Technology is creepy, or is it just intuitive?

In the past I noticed adds that appear to be directed at my IP not my email / user account.
I'll be looking at something on one computer while logged in as a female name.
Then minutes later on another computer totally different account but same IP address adds will come up for similar items.
Talk about spreading my searches to everyone on my network? Or I could just be getting more paranoid.

ronny0 -- No, you're not paranoid. Regardless of your cookie settings, the ad optimization algorithms track IP addresses from the server side and will target similar ads for people with the same address or within a range. There's no getting around that unless you're using a VPN.

What Jennifer and Ronny mentions sort of gets me thinking. I always bang away on the desk top computer while my wife always uses a tablet with our Wi-Fi. As indicated previously on this thread Ads seem to come through on the msn news page disguised as a news story. Now, although my wife knows I am a cross dresser (DADT) I wonder if ads bleed through to her on the tablet. This morning the msn news page is totally free of ads. I bet once I start looking at anything one of those ads will crop up. Recently, I perused Shadowline nightgowns of a particular style with the results of various retailers throwing up pictures of that style; Wal-Mart Marketplace; Herroom, etc. Life may be perilous for some trying to hide out.

All of that is true, Shelby. The social media companies, search engines, and Internet advertisers are very good at finding out what interests you and putting it in front of you. Most people have no idea that it's happening, much less how it works. I could tell you stories... I used to work for a company that was encumbered by multiple privacy regulations. We did use Internet advertising and would occasionally receive a complaint from and indignant user (sometimes not even a customer) about why our ads showed up during their web surfing. Mind you, our privacy experts were meticulous about protecting privacy where we could, but what you do on your own places you at the mercy of that industry (advertising) unless you take steps to protect yourself.