FUTURE OF MOBILE: Advertisers and the quest for your data

Ever more complex tracking programmes are being used to analyse consumers’ internet habits. And the information gathered is not to your benefit. John Hearne investigates.

YOU’RE sitting at home watching TV. Your smartphone is lying on the couch beside you. An ad comes on the box. You watch for a few seconds, then pick up the remote and change channel.

That little act — deciding not to watch a particular ad — is one of the many fragments of consumer activity that make up our lives. Each day is filled with them.