Privacy? Think again

Late Friday evening the Wall Street Journal ran what I consider to be a shocking report.  Many of the largest websites are installing super sophisticated tracking software to micro-track your web browsing.  These sites include the likes of Google, MSN, Comcast.net., and Dictionary.com.

Up to 100 pieces of tracking software can be running simultaneously.  Some of these mini-programs are tracking your keystrokes and then analyzing what you have typed to create a profile of you.  In other words, the tracking software allows companies to “build personal profiles that could include age, gender, race, zip code, income, marital status and health concerns, along with recent purchases and favorite TV shows and movies.”

The Journal’s study examined the top 50 trafficked websites that cover approximately 40% of page views.  Those top 50 sites installed on the Journal’s test computer 3,180 tracking files.  Of that number, 2,224 came from 131 companies that are in the business of making money by selling usage data to advertisers.  When queried, each of the companies in question defended their actions by saying that they do not track individuals by name.  They also stated that their sites disclose such tracking in their privacy policies.  However, if you have ever read through one of those privacy policies you know that, yes, they do disclose that they track you.  What is not disclosed is to what degree you are tracked.  Yikes!

I normally am not bothered by privacy type issues, however, this seems excessive to me.  I already feel that advertising is intrusive and over the top.  So I am very concerned about the pervasiveness and completeness of these tracking programs.  Yuck!  One of the reasons that I do not have advertising on this blog is because I always want my readers to know that there is not a conflict of interest between my content and my supporters.  This site remains, and will always remain, advertising free.

Jason