Far too many people just don’t care about online privacy. Maybe you’re one of them. And maybe I don’t care if I spit into the wind on this subject. Again.
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 Journal examined the 50 most popular U.S. websites, which account for about 40% of the Web pages viewed by Americans. (The Journal also tested its own site, WSJ.com.) It then analyzed the tracking files and programs these sites downloaded onto a test computer.
As a group, the top 50 sites placed 3,180 tracking files in total on the Journal’s test computer. Nearly a third of these were innocuous, deployed to remember the password to a favorite site or tally most-popular articles.
But over two-thirds—2,224—were installed by 131 companies, many of which are in the business of tracking Web users to create rich databases of consumer profiles that can be sold.
The top venue for such technology, the Journal found, was….
I was surprised.
Maybe you won’t be.
Amazing!
The top venue for such technology, the Journal found, was IAC/InterActive Corp.’s Dictionary.com. A visit to the online dictionary site resulted in 234 files or programs being downloaded onto the Journal’s test computer, 223 of which were from companies that track Web users.
It’s a long article, but I highly recommend it to you: The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets
Uh, oh. I use Dictionary.com all the time to check words for your Boggle games and an old Scrabble-type game. time to dig out the 1973 Scrabble dictionary! It’s safer (though does not have computer or other technical terms).