http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8135850.stm

BT opt out of Phorm (for now) that saves me having to switch ISPs for a while at least!  I guess BT can’t affortd the mass exodus of broadband customers just yet.

Phorm UK Inc,  Liberty House! Now that’s just brilliant, was that just the only available office space or did they think it was fitting?

If you search for something on one computer you get different results (depending on you past surfing habits) to any other computer, they serve the results they think you want.  Which is great apart from when you’re trying to explain it to that they may not actually be top of the search rankings just because they keep searching for themselves.
The problem is that there is now Phorm who are also going to be watching you… and they will be watching everything you do because they are in bed with the ISPs, where as Google only has control of its ad-network sites.

My problem is that, the UK government is saying Phorm is a good way to break Googles dominance, but they are different things, like Road Tax and a Toll Road, I can avoid the Toll road if I want to it’s my choice depending on whether I want the convenience or not, but I CAN’T avoid road tax. So in effect if Phorm is allowed to go ahead it’s like the Government enforcing a tax on my privacywhere the only way not to be watched would be to change provider, pay a higher subscription or perhaps there won’t be an option.

The net needs to remain neutral, and allowing private companies to monetise my connection does not bode well.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/mar/11/phorm-timbernerslee

Personally, I can’t see anything good about this unless you’re a shareholder, for two reasons privacy and creativity.
Privacy, well it’s a bit obvious why it’s bad for that. I’m just hoping that https will lock it out because if it doesn’t… then they can read all your credit card details. So one way to get around it is to route everyting through an encrypted proxy if Tor can find it’s way through the Great Firewall of China then we still have hope that we can use the internet without corporate monitoring.

Creativity, it seems to me that such targeted advertising will suck the creativity out of the marketing industry. If you know so much about me that you know what I want and when I want it then all I need is a text link saying ‘buy a new pair of jeans’. Which means that we will all miss out on brilliantly creative ideas like the Cadburys Gorilla, the Quicksilver Dynamite the Sony Rabbits,  see all the brand names there (just some of the best of 2007) … I remember them all, and I bet none of those adverts were written with me in mind and if they had had me in mind, I doubt they would have come up with that as a response.

At the moment I’m more likely to trust a corporation with my data, than any Government agency Lost Data Disks (other breaches) in fact I have; Amazon. They have my login details, home and work addresses, they know what products I have bought, others I own, what I’m interested and not interested in. Amazon already make recommendations and I don’t mind this, it’s automated and well with a bit of coaxing isn’t too bad, even if sometimes it appears to have an excellent memory but be slightly dumb – ’3 years ago you bought a book on knitting do you want another one…’. But there is more Amazon could find out from my buying patterns, are there any particular religious festivals when my purchasing increases, do I buy a lot of self help books, how many addresses to I get books sent to, how often does that change. These are all bits of information which when agregated could provide clues to my personality.

Why as a privacy advocate don’t I mind? Because it’s their competitive advantage to keep that information to themselves, and I trust them, as soon as I loose trust I will go elsewhere. It’s like the village shops I know the shopkeepers they know what I like to buy, it’s not a problem, it can be useful. But if they were to gossip that would be a breach of trust which would ultimately lead to me going elsewhere. Unfortunately there is much more data in the amazon database than my village shopkeeper could remember accurately which makes it valuable to others.

This ‘Gossip’ the little bits of information which can be glued together into a mosaic of a person can be damaging, the pieces don’t fit properly, the information isn’t always correct, the loudest or fastest voice is the one that gets heard, even if it might not be true. As happened at SXSW, the twitters got the message they wanted out fastest, everyone else seems to have commented based on those reports.

Gossip is around us everywhere, blogs are gossip! They give you information about the writer even if they are writing about something else, what they do what they are interested in, and we choose to do it. Its just life, a balancing act of being an introverted security maniac and an open book.

I’ll probably look at Gossip and E-rosion again, looking at social networking and it’s impact too.

Now I’m a firm believer in privacy… with caveats, as always. There is information I don’t want to be collected and aggregated for security and privacy. I mean most Banks ‘Secure’ logons ask for details you could get from someones CV, the Nazi’s used information collected by the previous government to round people up for the concentration camps. Why should I be happy for people to start aggregating this data, even if I can watch them? I suppose it’s also an issue of trust, who has the information how competent are they, who may get it.

As long as society doesn’t become so transparent that it becomes invisible, perhaps the opaque society would be better? Then let the opacity fluctuate between 5% and 95%, its the same old argument where sides argue their black and white issues, which are actually grey to the rest of the world.

Who’s responsible for cleaning the windows of the transparent society?

One of the findings we had was that no matter how good the technology it is just an intermediary, and you need to know who is on the other end. The web can be more secure than post and telephone but if you’re registering for an online gambling site which is run by a criminal gang (it’s not just gambling and it’s not just the Mafia) then no matter how secure the technology is, it is just an intermediary, you are giving your data to an untrusted party. Yes, you it’s not the web or the Internet’s fault.