The online behaviour of millions of Australians is to be tracked and auctioned to advertisers by a new generation of internet businesses setting up shop here.
The world’s largest data exchange
, the Californian company BlueKai, boasts it already has the computer addresses and purchasing intent
of 8 million Australians it knows are in the market for cars, holidays and online shopping.
And a British company, Phorm, which has been investigated by European regulators for alleged privacy breaches, targets customers of consenting internet service providers with ads based on websites they visit and their customer details. It was found to have served up ads to users of British Telecom’s net service without seeking their prior consent — via redwolf.newsvine.com