The Internet Is Watching You

Biggest companies gather data on the average user hundreds of times a month
By Laila Weir,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2008 12:30 PM CDT
The Internet Is Watching You
Yahoo can collect data on its average user 811 times a month from its own sites alone.   (Associated Press)

Long gone are the days of Internet anonymity. Big Web companies know all about you, says a study commissioned by the New York Times. The Internet giants track users’ behavior across sites, gathering details on a typical person several hundred times a month. That information lets them target content and—most lucratively—advertising, leaving traditional media companies in the dust.

Every month, Yahoo has 811 opportunities to collect information on its average visitor, plus about 1,700 chances on partner sites. MySpace and AOL ranked close behind Yahoo in their potential data collection. In response to privacy concerns, the big companies say they often refrain from linking data directly to visitors’ user names or even computer addresses. (More internet stories.)

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