How Should I.S.P.’s Tell You if They Want to Track Your Surfing?

A few days ago I read a post by Saul Hansell (a reporter covering digital media for the NY Times) that appeared in the Bits Blog within the Technology section of the NY TIMES. It was titled: "How Should I.S.P.’s Tell You if They Want to Track Your Surfing?". Rightfully so, how should they? Is it acceptable for them to track our surfing? I don't think they should be making money out of tracking our online behavior and 'selling' information about it to advertisers. It feels like 'online stalking'. It really is not much different than having someone following you on the street while you're window shopping, shopping, going to the library, etc. All these activities say a lot about who we are, our buying habits, our lifestyles, etc. It just isn't right for someone to make money out of it.

I think we should at least be given the choice to decide whether we want to allow it or if we want to opt-out. And it should be required by law that the I.S.P. 's give us notices with transparency in their writing (no fine print) in a timely manner and in a very 'out there' way. It is very upsetting to realize you have been 'tricked' into something just because you didn't know what you had to know to make an informed choice.









http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/how-should-isps-tell-you-if-they-want-to-track-your-surfing/index.html?ex=1365566400&en=2d6576b539bae949&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss