{"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":"
<\/a><\/p>\n 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> Important Information or Intrusive?<\/strong> Lotame [a tracking company in New York]…says it doesn’t know the name of users…\u2014only their behavior and attributes, identified by code number. People who don’t want to be tracked can remove themselves from Lotame’s system. And the industry says the data are used harmlessly. David Moore, chairman of 24\/7 RealMedia Inc., an ad network owned by WPP PLC, says tracking gives Internet users better advertising. ‘When an ad is targeted properly, it ceases to be an ad, it becomes important information,’ he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But the article also points to people who are unnerved by ads that target them based on sensitive information, like heath and finances. Take for example, someone recovering from an embarrassing health condition, who still sees ads related to the illness based on his or her previous browsing activity.<\/p>\n What You Can Do About It<\/strong><\/em> To block beacons, which are tools that track what you type, you’ll need to take some more advanced steps<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tracking tools are probably only going to get more advanced, but is it something that concerns you? Would you rather see ads for products in which you’re likely interested, or do you find it intrusive to have your profile bought and sold by Internet marketers?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\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\n
\nWSJ<\/em> contacted some of the tracking companies, which pointed out that the information collected is both anonymous and harmless. Useful, even. From the first article in the series<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\nIf you want to hide information about yourself from tracking tools, WSJ<\/em> provides simple and advanced tips to conceal your browsing habits from prying eyes<\/a>. The following are the basic things you can do:<\/p>\n\n