Deep Privacy Invasion: UK roundtable
p2pnet news view Freedom | Advertising:- With ad company Google’s plan to start profiling users so it can force more ads on them firmly in mind, World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee today warned British MPs and peers they shouldn’t allow third parties, including commercial companies, to snoop on people’s internet browsing, says The Guardian.
It won’t take long for Google executives, “to look at the stock price and then at the data its [sic] not using and argue that the company could make even more money by selling finer and finer slices of its user base to advertisers,” says Ryan Singel on Wired.
Soon, “everything of Google’s that you touch will all become part of your profile – from its website analytics program, sneaky Big Brother-esque Web Hionstory program, checkout system, news subscription reader, image search, cellphone location reporting service, book digitization, news site and GMail e-mail and chats.”
And then, “how hard would it be for Google to categorize you as a Libertarian, Democrat, Republican or Communist based on your Google behavior?” – he wonders, adding »»»
How profitable would that level of profiling be?
Simple and very.
Sure, Google is letting you opt out and even add and delete profile categories, if you like. And there`s a plug-in too.
That`s fine and transparent, but no one will use either tool.
Deep Privacy Invasion
“We use the internet without a thought that a third party would know what we have just clicked on,” The Guardian has Berners-Lee said saying.
He views came during a roundtable – Online Privacy and the Interception of Internet Communications.
Chaired by baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer, MPs and peers were discuss the issue with leading experts including Sir Tim Berners Lee, Nicholas Bohm, general counsel, Foundation for Information Policy Research, Caspar Bowden, senior security and privacy officer, Microsoft EMEA Region, Jim Killock, Open Rights Group, and Robb Topolski, US Federal Communications Commission panel member.
“Ad agencies, ISPs, and so on, call DPI Deep Packet Inspection, p2pnet posted recently.
But p2pnet calls it Deep Privacy Invasion, “and its use as a means of mining private and personal online data now comprises a major threat around the world,” we said.
A prime user is privacy pirate Phorm and, “Which? magazine, The Telegraph, Google/UK Press Association and Channel 4 have all pulled articles over Phorm Inc. (BT/Webwise) legal threats,” we went on, quoting Wikileaks.
We use the Net to, ‘inform ourselves as voters in a democracy’
At the roundtable, webpages people use, “reveal a huge amount about their lives, loves, hates and fears,” said Sir Tim, going on »»»
This is extremely sensitive information.
People use the web in a crisis, when wondering whether they have a sexually transmitted disease, or cancer, when wondering if they are homosexual and whether to talk about it to discuss political views.
We use the Net to, “inform ourselves as voters in a democracy”, he said.
“We use the internet to decide what is true and what is not.
“We use the internet for healthcare and social interaction.
But people would, “consider using the web in a crisis in a different light if they knew they were being monitored and the data would be shared with a third party such as an advertising company,” and, “There will be a huge commercial pressure to release this data.
“The principle should be that it is not to be collected in the first place.”
Privacy laws ‘outmoded and unco-ordinated’
Lady Miller, who convened the meeting, with anti-Phorm advocate Alex Hanff [http://www.NoDPI.org] by no means in the background, said the age of innocence on the internet was over.
“We must come to terms with the cynical reality that, unless parliament does something about it, business will ride roughshod with internet users’ data,” she said. Our privacy laws are outmoded and unco-ordinated, completely unsuited to the competitive commercial environment that is developing on the internet.”
The Guardian goes on »»»
She said the internet was developing so quickly that it was bound to be seen as a goldmine by companies such as Phorm, Google and Microsoft, which she claimed were waiting to get their hands on data to sell it to the highest bidder.Berners-Lee said personal users could turn to encrypted surfing as a way of protecting their privacy, but warned this would make the process more expensive and slow down the user’s computer.
He said there were considerable risks of abuse of such histories of personal internet use, including the selling of personal profiles, using it to determine job applications and insurance premiums, and the danger of criminal predators choosing, stalking and targeting victims.
“The power of this information is so great that the commercial incentive for companies or individuals to misuse it will be huge,” he said. “It is absolutely essential to have absolute clarity that it is illegal.”
He was backed by Dame Wendy Hall, a Southampton University professor of computer science, who appealed to politicians to protect the privacy of people’s digital lives and take the issue seriously.
“There are lots of good reasons why companies and government want access to our data but there are huge downsides to that,” she said.
“This debate is about our digital lives. It is about who we are, what we are interested in and what is private to us.”
Stay tuned.
force more ads on them – Google wants YOU, like it or not, March 12, 2009
The Guardian – Web inventor warns against third-party internet snooping, March 11, 2009
Wired - Analysis: Google`s Ad Targeting Turns Algorithms on You, March 11, 2009
p2pnet – Tim Berners-Lee at UK DPI roundtable, March 5, 2009
Deep Privacy Invasion – Phorm pharce: UK media `suppressed` survey, March 7, 2009
Wikileaks – UK media suppressed Phorm survey and article, 2009, March 5, 2009
Alex Hanff – Phorm and DPI: Alex Hanff, May 20, 2008
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