Hundreds of clues gathered about each user every month.


A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month.
These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see.
They can charge big prices for carefully tailored ads because of their high response rates.
The analysis, conducted for The New York Times by the research firm com- Score, provides what advertising executives say is the first broad estimate of the amount of consumer data that is transmitted to Internet companies.
The Web companies are, in effect, following the trail people take as they move around the Internet, and then analyzing them to anticipate their next steps.
So anybody who searches for information on such disparate topics as iron supplements, airlines, hotels and soft drinks may see ads for those products and services later on.
Consumers have not complained to any great extent about data collection online.
But privacy experts say that is because the collection is invisible to them.
“When you start to get into the details, it’s scarier than you might suspect,’’ said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group.
“We’re recording preferences, hopes, worries and fears.
’’ But executives from the largest Web companies say that privacy fears are misplaced, and that they have policies in place to protect consumers’ names and personal information from advertisers.
Moreover, they say, the data is a boon to consumers, because it makes the ads they see more relevant.
These companies often connect consumer data to unique codes identifying their computers, rather than their names.
“What is targeting in the long term-’’ said Michael Galgon, Microsoft’s chief advertising strategist.
“You’re getting content about things and messaging about things that are spot-on to who you are.
’’ Web companies once could monitor the actions of consumers only on their own sites.
But over the last couple of years, the Internet giants have spread their reach by acting as intermediaries that place ads on thousands of Web sites, and now can follow people’s activities on far more sites.
Large Web companies like Microsoft and Yahoo have also acquired a number of companies in the last year that have rich consumer data.
“So many of the deals are really about data,’’ said David Verklin, chief executive of Carat Americas, an ad agency in the Aegis Group that decides where to place ads for clients.
ComScore analyzed 15 major media companies’ potential to collect online data in December.
The analysis captured how many searches, display ads, videos and page views occurred on those sites and estimated the number of ads shown in their ad networks.
These actions represented “data transmission events’’ - times when consumer data was zapped back to the Web companies’ servers.
Five large Web operations - Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, AOL and MySpace - record at least 336 billion transmission events in a month, not counting their ad networks.
soccer tournament.
Lego America in Enfield, Connecticut, which manufactures toys, encourages employees to travel the company campus via scooter.
Google holds roller-hockey games in the parking lot twice a week, has ongoing Scrabble tournaments and boasts a baby grand piano in the break room.
Some companies actually put a group or an individual in charge of planning the levity.
At the advertising agency iris North America it’s called “the Smile Squad,” said Stewart Shanley, a founder.
The squad is responsible for “general well-being and serendipitous happenings” at the 475-employee agency, Mr. Shanley said.
“Keeping people happy is what makes them perform,” he said.
“The trick about running a successful business is to attract talent, and then this is the part people seem to forget, to manage and retain that talent.
That’s what the squads are for.
” But James Polonetsky, the chief privacy officer for AOL, cautions that not all of the data at every company is used together.
Much of it is stored separately.
The information transmitted might include a search for anything from vacation information to celebrity gossip, or a purchase of prescription drugs or other intimate items.
Yahoo came out with the most data collection points in a month on its own sites - about 110 billion collections, or 811 for the average user.
In addition, Yahoo has about 1,700 other opportunities to collect data about the average person on partner sites like eBay, where Yahoo sells the ads.
MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation, and AOL, a unit of Time Warner, were not far behind.
People who spend more time on the Internet, of course, will have more information transmitted about them.
Even with all the data Web companies have, they are finding ways to obtain more.
The giant Internet portals like Google have been buying addelivery companies like DoubleClick and Atlas, which have stockpiles of information.
Atlas, for example, delivers 6 billion ads every day.
“Everyone feels that if we can get more data, we could put ads in front of people who are interested in them,’’ Mr. Verklin said.
“That’s the whole idea here: put dog food ads in front of people who have dogs.’’


They Know More Than You Think
Web companies are usually compared by how many people visit their sites each month. But looking at how many times a month each Web company collects data about a typical visitor may be a better comparison. These figures are based on the number of times consumers make search inquiries on these sites as well as the number of ads they see, pages they view and videos they watch.


Notes: The ad networks are places these companies can collect data, but they do not in all of these instances.Also, the Time Warner figure is missing the ad network Tacoda, and the Microsoft number does not include its ad-serving company Atlas. Google’s numbers do not include the ad-serving company DoubleClick.