Web Inventor: Don't Track Me, Bro

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.” (More internet stories.)