[Infowarrior] - Web founder makes online privacy plea

[Richard Forno]

Web founder makes online privacy plea  	
Apr 22 09:56 AM US/Eastern
	
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.e21bbbc9d0fd2f2a807e5013a1bc1fdd.e41&show_article=1

		Plans by Internet service providers to deliver targeted adverts to  
consumers based on their Web searches threaten online privacy and  
should be opposed, the founder of the Web said Wednesday.

"I just want to know that when I click on a link it is between me and  
the Web, and the Internet service provider is not going to immediately  
characterise me in different categories for advertising or insurance  
of for government use," Tim Berners-Lee told a Web conference in Madrid.

"The postman does not open my mail, the telephone company does not  
listen to my telephone conversations. Internet use is often more  
intimate than those things," he added.

New software called Webwise allows Internet service providers to show  
adverts to their clients based on their Web browsing habits instead of  
based on the content of a single Web page as currently happens.

Several British Internet service providers, including BT and Virgin  
Media, have said they are considering using the software, which is  
aimed at making the Web more financially profitable for advertisers.

With the help of other scientists at the European Organisation for  
Nuclear Research (CERN), Berners-Lee set up the Web in 1989 to allow  
thousands of scientists around the world to stay in touch.

The WWW technology -- which simplifies the process of searching for  
information on the Internet -- was first made more widely available  
from 1991 after CERN was unable to ensure its development, and the  
organisation made a landmark decision two years later not to levy  
royalties.


Copyright AFP 2008,