Success, we all want it in one way or another. Often, we look at the ranks of the famous achievers for inspiration. From what they eat for breakfast to the toilet paper they use, the habits of successful people have been overanalysed. Is there any reason we should even investigate them at all? Or should we analyse success in a different way?

It may be a pop-up that blocks you from accessing a website. Or perhaps that video that starts playing on a volume your deaf neighbour can hear. At some point, online advertisements become too intrusive to deal with. This week I review some of the most popular adblockers to help you choose the one that fits your preferences for advertisements.

We all know them, those highly annoying advertisements. Your screen gets blocked, a large advertisement loads and you’re forced to wait before you can continue. Such advertisements may soon belong to the past. Google Chrome is getting a built-in adblocker aimed at improving the user experience by blocking bad advertising practices. But why? What’s the catch?

One of the most common beliefs about privacy is that consumers don’t care for it. They don’t mind the data collection and aren’t worried about what’s done with it. To them, the trade-off of giving up privacy in exchange for personalised services is either a neutral or a good thing. But do they really think that? Research point in a radically different direction.

The European Cookie Law was intended to protect internet users from unbridled tracking. It aimed to make internet users more privacy-aware and to make tracking mechanisms explicit. When the law was set in place, the internet braced itself for a European Union ready to flex its muscles. But nothing happened. How come?