Everything you hit on the browser is spying on you. Why the hell should the NY Times, which is the "Newspaper of Record" (or bad record), be any different? What makes you think anything is ever secret online?

Yes the old adage is true. On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. That is, unless they care to harvest your information for days at a time and buy 3rd party information on you, in which case they can be pretty darn sure about what you are, at least in part.