Battle brewing over control of personal data online

Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other Internet companies have made billions of dollars tracking people's online movements and using that data to target advertising based on their prediction of what a person might want to buy. But as privacy concerns grow in Washington and Europe over the voluminous personal data being collected online and through smartphones, a wave of startups hopes to create a new business model for the use of that data.

Rather than an Internet where invisible software "cookies" track consumers' movements online -- allowing somebody else to cash in on that data -- their alternative model would allow individuals to control their own data, and perhaps even profit by selling access to it. Some advocates predict the rise of "a privacy and reputation economy," where a constellation of Internet companies would provide services that allow people to discover what information exists about them online, to counter false information, and even allow people to share personal information with advertisers when it benefits them.