at people who are actually interested in things they sell rather than the random assortment who might see another ad and Answerbank picks up money that pays Ed's salary
Of course they are tracking your every look at something.
If you want to stop it, install "Do Not Track Plus"
As I am typing this, it tells me 1 social networking site, 3 ad networks and 6 companies are trying to track you, 10 items blocked.
No, you are not being parnoid - I bought some wellies, a jacket and a chair recently and now they are plastered all over this site when I come on to it. A bit useless really, as I have already bought the items.