A cookie is a small file to your computer when you visit the company's website. It tells them a lot about your browsing habits. Using the web without them is nearly impossible. Double Click, an advertising company, has agreements with over 11,000 websites and maintains cookies on 100 million users to get information about them for marketing
Offline, the story is the same. When you turn on a mobile phone, the phone company can monitor calls and also record the the location of the phone, We use more and more electronic systems for tickets, and for access to buildings. It is becoming common for telephone calls, voice mail, email and computer use.
The use of video surveillance cameras is also growing. Britain has about 1.5 million cameras in public places (for example, airports, shopping malls and public buildings). The average Briton is recorded by CCTV cameras 300 times a day. With digital cameras we can collect, store and analyse millions of images.
And this is only the beginning. Engineers are now developing cameras that can "see" through clothing, walls or cars. Satellites can recognise objects only one meter across. We can attach tracking chips to products or people.
New technology offers substantial benefits- more security against terrorists and criminals, higher productivity at work, a wider selection of products, more personal information because we want the benefits.
But all this monitoring generates a mountain of data about us. Surveillance is everywhere in our society, often without our knowledge. Most people hate the idea but they don't know how to stop it.