NPR reports on what it calls one of the fastest growing businesses on the Web, "spying on Internet users by using sophisticated software" to gather information that can then be sold to advertisers. In an interview on "Fresh Air," Julia Angwin, who led the team of reporters behind The Wall Street Journal's recent analysis of the use of tracking software by popular Web sites, noted that many Internet users are unaware of how their data is tracked and traded online. "Most people that we have heard from since writing these stories did not know what was going on," Angwin said, adding, "when you go to a Web site, you're not thinking about the fact that they might have relationships with all different types of monitoring firms, and those firms are installing things that are invisible to you on your computer."
Full Story