Opting Out of Personalized Ads, 2

       On Saturday, August 30th, I made my feelings known about Personalized Ads.  One of the things I complained about was the linguistic obfuscation used by the purveyors of these ads to subvert the  choice we have of "opting out."   Here's an example of such language:


       "One more thing. The only way we know that youre opted out is to deposit a special 'opt out' cookie. With current internet technology, thats really the only way for us to know not to collect data. (And again, its the same approach others use as well.) So, if you look at your cookies, you will still see one from us. Please dont delete it or we wont know not to collect data any longer."   (Sic)


       How many of us have looked at our "cookies" lately?  And which cookie are they talking about?   The final sentence has at least a triple if not quadruple negative in it; what is it saying?  This is scandalously purposeful language intended to have you and me back off feeling stupid and scared of doing anything!  (The five missing apostrophes are just an additional irritant.)

       I went ahead and clicked that "opt out" button anyway, and it did it.  No more personalized ads sent to me by "My Buys."  But it's like killing a hydra-headed monster.  A personalized ad came yesterday.  There'll be one from another source tomorrow.  Find the little blue triangular icon in a corner of the ad and click on it.  It's the first step toward privacy and sanity.