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I thought Chrome’s privacy settings were already tight enough. I cleared history often, blocked cookies, and turned off every tracking option I could find. But the ads I saw still seemed to know exactly what I was doing. They lined up too closely with my recent searches, as if Chrome itself was quietly helping websites follow me around. So I looked more closely at Chrome’s menus and found a hidden panel I had completely overlooked.

I thought I already had my privacy under control

Why basic privacy steps weren’t enough

Ads were not the real problem. What unsettled me was how precisely they mirrored what I had been doing online. I cleared my browsing history on a schedule, turned off activity sync I did not need, reviewed site permissions, and kept a tight leash on cookies. I also blocked third-party cookies and regularly cleared site data for places I no longer visit.

Over time, those steps became routine, and I felt confident that the major gaps were closed. When I still saw a few targeted banners, I assumed that was just how the web works. But that changed when ads started matching things I had only looked at once. I would check the price of something, and the same product would appear the next day.

At that point, I realized that the usual privacy tools were not covering everything. Even with strict cookie and sync settings, my browsing behavior still shaped what appeared later. It felt as if there was another layer quietly influencing what I saw, one that the regular controls were not addressing.

The hidden Chrome setting I didn’t realize was on

Digging through the menus took me to Privacy and security, then Ads privacy, and finally to Site-suggested ads. The option lives in that sub-menu, and my browser does not call it out during setup. Even if you care about privacy, it is easy to skip because the name does not clearly suggest tracking.

Opening the page makes its purpose clear. The description says that websites and their advertising partners can use your activity, such as how you spend time on the sites you visit, to personalize ads for you. Your activity is one of many signals a site can use to suggest ads, and when this setting is turned off, you still see ads, but they may be less personalized. This setting sits under Ad privacy and works independently of cookies and history, so changing those settings alone will not turn it off.

On the same page, Chrome lists sites that have used your activity. You can block any of them from suggesting ads, and Chrome automatically removes entries that are older than 30 days. Below is a blocked sites section that stays empty until you add one yourself. All of these options sit on one level under the usual privacy menu, with nothing to call them out, making them easy to overlook.

Turning it off made Chrome feel less watchful

How ads behaved once they were off

After I turned off the Site-suggested ads, I still saw ads, but they stopped matching what I had just searched for or viewed. Over the next few days, the repeat banners I was used to seeing showed up less often, and more ads looked general rather than tied to my latest activity. The change was subtle but clear. Fewer ads followed me between websites, and browsing no longer felt like my recent clicks were shaping every page. The web looked the same, yet it felt less aware of me.

What I noticed in my browsing also showed up in the settings. A small note there confirmed what I was seeing. The Sites section shows sites that have used your activity, and notes that entries expire after thirty days. With the setting off, I saw no new sites appear there. That matches the notice on the page that turning it off does not remove ads, but it can make them less personalized.

While the difference was clear, I can also see why some people prefer keeping personalization on. Relevant ads can make shopping easier and sometimes surface deals you would have missed. They can make browsing feel more tailored. However, convenience does not always justify the amount of information shared in the background. I would rather keep this off and add personalization only where I choose, rather than letting recent browsing dictate what I see by default.

Chrome hides control in plain sight

Chrome gives you more control than it seems if you know where to look. Many of its privacy tools remain buried in menus most people never open. If you care about privacy, take a few minutes to explore these settings. Review every toggle under Privacy and security, especially inside Ad privacy.

Clear your browsing data regularly, disable third-party cookies, and review the site permissions you have granted over time. You do not have to block every ad or break every site to stay private. What matters is knowing which toggles make the most impact.

I used to fall for flashy discounts and so-called limited-time deals until I found Keepa. It’s a handy tool that collects and analyzes price data and sales trends for products sold on Amazon. Now, I can spot real deals on Amazon instead of just getting impressed by clever marketing tricks. Keepa shows me the full price history of any product, so I can verify if the discount is actually legit. It has saved me from overpaying more times than I can count.

Why I rely on Keepa for my every Amazon purchase

Keepa does the watching, so I don’t have to

I’ve been using Keepa since 2019, and it has helped to snag my favorite products at the best prices. Before using Keepa, I often bought products thinking they were good deals (those 70% discounts and limited-time deals, you know). However, some of my friends would tell me they bought the same product at a much lower price a few weeks ago. That’s when I discovered Keepa, and since then, it has become my Amazon shopping sidekick. It is one of the best price tracking sites that keeps an eye on price changes and tells me the best time to grab a product.

Now, when I want to buy a product on Amazon, whether it’s smartphones, tech gifts, accessories, or even exotic groceries, I rely on the Keepa chart to verify whether it’sa good deal. For instance, I was eyeing a hair straightener on Amazon, and it seemed to be at its lowest price. However, Keepa showed me the price was $40 lower just two weeks ago. I waited for some time, and the price dropped again. The best thing about using Keepa is that I don’t have to manually check prices. I just have to set a price alert, and Keepa notifies me when the price hits my target. This way, Keepa makes sure I’m never overpaying for my Amazon purchases.

