When we visit a website, our IP address, type of machine and screen size can easily be ascertained. The website can also see how we got to the site - by what search term or the last website we were on. Our location can be found by cross-referring our IP address with other data. In theory, internet service providers (ISPs) can "see" everything a user chooses to do online including every website they visit. Search engines like Google have the ability to remember our search terms. Gmail and Yahoo both scan users' emails. They do algorithmic analysis of our email messages, targeting ads that relate to the content of our messages. A person's location can be tracked in three ways via a phone. Even when not in use for a call, a mobile phone that is switched on may be tracked to the nearest masts from which it is taking a signal. There's also the wifi network that a phone is using and its GPS - these are both more exact.
Corporate partnerships are just 1 of the 3 ways that the NSA has been collecting data from the Internet. The collection can be done through: cooperation with business, cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies and performing unilateral operations to intercept data as they pass Internet cables. NSA operations, involving partnerships with companies that help facilitate data interceptions as part of the implementation of their global surveillance programs, relate to the NSA department called “Special Source Operations” (SSO). Published documents show the American companies that have partnered with the NSA in the global surveillance program and are direct partners. Among them is Verizon as well as Qualcomm, which manufactures and sells equipment in the world market with backdoors for malware that facilitate spying. Other companies unveiled as NSA partners are: Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Qwest, EDS, AT & T, Verizon, Microsoft, IBM.