Business & Real Estate

Posts Tagged ‘computer’

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Tucked away in a corner of the computer-Beaty Ashley Hayes is a small file to help collect personal details about her, which will be made available for a tenth of a penny.

The file includes a single-code-4c812db292272995e5416a323e79bd37 who secretly identified as a 26 year old woman from Nashville, Tennessee

The code knows that his movies are as if for the first time, The Princess Bride and Ten Things I Hate About You. You know you like the TV series Sex and the City and who read entertainment news and their tendency to answer questionnaires.

“I like to think I have some mystery, but apparently not!” Said Hayes-Beaty when he learned what it revealed about her that row of numbers. “The profile is disturbingly correct.”

Hayes-Beaty is being monitored by Lotame Solutions Inc., a New York company that uses sophisticated software called “beacon” to capture what people write on a website, as the comments they make about a movie, or interest content on pregnancy and parenting. Lotame packs all that data on individual profiles, without specifying the names of persons, which sells to companies looking for customers. The likes of Hayes-Beaty can be sold wholesale (each group of thousand people who love movies are sold for $ 1) or specific groups (persons 26 years of age living in the south of the country and that As you like it if for the first time.) Read the rest of this entry »