Booking site logs ip address?

[derektrimblitz]

I have this feeling that when I look at booking holidays etc then the web site perhaps logs my ip address.
You look at a holiday, get a price, ponder it, look again from same PC or connection and the price has gone up.

If you look at the same holiday from a different internet connection the price drops again.

Am I just too suspicious?

Looking at booking BA flight. I seem to be getting the same thing...



Captain Suspicious, they are watching us

[randlemarcus]

Your IP address will absolutely be logged. Also, there'll be a cookie on your PC that ties it to the same person, on the same PC, from the same ISP account. No price glimpses for you

Naturally, your mobile browser comes from a different place, so it may be a different person.

[dredge]

Yes, they do, though as randlemarcus notes the 'cookie' dutifully stored by your web browser is likely more responsible. Clear your cookies or run your browser in porn Incognito/private mode and you'll probably see the original price again.

I suppose they do it give you the impression that prices are increasing all the time so you should purchase right now!

[fizz47]

So is it good to have cookies permanently turned off?

K

[dredge]

fizz47 said:

So is it good to have cookies permanently turned off?

K

Providing some means for a web browser to identify you is good, even necessary sometimes. e.g. posting to PH - it's how the site knows that you're you.

Of course your browser has no way to tell if a cookie is a 'good' or a 'bad' one, which brings us back to the original problem.

Personally I do quite a lot of browsing in Chrome's Incognito mode, in which cookies will work fine and as expected, but once the browser is closed it all gets thrown away. Which is good (no profiling from booking sites) but also not-so-good (have to log back in to every site every time). With other browsers there may still be an option to ask before saving every single cookie - I think they removed that from Chrome - but that gets very tiring very quickly!

In short, doing away with cookies completely isn't ideal either, but being mindful that every website you visit can, and often does, remember details about you, is probably wise.