I know this is flame bait.... but I'm not trying to start a flame war, I
just find this rather off topic for a 'firewalls' list... Although I'm a
fan of personal privacy, and of saving bandwidth, I do find it somewhat
ironic that this topic of 'tracability' is an issue on a forum concerned
in a large part about the security of computer systems against other
users, and who would be scared at the idea of someone trying to attack
them through an open system which is designed to hide the identity of
the surfer.
Yes, doubleclick or whatever company sending adverts is a pain in the
arse. Yes we all have to manage the bandwidth of all the users into our
network, yes we don't like being sold things, but this is a capatilist
society : moreso the internet has become so [a lot of that virtual
real-estate out there isn't worth a penny of the money that it's valued
at, IMHO], and part of that battle is against Doubleclick, Experian [who
traditionaly did that kind of analysis of information through such
things as your credit card spending habits, which a lot of people don't
even think about] for our privacy, but I think that you also should look
at it this way : doubleclick target you with adverts : brilliant, it
means I don't get adverts for stupid irrelevant things amidst the
content that I surf. The better of two evils in my opinion.
And I agree security and privacy can be construed as the same thing - if
someone was to break into my house without doing any damage, or removing
any property it would be an invasion of privacy but a breach of
security, teh same as if they did the same to my computer system - but
I've had a lot of problems with people posting incredibly rude and
malicious messages onto forums software we host, primarily through
things like anonimizer, cgicache, and privada : and I find that much
more troublesome than people holding the return IP address of my
organisation and information on what I, or my colleagues, search on
[even if it is 'how do I build nuclear bombs' or 'US government
conspiracy']. I'd rather be able to get more information on my
attackers, and have more available about me, than less - but then I feel
I've got nothing to hide : ultimately we live, we die ... if you have a
problem with what you do in between that's a philosophical issue and
definetly off topic.
Maybe people should undestand more the British progpaganda from the
second world war when they are using form based services on the web :
'Walls Have Ears' - are warning against eavsdropping and spying that is
still relevant today. I know of much more dangerous information analysis
going on outside of the internet than on it.
As I said, this is my opinion on the matter.... and my opinion isn't
worth much, I just thought some people might want to know they weren't
the only ones who may think like this [or am I the only one?]
Peace
d.
Mandy Andress wrote:
>
> Doubleclick profiling is a bit disconcerting. There is a company that
> allows you to surf the web anonymously so your actions on the Internet
> cannot be traced back to you. Check out www.privada.net.
>
> Mandy
>
> At 08:10 PM 2/9/00 -0500, Chris Brenton wrote:
> >Greetings all,
> >
> >Back on 12/19/99 I posted a rather verbose message to the Firewalls list
> >on how a number of search engines are taking the search criteria you are
> >entering and submitting it back to DoubleClick. Basically what you see
> >is just after submitting your parameters to a search engine, your
> >browser connects to ad.doubleclick.net in order to send something
> >similar to the following:
<SNIP>
--
Dorian Moore is property of Kleber Design Ltd. If found please contact Kleber
by phone on +44 207 581 1362 or visit http://www.kleber.net for further details.
You really shouldn't listen to anything he says... as it may just be an opinion
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