How to install Keepa on your devices

Get Keepa running in minutes

Keepa is available as a website and a dedicated app for iOS and Android smartphones. Just download the app on your smartphone, and choose settings like language and preferred Amazon locale (.com, .co.uk, etc.). Then, log in or sign up for a Keepa account. Once you’ve done this, tap the Amazon tab from the bottom, sign in with your Amazon account, and start exploring the products.

Keepa is also available as a free extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and other major browsers. Here’s how to add it as an extension on your preferred browser:

1. Visit Keepa website.
2. Click on the web browser you want to install the extension for.
3. Click on the Add extension option.
4. Alternatively, you can also add the Keepa extension directly from your browser’s store.

Once you’ve added the Keepa browser extension, it will automatically show up when you visit a product page on Amazon. Right below the product information, Keepa will show you a price history graph.

This is how I get the best Amazon deals with Keepa

I never overpay for my Amazon purchases

Keepa is super easy to use. Once I’ve installed the extension, Keepa appears automatically on the product page. It shows me the full price history, so I don’t have to guess whether the product is available at its best price. If the price is higher than usual, I know I have to wait. Otherwise, I’ll quickly hit the Buy Now button.

Here’s how you can check Amazon’s price history with Keepa:

1. Open Amazon in your web browser. You can also use the Keepa website or smartphone app.
2. Sign in with your Amazon account.
3. Now, search for and find the product you wish to buy.
4. Once you’re at the product page, scroll down a little.
5. Under the image and product description, you’ll see a Keepa block with some useful information.
6. Click on the Price History tab. You’ll see a graph depicting how the price has changed over time. This will help you spot if you’re actually getting a good deal.
7. On the right, you’ll find handy options to filter the price history by seller type—Amazon, third-party sellers, or used items.
8. You can also change the time range to view price trends over the past day, week, three months, or even all-time.

That’s how I use Keepa to double-check deals and discounts on Amazon.

How I track Amazon price trends

Keepa monitors Amazon price drops for me

Beyond checking the price history, I also use Keepa to track prices for the products I’ve been eyeing. For instance, I was planning to get Bose speakers available on Amazon for $299, but now they’re at $399. Rather than constantly checking the price manually, I’ll create a Keepa tracker to get an alert when the price drops to $299 or below.

You can also do the same for your products. First and foremost, you have to create an account on Keepa. Once you’ve done that, you can create trackers for any product available on Amazon. Here’s how to do it:

1. Head to the Amazon website and sign in with your account.
2. Search for and find the product you want to buy.
3. Scroll down to the Keepa block, then click the Track Product tab.
4. In the orange box, enter the price you want to pay for the product sold and fulfilled by Amazon.
5. Optionally, you can enter the target price for third-party sellers in the purple box.
6. If you want more options, such as Lightning deals and Warehouse deals, select the Advanced option at the bottom.
7. Click the Start tracking button.

Now, Keepa will start tracking the price and alert you as soon as it hits the target. You can find and manage all your trackers in Keepa’s Tracking overview page.

Keepa changed the way I shop on Amazon

Keepa has become my ultimate companion for Amazon shopping. I can spot genuine deals and avoid falling for tempting discounts and impulse buys. I don’t remember the last time I shopped on Amazon without tracking the price with Keepa. If you’re also an Amazon shopper like me, Keepa is an absolute must-have.

Backblaze is a backup and cloud storage company that has been tracking the annualized failure rates (AFRs) of the hard drives in its datacenter since 2013. As you can imagine, that’s netted the firm a lot of data. And that data has led the company to conclude that HDDs “are lasting longer” and showing fewer errors.

That conclusion came from a blog post this week by Stephanie Doyle, Backblaze’s writer and blog operations specialist, and Pat Patterson, Backblaze’s chief technical evangelist. The authors compared the AFRs for the approximately 317,230 drives in Backblaze’s datacenter to the AFRs the company recorded when examining the 21,195 drives it had in 2013 and 206,928 drives in 2021. Doyle and Patterson said they identified “a pretty solid deviation in both age of drive failure and the high point of AFR from the last two times we’ve run the analyses.”

As Doyle and Patterson wrote, the tested drives’ high failure percentage peaks this year were 4.25 percent at 10 years and 3 months, compared to 13.73 percent at about 3 years and 3 months in 2013 and 14.24 percent at 7 years and 9 months in 2021.

“Not only is that a significant improvement in drive longevity, it’s also the first time we’ve seen the peak drive failure rate at the hairy end of the drive curve. And, it’s about a third of each of the other failure peaks,” Doyle and Patterson wrote.

You can check out Paterson and Doyle’s August blog post for more information about the drives they analyzed this year. The drives were from HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, and WDC, and they had an average age of 3.7 months to 103.9 months (about 8.7 years). The drives ranged from 4TB to 24TB. In 2021, Backblaze’s sample had drives from the same vendors, and the drives tested for each model had an average age of 3.57 to 80.85 months (about 6.7 years). The drives ranged from 4TB to 16TB.

As Backblaze has done in the past, Doyle and Paterson compared the behaviors of Backblaze’s datacenter HDDs with the bathtub curve, an engineering principle that says component failure rates tend to follow a U-shape over time, with more failures occurring early in life before the rate drops, settles, and then picks up again as the component ages.