Online Tracking Is Getting Creepier

Julia Angwin explains how the marketers that follow you around the Web are getting nosier, increasingly seeking users' offline data—such as how many kids you have and what kind of car you drive—to target you with even more intrusive ads. Her ProPublica investigation “Why Online Tracking Is Getting Creepier” shows how this process of matching users' online and offline identities, often called "onboarding," works and why it’s a hot trend in Silicon Valley. Onboarding can be used to tag specific customers, such as big spenders, so that when they visit the client's Website it's customized to show them more expensive offerings.