• The New York Times, Tuesday, August 21, 2012 11:06 AM

Companies are starting to use a new "largely invisible," metric -- the e-score -- to decide which ads to show to which consumers, The New York Times reports. E-scores rate rank consumers based on factors ranging from salary to home value to spending patterns. Unlike credit scores, people have no easy way to discover their e-scores, the Times' Natasha Singer writes. She says these scores can determine the types of offers people receive online. Federal regulators are expressing concerns that the scores "could pigeonhole people, limit their financial choices and channel some into predatory loans."

Read the whole story at The New York Times »