not all the companies we found had opt outs. >> host: julia angwin, how quickly has the sophistication of tracking devices grow quiet and how close are we to personally identifying people? >> guest: well, this industry has really been exploding. so it really started to take off in 2006, 2007. in the past 30 years, there has been hundreds of companies and at least 5 billion in venture capital have been put into this industry. so they've come up with all sorts of new creative ways to track people. there is an insatiable demand to find out ever more information. so they are getting closer and closer to identification. there is a study released last week that we wrote about, which said there is a huge amount of identity information on the web and a lot of it is being sent to these tracking companies. so the researcher created an account and almost 200 websites that they could create accounts and then look to see how much of that information was identifiable either e-mail or user i.d. or other identifying detail is transmitted through parties. and once again, this is a situation where when

julia angwin, back to the medical records issues. for years, we have been hearing about the need or the desire on a lot of people's parts to put medical records on line electronically. is the privacy issue, the fact that all of these private companies have so much information about us, one of the reasons it has not happened? guest: you know, i'm not entirely sure why the medical records issue has not happened. i think it is a really complex issue, because of the way our health care system is set up. generally, people are anxious to control their own data on lead. certain people we talked to, and would want to have their medical records because that is something they could control. google tried to set up a health vault. i think they were too early. the issue icy and writing about this area is that there are all of these companies out there that control bits of our data and i think a lot of people would feel much more comfortable if they control it themselves or at least have access to it. oftentimes, you do not have all right to acces

julia angwin, back to the medical records issues.for years we have been hearing about the need or the desire on a lot of people's parts to put medical records online and electronically. is the privacy issue the fact that all these private companies have so much information about us one of the reasons it hasn't happened? >> guest: i am not entirely sure why the medical records issue hasn't happened. i think it's a really complex issue because of the warehouse system set up, but i would say that generally people are really anxious to control their own data online. certainly people we talk to it would want to have the medical records because that is something then they can control. so google charness to set the pace were deutsch it didn't work out a think they were too early. but the issue i see right about this area is these companies out there that controls the data and would feel comfortable if they control themselves and have access to. oftentimes you don't have a right to access your data and in europe you for instance. right now a

. >> host: julia angwin, how quickly has tracking devices grown and how close are we too personally identify people? >> this industry has been exploding. is started to take off to him in 2007 and hundreds of companies in at least 5 billion a venture capital put into this industry. so they come up with creative ways coming up with the insatiable demand to find out more information. they are getting closer there was a study that said there is a huge amount does identity information on the web and it is being sent to the tracking company is. they created an account but to see the user radio other not was more than half of them. to say they did not know it was being transmitted but it is becoming harder to make the argument that it is true the anonymous the special with services like facebook and google who already know the wire. when they already know that the white button is all over the web they'll also see you on this site they know who you are in which website you are on. >> host: what is the benefit to being tracked? what is the downside? >> the benefits are that you get advertisements tha

. >> julia angwin tonight on c-span2. >> michele bachmann is here, i understand, and she is thinking about running for president. which is weird, because i hear she was born in canada. yes, michele, this is how it starts. >> it's so amazing to me in washington, d.c., all this history, all these amazing buildings, and yet here we are at the hilton. the red carpet outside was amazing. who are you wearing? what does it matter? i'm going into a hilton. >> with more than nine million views of president obama's appearance and 2 off 5 million watchers, c-span's coverage of the white house dinner ranked most the top political videos. watch them on youtube.com/cspan. "washington journal" continues. host: on your screen, kahlil byrd, the director and c.e.o. of a group called americans elect, which made news recently in its quest to get on all 50 state ballots. they made the important state of california. and he's here to talk about americans-elect and the whole third-party bid for the u.s. presidency as we begin the election year. well, for those who aren't familiar, give us the broad outline

today, we are pleased we are pleased to introduce you to julia angwin. she is a senior technology editor with "the wall street journal." she joins us from our new york studio. ms. england there is a series in "the wall street journal," rather frequent series in "the wall street journal" called what they know. what is that serious about? >> guest: hi, thanks for having me on. of a series of what they know launched last year, and it's really about privacy in the digital age. we started off by wi