In Plain Sight: Online Tracking and Profiling

Internet advertisers reach millions of customers through practices that involve real time tracking of users’ online activities. The tracking is commonly conducted through browser cookies by third-party ad services. They engage with websites to facilitate marketing campaigns and gather service analytics. By installing cookies on users’ computers, they track the users as they navigate from one site to another. Other trackers exploit shortcomings in the access control to the cache and apply cookie-less profiling. By using Java scripts in their webpages, the trackers await unexpected visitors and gain access to the cached content. In that manner, they can reconstruct the users’ browsing history.

At the same time, user applications that facilitate interaction with services, such as commonly used Internet browsers, reveal little or no information about the information flow between the devices and services. That leaves the consumers with no insight about the breadth of the digital footprints they leave while interacting with services and no understanding of how that data is exploited. In the broader context of privacy and cyber-security, it is important to consider methods and computing designs that empower consumers to make well informed decisions and take actions that keep themselves and other safe.

We outline a research agenda that investigates several aspects of this problem area. That involves (1) characterizing the tracking ecosystem and the value exchange within it and (2) understanding of the users’ attitudes, behavior, and awareness of the tracking practices. We discuss the findings of several studies that investigate these issues. While they motivate us to think of alternatives to the privacy invading practices, they also urge deeper questions about the principles of design and comprehensibility of computing systems.