Whether you shop online, send email, or even look for a job, it seems that someone can look over your shoulder in some way. These are words that just do not go together. It's a silly thing to do because those devices are not interactive. They can't hear you and don't care what you do with them. The Internet does.
Most people assume that surfing on the Internet is like watching television.
But unlike television, everywhere you go on the Internet, including your actions and re-actions online, are recorded as with an endless tape. Every click and every email is embedded somewhere. It can be retrieved, re-sent, and analyzed. From this, enterprising e-commerce companies can know which advertisements to place in front of you and what web sites offer the most bang for the advertising buck. The technology behind it all sounds harmless.