Cereal KLR
New member
Even though we all know nothing is sacred when surfing the net, this shit just pisses people off.
One of the most potentially intrusive technologies for profiling and targeting Internet users with ads is on the verge of a comeback, two years after an outcry by privacy advocates in the U.S. and Britain appeared to kill it.
.The technology, known as "deep packet inspection," is capable of reading and analyzing the "packets" of data traveling across the Internet. It can be far more powerful than "cookies" and other techniques commonly used to track people online because it can be used to monitor all online activity, not just Web browsing. Spy agencies use the technology for surveillance.Now, two U.S. companies, Kindsight Inc. and Phorm Inc., are pitching deep packet inspection services as a way for Internet service providers to claim a share of the lucrative online ad market.
Kindsight and Phorm say they protect people's privacy with steps that include obtaining their consent. They also say they don't use the full power of the technology, and refrain from reading email and analyzing sensitive online activities. Use of deep packet inspection this way would nonetheless give advertisers the ability to show ads to people based on extremely detailed profiles of their Internet activity. To persuade Internet users to opt in to be profiled, Kindsight will offer a free security service, while Phorm promises to provide customized web content such as news articles tailored to users' interests. Both would share ad revenue with the ISPs.
Kindsight says its technology is sensitive enough to detect whether a particular person is online for work, or for fun, and can target ads accordingly.
CEO Kent Ertugrul outside Phorm's office in London. The company studies people's interests based on websites they visit to show them ads.
."If you're trying to engage in one-stop-shopping surveillance on the Internet, deep packet inspection would be an awesome tool," says David C. Vladeck, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. When deep packet inspection is used for targeted ads, the FTC has made it clear that broadband providers "should, at a minimum, notify consumers that the ISP was mining the information and obtain clear consumer consent," Mr. Vladeck says.
One of the most potentially intrusive technologies for profiling and targeting Internet users with ads is on the verge of a comeback, two years after an outcry by privacy advocates in the U.S. and Britain appeared to kill it.
.The technology, known as "deep packet inspection," is capable of reading and analyzing the "packets" of data traveling across the Internet. It can be far more powerful than "cookies" and other techniques commonly used to track people online because it can be used to monitor all online activity, not just Web browsing. Spy agencies use the technology for surveillance.Now, two U.S. companies, Kindsight Inc. and Phorm Inc., are pitching deep packet inspection services as a way for Internet service providers to claim a share of the lucrative online ad market.
Kindsight and Phorm say they protect people's privacy with steps that include obtaining their consent. They also say they don't use the full power of the technology, and refrain from reading email and analyzing sensitive online activities. Use of deep packet inspection this way would nonetheless give advertisers the ability to show ads to people based on extremely detailed profiles of their Internet activity. To persuade Internet users to opt in to be profiled, Kindsight will offer a free security service, while Phorm promises to provide customized web content such as news articles tailored to users' interests. Both would share ad revenue with the ISPs.
Kindsight says its technology is sensitive enough to detect whether a particular person is online for work, or for fun, and can target ads accordingly.
CEO Kent Ertugrul outside Phorm's office in London. The company studies people's interests based on websites they visit to show them ads.
."If you're trying to engage in one-stop-shopping surveillance on the Internet, deep packet inspection would be an awesome tool," says David C. Vladeck, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. When deep packet inspection is used for targeted ads, the FTC has made it clear that broadband providers "should, at a minimum, notify consumers that the ISP was mining the information and obtain clear consumer consent," Mr. Vladeck says.
