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Web Inventor: Don't Track Me, Bro

Posted Mar 17, 08 5:35 PM CDT in Technology 

(Newser) – He may have created a web that's worldwide, but Internet founder Tim Berners-Lee is very proprietary when it comes to tracking programs, such as Phorm, that allow ISPs to monitor their customers. Berners-Lee says he’d drop any company caught mining his data. “It’s mine—you can’t have it,” he said. “If you want to use it for something, then you have to negotiate with me.”

Phorm is part of a growing trend of advertising systems that rely on customer tracking, such as Facebook’s much-maligned Beacon. At least one provider has already pledged to use Phorm only on an opt-in basis. “My ISP supplies Internet to my house like the water company supplies water,” Berners-Lee told the BBC. “It supplies connectivity with no strings attached.”

Source BBC

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Tim Berners-Lee (far right) appears with other internet pioneers in this undated file photo.   (Getty Images)
Britain's Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web and then gave it away, smiles after he plants a cherry tree October 3, 2005 in Sans Souci Palace in Potsdam, Germany.   (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
New technology makes it easy for web providers to track customer's activities, but internet pioneer Time Berners-Lee says he'd drop any ISP that did so.   (Shutterstock)
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