disney, warner bros. spied on children's web surfing habits

users profiles 'bought & sold on stock-market-like exchanges'
from raw story: A class-action lawsuit filed in a federal court last week alleges that Disney and other large corporations spied on visitors to their Web sites using "Flash cookies" installed on users' browsers.

The lawsuit, filed in a US District Court in California on behalf of a group of parents and their children, alleges that Clearpsring, a company contracted by Disney, Warner Bros. Records, Playlist.com and other Web site operators, used its AddThis Web page tool to install "Flash cookies" in computer browsers which would then track individual computer users.

According to a report at CNET, the lawsuit states these cookies can't be erased using the usual methods of erasing browser history because they are built on Flash technology. Additionally, SecPoint.com reports that these Flash cookies can even un-delete, or "re-spawn," regular cookies that were erased by the user.

Once installed, these small pieces of software tracked users "across numerous Web sites, even spotting and tracking users when they accessed the Web from different computers, at home and at work," the lawsuit alleges.