In a previous post, I recommended you write to your MP, cancel your phone service, and call Jeremy Vine (from someone else's phone) if your ISP started using Phorm.
Well, Sir Tim Berners-Lee says:
The creator of the web has said consumers need to be protected
against systems which can track their activity on the internet.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he would change his internet
provider if it introduced such a system.
Plans by leading internet providers to use Phorm, a company
which tracks web activity to create personalised adverts, have
sparked controversy.
Sir Tim said he did not want his ISP to track which websites
he visited.
"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%
because they've figured I'm looking at those books," he said.
Sir Tim said his data and web history belonged to him.
He said: "It's mine - you can't have it. 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."
Seriously folks, imagine how you'd feel if the Royal Mail said "hey, we opened your post and saw that you had a letter from the bank warning you about your overdraft, can we interest you in a low-price loan"? Or if your phone company rang you up and said "You've had a call from the hospital, would you like some low-price funeral expenses insurance?" I could hope that this will encourage more people to use encryption such as PGP, but that's not likely. People have never really understood why encyrption is important in reducing their internet footprint.
More to the point, it would be illegal. Has the law not caught up with the fact that we conduct sensitive and private communications over the Internet, not just by phone and letter?
I wonder if Sir Tim will get an invite from Phorm's PR company to a business briefing as well?
Well, Sir Tim Berners-Lee says:
The creator of the web has said consumers need to be protected
against systems which can track their activity on the internet.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he would change his internet
provider if it introduced such a system.
Plans by leading internet providers to use Phorm, a company
which tracks web activity to create personalised adverts, have
sparked controversy.
Sir Tim said he did not want his ISP to track which websites
he visited.
"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%
because they've figured I'm looking at those books," he said.
Sir Tim said his data and web history belonged to him.
He said: "It's mine - you can't have it. 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."
Seriously folks, imagine how you'd feel if the Royal Mail said "hey, we opened your post and saw that you had a letter from the bank warning you about your overdraft, can we interest you in a low-price loan"? Or if your phone company rang you up and said "You've had a call from the hospital, would you like some low-price funeral expenses insurance?" I could hope that this will encourage more people to use encryption such as PGP, but that's not likely. People have never really understood why encyrption is important in reducing their internet footprint.
More to the point, it would be illegal. Has the law not caught up with the fact that we conduct sensitive and private communications over the Internet, not just by phone and letter?
I wonder if Sir Tim will get an invite from Phorm's PR company to a business briefing as well?
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