How do I install the trackers?
The Wall Street Journal examined the 50 most popular sites in the U.S., representing about 40% of the websites they visit the U.S., and then analyzed the trace files and programs that these sites downloaded to a computer test.
As a group, 318050 sites trace files placed in the WSJ test computer. About a third of these were harmless, placed to remember the password to a favorite or count the most popular items.
However, over two thirds, 2224, were installed by 131 companies, many of which are in the business of tracking Internet users to create databases of consumer profiles, which can be sold.
The main site which used this technology, the investigation was Dictionary.com, owned by IAC / InterActive Corp. A visit to this online dictionary resulted in 234 files or programs downloaded to the computer test, 223 of companies which were traced to Internet users.
The information gathered is anonymous companies, in the sense that Internet users are identified by a number assigned to your computer, not a specific name. Lotame, for example, ensures that users know the name of Hayes-Beaty-like behavior and attributes only, identified by a code. People who do not want to be tracked can leave the system Lotame.
Moreover, the industry ensures that the data are used without causing damage. David Moore, chairman of the board 24 / 7 RealMedia Inc., an advertising network to WPP PLC, said that such tracking gives Internet users a better advertising. “When a notice is directed to a specific person ceases to be an advertisement and information becomes important,” he said.
Tracking people on the web is nothing new. But the technology is growing and gaining so much power and pervasiveness that even some of the analyzed sites say they were not aware, until they WSJ reported that they were installing files to spy on their visitors.
WSJ found to MSN.com, the popular portal, Microsoft Corp., planted a trace file full of data: I had a prediction of the age of the person sailing, zip code, gender, and even a code containing estimates of revenues , marital status, presence of children at home and whether home owned or not, according to the tracking company that created the file, Targus Information Corp.
Both Targus as Microsoft say they do not know how the file came to MSN.com and added that this did not contain information “that identifies people.”
Tracking is performed by tiny files and programs known as cookies, flash cookies and beacons. These are planted on a computer when a user visits a website. U.S. courts have ruled that it is legal to place the simplest type of file, cookies, in the same way that someone using a phone can allow a friend to listen to the conversation. Justice should not have ruled on more complex crawlers.
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