New York, Oct. 11: Worries over Internet privacy have spurred lawsuits and consumer anxiety as marketers invent new ways to track computer users on the Internet. But the alarmists have not seen anything yet. But in the next few years, a powerful new suite of capabilities will become available to web developers that could give marketers access to many more details about computer users’ online activities.
The new code, the fifth version of Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML5) used to create web pages, is already in limited use, and it promises to usher in a new era of Internet browsing in the next few years.
It will make it easier for users to view multimedia content without downloading extra software; check e-mail offline; or find a favo-urite restaurant. Most users will clearly welcome these features. But others are cautious as the new web code uses a process in which large amounts of data can be collected and stored on the user’s hard drive while online. Because of this, ad-vertisers could, experts say, see weeks of personal data including shopping details and e-mails.