Question: I went to several local websites that do web design. I never entered any of my personal data at any of these websites, but a few hours later someone called me from one of those websites and said he heard I was looking for a web designer. How did they get my name and phone number?
Answer: Companies can install software on their website that will capture a visitor’s name and city of Internet access. The companies that sell this software call it lead generating. I call it invasion of privacy, especially since the visitor to the website doesn’t know that personal information is being collected about them.
If it really bothers you, try using the Internet through a proxy server. There are several online companies that provide this service. Some are free and some charge a monthly fee. When you surf the net using a proxy server, your IP address is hidden and all that anyone tracking you can see is one of the many hundreds or thousands of IP addresses used by the company that provides the proxy.
The only disadvantage to using a proxy server is that most of them slow down your Internet speed because all of your search requests are being routed through the proxy server.