AOL Settings Revised 2-9-2005

Note: AOL has been modified in it's appearance a lot since I created this page, but the principles still hold.

Do you know how AOL markets your privacy? Do you get tired of the pop up ads in AOL? This can be stopped! Follow along and I'll show you how. (AOL & Windows XP SP2, IE7 all have Pop-up stoppers now)

Start AOL. Click on Preferences. It will be in the menu area and varies depending on the version you use. In version 7, the menu is under the Settings Menu as shown in the figure below:

Choose Preferences. This gives this new window:

Then choose Marketing to see the window below:

The 5 buttons represent information AOL shares with various forms of marketing, theirs and others.

1. Click on the first item "US Mail from others".

2. Click Continue and read the statement. Notice that AOL has selected YES by default.

3. Click No and select OK twice.

4. Cancel that window

5. Select the next choice "US Mail from AOL" and repeat steps 2 thru 4.

6. Repeat for the next 3 items.

This only works for the ads that are generated by AOL. If you want to stop the pop up ads from the web, see my other pages on Utilities or note the new statement below:

New in AOL 8 is the ability to block pop up ads on the web. To perform this, go to keyword pop up controls and follow the instructions.