Behavioral Advertising

Behavioral advertising is used by groups, such as online advertisers, to track users as they move around the internet. This method allows third parties to infer and learn significant amounts of information about users and their browsing habits. Members of my research lab, CUPS, have studied how users perceive the issues surrounding behavioral advertising.

Researchers in the Computer Science Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are interested in educating users about what information your browser shares with web pages it visits. They setup a web page called What They Know where users can go to see what information they are broadcasting. Users visitors can also see the trends from past visitors.

Update: EFF has a site you can visit which shows the identifiable information your browser broadcasts to every site you visit.

Update: What They Know has published a report of their findings.