[A2k] privacy/net tracking - from BBC

[Anne-Catherine Lorrain]

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Last Updated: Monday, 17 March 2008, 02:53 GMT

Web creator rejects net tracking
By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News


Sir Tim Berners-Lee has fears over the future of the internet
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.


 I think consumers rights in this are very important - we haven't seen
the results of these systems being used
Sir Tim Berners-Lee


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."

Phorm has said its system offers security benefits which will warn users
about potential phishing sites - websites which attempt to con users
into handing over personal data.

The advertising system created by Phorm highlights a growing trend for
online advertising tools - using personal data and web habits to target
advertising.

Social network Facebook was widely criticised when it attempted to
introduce an ad system, called Beacon, which leveraged people's habits
on and off the site in order to provide personal ads.

'No strings'

The company was forced to give customers a universal opt out after
negative coverage in the media.

Sir Tim added: "I myself feel that it is very important that my ISP
supplies internet to my house like the water company supplies water to
my house. It supplies connectivity with no strings attached. My ISP
doesn't control which websites I go to, it doesn't monitor which
websites I go to."

Sir Tim Berners-Lee talks about the future of the internet

Talk Talk has said its customers would have to opt in to use Phorm,
while the two other companies which have signed up - BT and Virgin - are
still considering both opt in or opt out options.

Sir Tim said he supported an opt-in system.

"I think consumers rights in this are very important. We haven't seen
the results of these systems being used."

  We should look out for snags in the future - things can change so fast
on the internet

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Privacy campaigners have questioned the legality of ISPs intercepting
their customers' web-surfing habits.

But the Home Office in the UK has drawn up guidance which suggests the
ISPs will conform with the law if customers have given consent.

Sir Tim also said the spread of social networks like Facebook and
MySpace was a good example of increasing involvement in the web. But he
had a warning for young people about putting personal data on these
sites.

"Imagine that everything you are typing is being read by the person you
are applying to for your first job. Imagine that it's all going to be
seen by your parents and your grandparents and your grandchildren as
well."

But he said he had tried out several of the sites, and thought they
might in the end be even more popular with the elderly than with young
people.

Sir Tim was on a short visit to Britain from his base at MIT in Boston,
during which he met government ministers, academics and major
corporations, to promote a new subject, Web Science.

This is a multi-disciplinary effort to study the web and try to guide
its future. Sir Tim explained that there were now more web pages than
there are neurons in the human brain, yet the shape and growth of the
web were still not properly understood.

"We should look out for snags in the future," he said, pointing to the
way email had been swamped by spam as an example of how things could go
wrong. "Things can change so fast on the internet."

But he promised that what web scientists would produce over the coming
years "will blow our minds".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7299875.stm


Anne-Catherine Lorrain
TACD Intellectual Property Policy Officer
Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)
Consumers International
Avenue de Tervueren, 36 Bte 4
1040 Bruxelles
Mob: 0032 473 99 97 92
Tel: 0032 2 740 28 17
Fax: 0032 2 740 28 02
www.consumersinternational.org <http://www.consumersinternational.org/>
www.tacd.org <http://www.tacd.org/>