Pay-per-tracking: A collaborative masking model for web browsing

In this paper, we propose a new tracking paradigm that aims at returning control to users over tracking and advertising, and allowing them to participate in the monetization of their browsing data. The proposed paradigm breaks with the current barter model of exchanging privacy for services and, at the same time, it may preserve the Internet economic model where content is paid from advertisement revenue. We have designed a system architecture that implements this model in practice, and optimizes the exchange of privacy for money. Our ultimate aim is to strike a better balance between user privacy and the economic model that sustains the Web, and thus overcome the deadlock caused by the ad blocking wars. Experimental results with real browsing data demonstrate the suitability and feasibility of our approach.