But being with BT on the Kingston RAS, I’ve not been able to do any personal/private surfing for nigh on TWO Years, without VPN.

I detected something wrong with BT in Summer 2006, but was not able to locate the problem properly until Phorm went Public.

So I know the difference between Phorm/Webwise & Google & it isn’t good!

To Cap what isn’t normally mentioned is that these DPI systems are capable of DIRECT DATA Injection into the WEB Browser or any Application which uses a Browser Agent String!

I Strongly suspect this company of injecting Rogue Javascript at my PC on at least 3 occassions, fortunately I have other defenses in place!

I do understand the distinction. My point is simply that to the technology-challenged life forms occupying Capitol Hill the differences are not stark at all. Both observe behaviors and insert relevant ads. The fact that Google has skated clear of this imbroglio only proves that their well-oiled lobbying machine trumps those of the many other technology companies.

Another interesting proof point: Commissioner Martin opened his statement on the recent Comcast slap down by comparing what Comcast did to the post office opening and reading your mail. I use Gmail and know that Google opens and reads every email I send and receive. I’m actually ok with that because I get something valuable in return: free email with gobs of storage. Nevertheless, I’d be willing to bet that Martin’s post office comparison had the mandarins at Google sweating.

Google is different in that they don’t know anything about you than your computer or browser tells them specifically. In other words, it’s your own computer that sends information to Google’s servers in Mountain View. You can block this communication using various settings and software easily available.

NebuAd, on the other hand, is installed inside your ISP and tells NebuAd everything you do on the Internet, regardless of your computer’s settings or any blocking or security software you use to prevent it.

Those stark differences aside, Google by its very size and popularity is becoming quickly capable of tracking users as they move about the net, even though it uses standard and accepted privacy practices. This has some privacy people alarmed, but it still doesn’t raise the specter of the “wiretapping”-like behavior that NebuAd does.

Robb Topolski

I strongly suspect that Googlites, seeing this as a potential PR nightmare, dispatched a few PhDs to Capitol Hill to help politicians understand that Google is doing something completely different than those evil ISPs.

http://tinyurl.com/sprintweblink