Internet users have few sites that are bookmarked and they navigate through these sites to gather information or use data from the site that is helpful in carrying business operations. These mostly visited sites will grab the user data using different fields such as cookies, search queries, third parties, log data, double click, ad sense and profile updates.
Most of the sites gather user information that includes their IP address, phone number, email id of user, additional device information, profile information, location, number of ad clicks, SMS routing information and operating system data. The information collected may be used for target advertising, send notifications, to provide location service or they direct the information to marketers.
Some giant websites that hold large number of users are Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Pandora and LinkedIn. Facebook holds the record for having 901 million active users and LinkedIn occupies second place with 160 million active users. Social networking sites and search engines are the major sources used for gathering user information.