Chris Hoofnagle writes:
… Ubiquitous consumer tracking is the reality in the online world. Your browsing is being followed on almost all Web sites by a single company: Google. In a study published last year, my colleagues found Google trackers on over 88 percent of 393,000 unique Web sites. Only governments have the ability to monitor individuals this expansively.
Yet, you have no way to ask Google to stop this tracking. Instead, you can merely opt-out of the targeted advertising – the product recommendations. Exercising your privacy options creates a worst-case-scenario outcome: If you opt out, you are still tracked, but you do not receive the putative benefit of targeted ads.
Read more of his commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Thanks to the reader who sent in this link.