Tech: Security Online: My Space webs+t sends your personal Identity Data when ads are clickd

I got the dope on MySpace from Wall Street Journal reporters Geoffrey Fowler and Emily Steel who did an investigation to find out what the hell is goin' on (WSJ, Oct23,2k10) "S+t sends personal IDs when ads are clicked" :

MySpace and some popular applications on the social-networking s+t have been transmitting data to outside advertising companies that could be used to identify users, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The market for data about Web users is hot--and one of the methods used is "scraping," harvesting online conversations. In May, Nielsen scraped private forums where patients discuss illnesses. How can web users prevent their data from being scraped? Julia Angwin joins Digits to discuss.

The information was primarily sent by MySpace when users clicked on ads. The website had pledged to discontinue the practice of sending personal data when users click on ads after the Journal reported it in May.

A MySpace spokesman said the data identify the user profile being viewed but not necessarily the person who clicked on the ad. MySpace is owned by News Corp (shame!, let's see if Fox News will give noozcoverage to this WSJ report) -- WSJ is also owned by News Corp, which also owns The Wall Street Journal.

-- Technowlb

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