Outed By Google

So for over a decade (um, longer) I've had two IDs. I've been Goodgulf, and I've been... well, my real name.

But recently (well, in 2016) I became a published author. Of course I've clicked on the page involved, or make that pages. I compared the prices on Amazon US, DE, UK, etc - never thinking that I might be logged into Amazon when I was clicking.

So tonight, I opened my general, usual, in my name email address, and saw a list of Amazon recommendations. And in the subject line? One of my own books, Christmas Across The County Line. Then, starting with:
"Based on your recent visit, we thought you might be interested in these items."

A long list of LSF novels followed.

After all these years of having two IDs, I've finally been tripped up by Big Data.

Edited to say that I should have titled this "outed by Amazon" - but I'm so use to Google being the source of big data problems I typed the wrong Big Data Miner.

That's a good reason to use multiple browsers. Keep one that you only use for your"monkey business", and keep that one"locked down" in the private mode.

Yes, and to use Private / secure / whatever mode to avoid leaving tracks on computers. Normally I would do that, but I have a computer that only I use and on that one I use normal browser windows, never thinking about how Big Data tracks my every move.

In my opinion, that stinks.

I agree.

Add to your Firefox browser the addons "better privacy" and "no script" and use ccleaner regularly. It's not a perfect wall against the big data industry but it helps to get rid of most of those ugly attacks aka "suggestions".

Not just Google. Whatever you do, don't go anywhere near Facebook. They're one of the champion data aggregators.

Agreed. When given the option to "log in by Facebook" you should always make a separate account. Every log by facebook gives them another data point to connect.

Why I don't share my Amazon Prime account login with anyone, even though you're permitted to, in some circumstances ...

You can probably fix this by removing those items from your Amazon browsing history:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201145440