My Way News - Lawmakers demand info on Web tracking practices
AP reports: "A congressional committee wants the nation's largest telecommunications and Internet companies to explain whether they target online advertising based on consumers' search queries and Web surfing habits."

Comment: A lot of us first approach this issue with a bit of naive skepticism, after all, we think, if we are only talking about aggregate data and not personally identifiable data, then what's the harm? But in order to serve me local ads, they need to know where I live, and in order to cater to my needs and desires, they need to know my search terms, and in order to analyze, store and maybe even sell this data, they need a tracking number, like my IP address, which leads them back directly to my computer...and to me. If consumers had real lobbyists or maybe even real elected representatives, privacy laws would allow us to control (or opt out) of who gets our data and under what circumstances they get it.