Abstract: . . .  these products had noticeable user tracking components, and their businesses seem to have relied on monitoring as an essential part of their business plan. This supports the hypothesis that user tracking is a risky business proposition. We wonder what will happen to the user data that these firms have already collected [17 ]. Page 19 19 . . .
. . .  intentionally examine query strings in the hopes that they will have shopping or profiling value. After noticing a users Web search for portable MP3 players, for example, a browser extension might present an advertisement or coupon for a specific player. This can be done in a privacy -friendly way by reacting to known keywords on the monitored users PC i.e., without transmitting the URLs to a remote site and thereby exposing potentially sensitive data. A little defensive programming would make a big difference here. E. HARVESTING SEARCH STRINGS  . . .
. . .  not undertake a systematic survey of the market in order to ensure complete coverage. And since browser extensions are designed and constructed for extremely diverse business purposes, we believe that a random sample of products would not meaningfully represent the full spectrum of practices. So, we simply chose to study the products that had been brought to our attention or that we had noticed in our ordinary Web use. The resulting sample corresponds to the marketing effort and success of their creators, at least loosely. Browser plug-ins such as RealPlayer . . .
. . .  embedded in URLs they receive. But by then, the URLs and email addresses have already been inappropriately exposed and possibly logged. Some browser extensions intentionally examine query strings in the hopes that they will have shopping or profiling value. After noticing a users Web search for portable MP3 players, for example, a browser extension might present an advertisement or coupon for a specific player. This can be done in a privacy -friendly way by reacting to known keywords on the monitored users PC i.e., without transmitting the URLs to a remote . . .
. . .  case of query string monitoring. The practice is interesting because search engines such as Yahoo! and AltaVista sell advertising responses to search phrases: in addition to the ordinary search results, a banner advertisement related to the search sometimes appears as well. When a browser extension monitors the search strings too, it essentially rides on the search engines infrastructure without paying any of the infrastructure maintenance costs, and may dilute the value of advertising purchased directly from the search engine if it displays competing advertisements. . . .
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