i learned that cookies track you and show you ads and search result's based on what they collect from your ip address by what you surf on the internet. But what im wondering is say you live with other people and theres 3 people who have there own computers that share the same internet. How can marketing companies know what ads to target on you if 3 people in your house use the same ip address?
iii, while the 3 people in your house share the same IP Address, each person is using a different PC, with its own browser, so the cookies are targeted to that particular browser, not an entire IP Address. Perhaps these 2 articles: What are Cookies and What Do Cookies Do? and Do Cookies Compromise Security? could answer more cookie questions.
iii, what browser are you using? If you block 3rd party cookies in your browser, it effectively (99%) stops these cookies from being downloaded.
Yup, but there are two types of cookies. "First Party Cookies" and "Third Party Cookies". The difference is first party cookies are ones you acquire from visiting a website itself, usually you need these for the website to function properly. But third party cookies do NOT originate from that website, and are quite frequently "tracking" cookies from advertising partners. This is why a lot of people recommend blocking third party cookies in your browser. It is extremely rare for a website to genuinely use third party cookies and my bet is that you will notice no breakage whatsoever. I believe in the Iron browser the option is called "Restrict how 3rd party cookies are handled" or something along those lines? It's been a while since I've used it.