There are hundreds of companies that track you actually and they sell that data to many, many others. In an average hour of browsing, about 40 will try to track you. What you browse & search is very personal and very revealing - it's dangerous that anyone have that data and use it to determine what prices to charge you for goods, for insurance or whether you should even be offered a policy, or more e.g. searching for "pressure cooker" and "backpacks" led to a visit from six FBI agents to a writer. https://medium.com/something-like-falling/2e7d13e54724 ...there are tons more examples I could provide!
That's ironic since counterterrorism[1] is the supposed primary mission of the NSA surveillance enabled by FISC / PATRIOT Act.
[1] Provided that you think a simple Googling of "backpack" and "pressure cooker" in the days following the Boston Marathon Attack implies a probable link to terrorism.
Thanks for the update to the pressure cooker/backpack article - nevertheless there was a police visit based on his googling which is a bit scary. There are many dangers you could imagine if what you search could be used against you (assuming it's not private).
