engine - 3:38 pm on Mar 10, 2008 (gmt 0)

The Web companies are, in effect, taking the trail of crumbs people leave behind as they move around the Internet, and then analyzing them to anticipate people’s next steps. So anybody who searches for information on such disparate topics as iron supplements, airlines, hotels and soft drinks may see ads for those products and services later on. Consumers have not complained to any great extent about data collection online. But privacy experts say that is because the collection is invisible to them. Unlike Facebook’s Beacon program, which stirred controversy last year when it broadcast its members’ purchases to their online friends, most companies do not flash a notice on the screen when they collect data about visitors to their sites.

The Breadcrumbs You Leave: Should You Be Concerned [nytimes.com]

Or is it just a smart way of delivery ads? ;)

It will not be "injecting" anything into your internet connection, as some commenters on our previous stories have suggested. Phorm's Open Internet Exchange (OIX) is an online advertising broker service that, just like DoubleClick, matches advertisers with publishers. For both these parties, the closer the match the better: advertisers reach the people they're most interested in, who are more likely to click on the ad, which means the publisher will get more money.

[theregister.co.uk...]

[edited by: engine at 4:30 pm (utc) on Mar. 10, 2008]