  Browsing privacy solutions face an uphill battle to deployment. Many operate
counter to the economic objectives of popular online services (e.g., by
completely blocking ads) and do not provide enough incentive for users who may
be subject to performance degradation for deploying them. In this study, we
take a step towards realizing a system for online privacy that is mutually
beneficial to users and online advertisers: an information market. This system
not only maintains economic viability for online services, but also provides
users with financial compensation to encourage them to participate. We
prototype and evaluate an information market that provides privacy and revenue
to users while preserving and sometimes improving their Web performance. We
evaluate feasibility of the market via a one month field study with 63 users
and find that users are indeed willing to sell their browsing information. We
also use Web traces of millions of users to drive a simulation study to
evaluate the system at scale. We find that the system can indeed be profitable
to both users and online advertisers.
