Internet marketers

The Web sites computer users visit, the search queries they conduct and the products they buy -- along with all the personal details they reveal on social networking pages -- can give companies insight into what Internet ads they might be interested in seeing.

But privacy watchdogs warn that too many people have no idea that Internet marketers are tracking their online habits and then mining that data to serve up targeted pitches -- a practice known as behavioral advertising.

MySpace can collect $6 million from a notorious Internet marketer accused by the popular online hangout of spamming its users.

An arbitrator has ruled that Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway LLC of Westminster, Colorado, must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements. Media Breakaway and its employees were also banned from the site.