[FanDeAliFee]

In my post several months ago, Why we were noticed and how we got noticed more, I wrote about how all of us in the affluent world were being profiled around the turn of the century.

Now the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has looked at how our use of the Web today provides new avenues for profiling us. This makes it possible to do things like generate the sort of Web site visitor demographics cited in this thread. More remarkably, it also helps make it more possible for an ad to follow you around as you visit different places on the Web.

Start by reviewing the US National Public Radio show episode, Tracking The Companies That Track You Online, in which WSJ's Julia Angwin is interviewed. This includes both auditory (39 minutes) and brief textual content. (You can also download the audio as an 18 MB mp3 file here.)

If you want to explore further, you can read content on the WSJ itself:

1. The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets
2. Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy
3. On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only
4. Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers