When thinking about writing on your friend's Facebook wall, looking at ESPN highlights or even checking the weather, no one really thinks they're being followed on the Internet. But the harsh truth is that every time you visit a website, your computer saves a digital code to your hard drive of where you've been and what you've been looking at. And yes, this tactic is legal.
In early August, The Wall Street Journal reported one of the fastest growing businesses on the Internet is the business of spying on Internet users.
How often are you followed? Every time you click a new website. According to The Week magazine, data miners track everything you do. What happens next is a numerous amount of companies join in and begin to trail what you visit, building a profile of you based on the websites you follow. And naturally, it gets worse.
The profile these companies build could be extremely detailed, including information about your age, shopping habits, income, demographics on where you live and even your sexual preferences. Based on what they sift through, they can find a person without even knowing his or her name.
The electronic codes saved to your hard drive called "cookies" were initially intended for websites to remember things users liked to visit on the Web. Now these cookies allow for marketers, advertisers and sellers to locate someone's computer and follow the user's trail.
If it's illegal to trespass on someone's property, let alone stalk them, then why is it legal for an unidentifiable data miner to spy on your every move? "Big Brother" is no longer a reality TV series — it's just reality.
Here's a scarier thought. Depending on who's allowed to follow what you look at on the Internet, when you sit down for your next job interview, will they already know who you are before you are even given the chance to speak?
So what can Internet users do without cutting themselves off from cyberspace? Well, for one, avoiding distasteful websites would probably help. But then there are other solutions too:
1) Clear your cookies folder in your Web browser preferences every so often. This won't delete anything you have saved, it just clears the trail.
2) Delete your browser's cache.
3) Check the "Block Pop-Up Windows" option on your browser.
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4) If you have a "Private Browsing" option, check that too.
Unfortunately, there's no way to permanently run away from these so-called Internet spies. But if you regulate your Internet browsing time wisely, you might avoid having that extensive profile about you that's out there somewhere.
It's a little shocking to know that we aren't always safe in the privacy of our own homes. I personally find this discomforting because I now know that the word freedom has a different meaning in the context of the World Wide Web.
Next time you open up your laptop to surf the Internet, look on the right hand side of a website's page where ads usually go. They will probably cater to what you like to look at. It will be like a set of eyes watching you that you cannot find or even see.
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