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The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets--- the business of spying on consumers. First in a series.
Wall Street Journal ^ | JULY 30, 2010 | By JULIA ANGWIN

Posted on 07/31/2010 5:05:40 AM PDT by dennisw

Hidden inside Ashley Hayes-Beaty's computer, a tiny file helps gather personal details about her, all to be put up for sale for a tenth of a penny.

The file consists of a single code— 4c812db292272995e5416a323e79bd37—that secretly identifies her as a 26-year-old female in Nashville, Tenn.

The code knows that her favorite movies include "The Princess Bride," "50 First Dates" and "10 Things I Hate About You." It knows she enjoys the "Sex and the City" series. It knows she browses entertainment news and likes to take quizzes.

Ms. Hayes-Beaty is being monitored by Lotame Solutions Inc., a New York company that uses sophisticated software called a "beacon" to capture what people are typing on a website—their comments on movies, say, or their interest in parenting and pregnancy. Lotame packages that data into profiles about individuals, without determining a person's name, and sells the profiles to companies seeking customers. Ms. Hayes-Beaty's tastes can be sold wholesale (a batch of movie lovers is $1 per thousand) or customized (26-year-old Southern fans of "50 First Dates").

"We can segment it all the way down to one person," says Eric Porres, Lotame's chief marketing officer.

One of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found, is the business of spying on Internet users.

The Journal conducted a comprehensive study that assesses and analyzes the broad array of cookies and other surveillance technology that companies are deploying on Internet users. It reveals that the tracking of consumers has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a handful of people in the vanguard of the industry.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 07/31/2010 5:05:41 AM PDT by dennisw
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To: dennisw

Full text here if not at original link——>>

http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=%22The+Web%27s+New+Gold+Mine%3A+Your+Secrets%22&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGLL_enUS358US358&ie=UTF-8


2 posted on 07/31/2010 5:07:48 AM PDT by dennisw (2012)
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To: dennisw

Cookies don’t normally operate across domains. Is this a new scheme to get that to happen?


3 posted on 07/31/2010 5:11:19 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: dennisw

Save for later.


4 posted on 07/31/2010 5:12:53 AM PDT by lysie
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To: lysie

This, added to those store cards we’re given regularly, which keep track of our purchase preferences, etc?


5 posted on 07/31/2010 5:15:28 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher (We are Americans...the sons and daughters of liberty...(*.from FReeper the Real fifi*))
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To: HiTech RedNeck

doesn’t spyware block this?


6 posted on 07/31/2010 5:30:46 AM PDT by nikos1121 (Praying for minus 24 today....at least minus 23...)
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To: dennisw

Big Brother watching us is really the only way to truly combat terrorism.

I mean if computers are monitoring us, then as soon as I type something to someone, it’s picked up and analyzed and the next thing the “thought police” are at the door.

No lingering doubt to where this world is going....1984 Brave New World...read like it’s happening now. Abortion rights....and the internet is paving the way.


7 posted on 07/31/2010 5:32:49 AM PDT by nikos1121 (Praying for minus 24 today....at least minus 23...)
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To: Molly Pitcher

I think this is tin foil.


8 posted on 07/31/2010 5:33:45 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: nikos1121

Anti-spyware generally warns of cookies. Cookies are a convenience facility that lets a web site mark you to remember you in the future, and for hard core privacy you should wipe them all from your browser at least once a session, if not deny them altogether. (Denying them everywhere would make it impossible to do things like log into FR.)


9 posted on 07/31/2010 5:37:43 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: HiTech RedNeck

>> Cookies don’t normally operate across domains.

They don’t have to, if they’re cookies from a third-party tracking ad url you fetch when you visit site A, then site B, then site C, ...

I read the article. It breathlessly informs of the same supposedly evil stuff that one would realize has been going on on the WorldWideWebz for years, if one spent five minutes thinking about it.

I mean, c’mon... why do you THINK the Fox News website takes a week and a half to load? ;-)


10 posted on 07/31/2010 5:40:48 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Eat more spinach! Make Green Jobs for America!)
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To: dennisw

sfl


11 posted on 07/31/2010 5:43:53 AM PDT by phockthis
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To: Nervous Tick

Don’t allow third-party cookies, use a hosts file, run Adblock Plus in Firefox and run Malwarebytes occasionally. Fox loads in a “flash” with no annoying ads.


12 posted on 07/31/2010 5:59:29 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9 (When in the course of human events...)
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To: Nervous Tick
"why do you THINK the Fox News website takes a week and a half to load?

Because FOX is the nexus of the vast right-wing conspiracy against H!?

13 posted on 07/31/2010 6:01:29 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: NY.SS-Bar9

Thanks for the tips.

I use solution (E): “Don’t visit Fox News much”.


14 posted on 07/31/2010 6:02:56 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Eat more spinach! Make Green Jobs for America!)
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To: dennisw
Does Ghostery help?

http://www.ghostery.com/

15 posted on 07/31/2010 6:03:09 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Nervous Tick

It’s not just Fox News.


16 posted on 07/31/2010 6:11:57 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9 (When in the course of human events...)
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To: dennisw
it almost sounds like it is done on their end, not a cookie on your pc
17 posted on 07/31/2010 6:28:43 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: dennisw

We can damage this company with a concentrated effort to provide false information...make it popular to do online...if enough people join in and it is publicized, company’s would be reluctant to pay this spy company for their data...the data would be viewed as invalid.


18 posted on 07/31/2010 6:32:06 AM PDT by Wpin ("I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny...")
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To: dennisw

Another ‘guard’ program one should use is Keyscrambler.

It scrambles many entries one types, including Google search, passwords, etc.

It is free for personal use for IE and Firefox.

http://www.qfxsoftware.com/index.html


19 posted on 07/31/2010 6:48:48 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: dennisw

This is pretty creepy. Not sure if it’s connected but Monday I went to Pottery Barn online looking at sofas and chairs. Now on certain websites with advertisers, I get pop up ads for PB sofas. It’s probably some cookie but it still creeps me out.


20 posted on 07/31/2010 6:56:22 AM PDT by penelopesire (FOX NEWS TRIBAL PRINCESS)
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