Web Sites Are Documenting What You Do Online

March 11th, 2008

A new study from The New York Times is trying to pin down how just how much consumer data Internet companies have. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft , AOL and MySpace — the five largest Web firms — record at least 336 billion transmission events each month, according to the Times. That does not count their advertising networks.ComScore conducted the analysis for the Times. Advertising executives say it is the first broad estimate of how much consumer data Internet companies have in their control. The results confirmed what privacy advocates have been warning about: Companies use the information to predict what content and advertisements Web-site visitors are likely to want to see.

“The Web companies are, in effect, taking the trail of crumbs people leave behind as they move around the Internet and then analyzing them to anticipate people’s next steps,” The Times reported. “So anybody who searches for information on such disparate topics as iron supplements, airlines, hotels and soft drinks may see ads for those products and services later on.”

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