Halfords, how do they get away with it?

handful

I have a 'big' birthday coming up and the OH is looking for ideas and I'm thinking about asking for a Garmin Edge 800. I looked around at prices and Halfords had a pretty good deal on yesterday for the Trail bundle which includes OS mapping for £339.99 and there is a code that knocks another 10% off. After looking at their site I received an email offering the exact deal I'd been looking at (some coincidence!!) showing they use some pretty invasive cookies. Then when having another look today I noticed the price is now £424.99 but they now an have an exclusive web offer of 20% off which works out at the bargain price of £341.59 which is £1.60 more than yesterday. Great sale I have to say. :roll:

Chunkers1980

Sold at x Price here for 2 weeks. Then run some offers. Join a group.

cooldad

handful wrote:

After looking at their site I received an email offering the exact deal I'd been looking at (some coincidence!!) showing they use some pretty invasive cookies.

Try again. They didn't get your email address from a cookie, did they?

handful

I have had several occasions after looking at a specific item on Halfords website where I get an email within 24 hours offering the item I had been looking at. I also get Halfords ads appearing on websites with rolling ads, also advertising those things. Not quite sure how they do it but assumed it was some kind of tracking cookie??

I have purchased online from Halfords btw so maybe that gives them a way of knowing who I am and what I'm looking at??

southdownswolf

Take a look here regarding the ads.......
http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/a ... nswer=9713

similar tactics used by websites such as Facebook.

Plyphon

cooldad wrote:

handful wrote:

After looking at their site I received an email offering the exact deal I'd been looking at (some coincidence!!) showing they use some pretty invasive cookies.

Try again. They didn't get your email address from a cookie, did they?

If you have an account/log in, they can track you via your site login as to what you look at - and you've already given them your email when you sign up.

I expect that's what happened, he logged in and added the deal to the basket or something.

It actually really creeps me out - on a clothes site the other day I added something to my basket but then decided to not buy, 10 minutes later got an email "reminding me I had something in my basket".

Creepy.

cooldad

That's what I meant - you have to give them your email address at some point.

handful

I could understand if I was logged in on the website but I'm not so they must be doing it from some kind of tracing cookie or recognition of my IP address I suppose?

Incidentally, the garmin mentioned in initial post can't be bought using the 20% off and the 10% code I was using previously so the deal is now £35 more than it was before the 'Special 20% Web Offer' started!

I think I'll wait for now.

supersonic

Will be some cookie - try and find it and neuter it!

YeehaaMcgee

You'd be amazed at what online analytics can sometimes get right. It may well be that they've just happened to nail what you might be interested a few times. Of course, those times will stick in your memory more than the thousands upon thousands of "misses".

Chunkers1980

There was a good one on here.

Topic was "What's the best mini-digger for trail building"

One of the ad banners in the topic was mini-digger hire. It's every where.....

cooldad

I just use 'that which is not allowed to me mentioned as the ads pay for the site'.

waby1234

The rules around website cookies are changing on the 26th May - websites must now get your permission to store your data. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18090118 for more info

diy

I run my edge 800 perfectly well with open source maps which are free and more often than not have extra data on like local trail names

MDobs

use firefox and get the (free) add on that blocks adverts from the sites you visit (addblock pluls), I never see any scrolling adds now and notice the difference massively when using explorer at work. so nice to go into google mail and not have everything i reference in my emails pop up as an advert!

MDobs

diy wrote:

I run my edge 800 perfectly well with open source maps which are free and more often than not have extra data on like local trail names

don't you need the 1:50k OS base mapping first? surely doing it your way you're just getting a plotted line on a basically blank screen, ok to follow but not the "sat nav" effect of the 800 where you see features on a map?

diy

No I have a 2gb card with open cycle map and open mtb. Though you have to decide which you want to use first. See http://openmtbmap.org/ for screen shots

bennett_346

waby1234 wrote:

The rules around website cookies are changing on the 26th May - websites must now get your permission to store your data. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18090118 for more info

Can't see what it'll do. Most ordinary people will just blindly say yes to everything without understanding what it really does anyway. When was the last time anyone ticked no to a terms and conditions, even if they had read it?

YeehaaMcgee

MDobs wrote:

use firefox and get the (free) add on that blocks adverts from the sites you visit (addblock pluls), I never see any scrolling adds now and notice the difference massively when using explorer at work. so nice to go into google mail and not have everything i reference in my emails pop up as an advert!

If you've got ie9, it's actually incredibly easy to block all ads (erm, not that we should, of course, wink wink, nudge nudge).
If you are, and you want the ads gone, PM me, and i'll send you a link that sorts it out for you tomorrow.

cooldad

cooldad wrote:

I just use 'that which is not allowed to me mentioned as the ads pay for the site'.

You mentioned it

MDobs wrote:

use firefox and get the (free) add on that blocks adverts from the sites you visit (addblock pluls), I never see any scrolling adds now and notice the difference massively when using explorer at work. so nice to go into google mail and not have everything i reference in my emails pop up as an advert!

Now the internet will break, and it's all your fault.

Anonymous

waby1234 wrote:

The rules around website cookies are changing on the 26th May - websites must now get your permission to store your data. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18090118 for more info

And tonnes of web sites and businesses are not prepared, despite having been given extra time. Loads aren't even aware of it.

Though if they're not UK based or host outside the UK then it makes no difference, and asking for you permission can come in various ways. Single pop up saying you agree to our T&Cs by visiting this site, blah, blah, 99% of people just dismiss it, job done.

Anyway, yes Halfords will be using tracking cookies here, just like thousands of others. But they will have had to have got your email address at some point. So you'll have logged in some time ago and that's left a cookie. It may also be through a third party ad service. You could sign up to something on another site and the ad service they use is affiliated with Halfords as well. It will be a single cookie related to that ad service.

I find similar if I've gone to a page on Halfords, and then browse some other sites, especially bike sites (in fact might have even been Bike Radar) and the adverts in banners and at the sides sometimes come up with Halfords showing exactly the same product I looked at.

Nothing unusual though. Thousands of sites do it.

It's called advertising. You can turn off the cookies if you like. Install ad/cookie blockers, or an AV/security package that does the same. Or just not worry.

Do you use a reward card in supermarkets by the way? If so, they're tracking you too and share the information on what you buy with others. That's the whole reason they use these cards. Oh, and shops are rolling out RFID tags on products you buy which allows them to track who's bought what & where, including if you've bought something in one place, and walk into another shop.

Information is worth a lot of money. More than products.

S-M

A mate told me about his new garden shed this morning, i googled them and had a look around the website.

My Bikeradar home page when i logged on earlier has a large banner saying

"We know you have been looking at our sheds, come here for the best prices" :shock:

cooldad

I believe wearing a tinfoil hat helps.
And avoid browsing websites combining 'goats' and 'love'.

Anonymous

Or horse love

cooldad

I'm not that stupid.

bennett_346

Most people are though.