Taking Back Control

So what can you do? Much like with the -- they pull up detailed dossiers of your online footprint, including such things as personal photos, music tastes, and shopping lists -- Google's new advertising system can serve as a kick in the pants for all of us to think carefully about what information we're sharing, most often unintentionally. Google isn't the first company to experiment with behavioral targeting (paging , paging ), and odds are, it won't be the last.

Coming out of our , we looked at the options available for taking back control and within that realm. As is the case with those services, behavioral targeting systems require you to take the initiative in order to keep your information from being shared.

Here are some places to start:

· If there's one site you visit, it should be the . NAI, a consumer awareness organization, has created a handy utility that lets you see more than two dozen ad networks that may be pulling your info (even though you've probably never heard of most of them). The page shows you which companies have cookies set on your computer, then offers you an option to turn them off.