..........courtesy of your ISP (soon)
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and senior researcher
at
MIT, recently described his vision for a semantic Web that, instead of
analyzing statistical data focused on people, would draw on a layer of
metadata to highlight more-complex connections between all types of data,
from your banking activity to your photo collection to your business
calendar.
But Berners-Lee's enthusiasm for innovation on the Web is tempered by
anything that might compromise user privacy. In a story published Monday
by
the BBC News, he cited his concerns about Open Internet Exchange, an
Internet ad platform developed by Web-technology company Phorm. Phorm,
whose
clients include BT, Virgin Media, and Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk,
offers
a system that connects advertisers, Web sites, and ISPs to produce
more-targeted advertising based on a user's browsing trends
Berners-Lee wants no part of it.
"I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of
cancer
that that's not going to get to my insurance company and I'm going to find
my insurance premium is going to go up by 5 percent because they've
figured
I'm looking at those books," he told the BBC.
His online data and Web history, he went on to say, belongs to him alone.
"It's mine--you can't have it," he said. "If you want to use it for
something, then you have to negotiate with me. I have to agree, I have to
understand what I'm getting in return."
The BBC story noted that negative publicity about its Open Internet
Exchange
prompted Phorm to offer all users the option to opt out of its tracking
service. On its Web site, Phorm touts its focus on "creating a new 'gold
standard' for user privacy, a more relevant Internet experience, and more
value for advertisers, publishers, Internet service providers, and others
in
the online ecosystem."
Berners-Lee said ISPs should offer an opt-in--rather than opt-out--option.
Berners-Lee's remarks further stoked a long-running debate in the U.K.
over
the merits of Phorm's service, which security firm Trend Micro has
described
as "adware." A story published on Monday by technology news site The
Register noted that BT admitted to testing the Phorm software without
informing the BT customers whose data was used in the test.
"We conducted a very small-scale technical test of a prototype advertising
platform on one exchange in June 2007," BT said in a statement. "The test
was specifically conducted to evaluate the functional and technical
performance of the platform. Absolutely no personally identifiable
information was processed, stored or disclosed during this trial. As with
all service providers, it is im****tant for BT to ensure that, before any
potential new technologies are employed, they are robust and fit for
purpose."
Meanwhile, another BBC News story published on Monday notes that the
Foundation for Information Policy Research, a think tank for Internet
policy
in Britain, has warned that Phorm might contravene the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which protects users from unlawful
interception of information. FIPR has written an open letter to the U.K.'s
information commissioner, Richard Thomas, arguing that Phorm must not only
seek the consent of Web users but also of Web site operators, the story
says.
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Erom http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895526-7.html?tag=nefd.top
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