Online Tracking

Google has built a $632 billion dollar business out of tracking what people do online... you would not believe what they are about to track and deduce about each person. This is what Big Data is all about. (I used Google as the example here, but you can assume everyone is doing all of this and more!)

So, how do they do it?

1) Databases. Did you know that every single search you preform on Google is placed into a database, and tracked back to your ip address? Think about that for a second.


2) Sessions & Cookies. Sessions and Cookies are very similar. They are both tiny pieces of information that are stored on either your computer (cookies) or stored on the main server (Session). The main difference is sessions are all deleted once you close your tab, and cookies can last as long as the programmer wants. Cookies and sessions can be used to store how many times your visit a page or website, what you view or your location.

4) Google Analytics: Google did a really tricky thing. They convinced most websites that out of the goodness of their hearts they invented Google Analytics which would give you an amazing array of information about visitors.It can track evertyhing from how long people stay on a web page to country of origin. All you have to do is add a small snippet of javascript to each web page that allows Google to track everything anybody does on your site.


5) Signing in.
6) The internet of things.
7) your cell phone.