The WSJ reports today that your Internet provider may be preparing to sell you out.
Excerpt:
The newer form of behavioral targeting involves placing gear called "deep-packet inspection boxes" inside an Internet provider's network of pipes and wires. Instead of observing only a select number of Web sites, these boxes can track all of the sites a consumer visits, and deliver far more detailed information to potential advertisers.
Let's look at how a company like Bloomingdale's may use this technology. Bloomie's could watch all the sites you visit, allowing them to know the car you're considering, the shoes you own, the bicycling group to which you belong, your wife's birthday (you visit a site for birthday gifts for spouses), etc. Bloomingdale's then sends you a postcard, one of 20 that they have made up for different audiences. Your card shows an outdoor-oriented person giving a gift (that Bloomingdale's sells) to his special someone. If you didn't know that Bloomie's had been watching you, you'd probably think it was fate that you bought your wife that new Vera Wang place setting.
The device that does this snooping is pictured with this post. Maybe Nebu could make a model that comes wrapped in a little Bloomingdale's-like brown bag that says "Big Snooping Device."