Until I developed a new web site, I had no idea how much personal information webcasters collected on visitors. I always had assumed that surfing the Internet was an anonymous experience. The net was a benign tool that made my job easier. It brought the latest information on politics and media to my fingertips and eliminated my need to dig through dusty old newspapers.

In part, it was seeing how the web facilitated my political science work that convinced me to set up my own nonprofit site dedicated to state and national politics. If the Internet was such a positive force for public education, perhaps my site could inform people about political events, upcoming campaigns, and policy controversies.

Now that I am a certified webcaster, however, I am astonished at the level of detail available to those running Internet sites. Every time you visit a web site, your behavior is monitored. Webcasters don't know your name, but we know your Internet provider. If you log on through a school, university, business, or governmental agency, we generally can identify your institutional affiliation. In addition, we know what files you look at and how long you spend viewing each item down to the second.

This is an obvious goldmine for webcasters interested in catering to the tastes of their audience.