{"id":38711,"date":"2010-08-09T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=38711"},"modified":"2016-05-11T03:34:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T10:34:57","slug":"whos-spying-on-and-profiting-from-your-browsing-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/whos-spying-on-and-profiting-from-your-browsing-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Spying on (and Profiting from) Your Browsing Habits?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the fastest-growing businesses on the Web is tracking data about your Internet use \u2014 everything from comments you leave on websites to health information and financial status \u2014 and selling it to companies that want to target ads to specific customer profiles. Algorithms are even used to make predictions about you based on your profile, from how likely is it that you’ll repay a loan to where you’ll probably spend your summer vacation.<\/p>\n

According to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> (WSJ<\/em>), your browsing information, minus your name, can be sold wholesale (“a batch of movie lovers is $1 per thousand”) or customized (“26-year-old Southern fans of [the movie] ’50 First Dates'”). There can be as many as 100 middlemen between your mouse click and an advertiser.<\/p>\n

Tracking Tactics<\/strong><\/em>
\nMost people don’t realize how detailed the information is that’s being tracked, or that sensitive information about health conditions and financial status are no longer off-limits. WSJ<\/em>‘s study analyzed surveillance technology that companies are using to track consumers and found the following:<\/p>\n