So, if PR is the only thing holding these guys back then surely many ISPs are already doing this secretly, right?<p>Personally, I encourage everyone to fully exploit any and all data they can get their hands on, for whatever purpose interests them. Until everything is encrypted end-to-end, somebody will always be doing it anyway. The sooner the general public figures that out and starts channeling their outrage into a real solution, the better.
Lots of related discussion over on NoDPI: <a href="https://nodpi.org/" rel="nofollow">https://nodpi.org/</a> (edit: seems down at the moment)<p>I actually wrote my LLM. Cyberlaw dissertation on Phorm and the impacts of behavioural advertising.. interesting to see they're still around after getting wrist-slapped by the EU.
After reading the article I'm unclear about how the ads are served:<p>"He says his company also has been placing ads on various websites to test the ad-placement technology and build up a base of advertisers, which now number about 100,000."<p>Does this mean that they're manipulating the HTML of the site to inject ads, or that they're purchasing spots via an ad network and somehow manipulating those, specific, requests?
If we are going to live with ads, they might as well be properly targeted.<p>My only complaint is that most of the general public doesn't understand what they are opting in for, and those that try to understand it mistake it for something much more nefarious than it actually is.