DoubleClick is an advertising company.
DoubleClick: The technology foundation for digital advertising
The only ads we have on the site are Google Adsense Ads which are 100% safe.
https://www.google.com/adsense/
However when I went to get the link for DoubleClick I noticed that Google bought them. As far as I know Google Adsense does not include the DoubleClick ads and also as far as I know there is nothing wrong with DoubleClick ads but just to be sure I will look into this tomorrow.
---------- Post added at 09:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:05 AM ----------
This is long. If you want to jump straight to the solution look for the parts in bold red.
OK, I did some more research on this. Here is what I found out.
This issue is being caused by Google and the anti maleware software Spy Bot Search and Destroy.
Retro Uprising uses Google Adsense to deliver the on the site.
Google bought another ad company called DoubleClick in 2008 and started combining the two services together.
So this is not something new. Although I was not aware of it until today.
DoubleClick has been one of the main Internet advertisers for probably over 10 years. And Google Adsense is the largest Internet advertiser. So this is not an issue that is specific to RU. It is just part of the Internet.
DoubleClick has a slightly bad reputation because they use tracking cookies.
Now that Google owns DoubleClick and merged their service into Adsense, Google is using the same tracking cookie.
The tracking cookies allows Google to know what types of websites you visit. Such as do you visit gaming sites or sport sites or political sites.
They then use that info to deliver slightly more personalized ads to you. So if you are on gaming sites 99% of the time then go to a political site once they might give you a gaming ad even though you are on a political site.
The bad part that gives them a bad reputation is people do not like big brother tracking what they do for any reason.
This information is not shared with the website owner (me). Google keeps it all to themselves.
Programs like Spybot will tell you that spyware is bad (it is) and that the doubleclick cookie is spyware (it is not).
I'm not going to try to defend tracking cookies, that is up to individuals to make a decision about, but calling it spyware is alarmist and confusing for regular computer users that barely know what these words mean.
Spybot has a setting to ask you if you want to block tracking cookies or let it through or to ask you every time it sees one. I think that is the default setting is to auto block. I think you have it set to ask, and that is causing the annoyance.
Removing Google Adsense from RU is not a real option.
Google does not have an option for me to block doubleclick and keep adsense. That is what I wanted to do.
I removed Google image ads from the site and left only Google text ads. That should remove the doubleclick ads (since they are images) and that should remove the cookie. Please let me know if this fixed your issue.
If that does not work then here are three possible solutions for you. You should only need to do one.
1. Follow instructions here The home of Spybot-S&D! This will cause SpyBot to silently block DoubleClick cookies instead of asking you.
2. Or Click Opt Out here Advertising and Privacy ? Google Privacy Center This will cause DoubleClick to never try to give your browser a cookie. It also explains a bit of the details of this issue.
3. Or Make a donation of any amount and you will not see ads on RU again, as long as you are logged in.
If you do any of those please let us know how they worked out for you.
Some additional info
Frequently Asked Questions - Google Ads Preferences
http://www.google.com/doubleclick/privacy/faq.html
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