Would you be willing to sacrifice your Web privacy if it meant cheaper or free Internet access? That's the main question being raised by a new software program that enables Internet service providers (ISPs) to track every click you make on the Web so that advertisers can directly target you according to your pattern of use. Apart from raising Big Brother-like concerns, the technology is prompting visions of a two-tiered ISP market composed of those who pay for anonymity and those who surf for free but whose every move is watched. The technology comes from Predictive Networks, a small web company that has developed software that can create a detailed user "profile," according to the Wall Street Journal. Advertisers place their ads through Predictive, which uses the profiles to target relevant individuals, sending airline advertisements to those who visit a lot of travel sites, for instance.
Many individual web sites are already using technology called "cookies" to track and profile their visitors' web moves, but most are using the information in a general way. For example, cookies might tell a sports site that 30 percent of its visitors also visit automotive sites. But Predictive's software has gone a step further — a step, says TIME Digital editor Josh Quittner, that may not be an entirely bad thing. "On the Web, you are going to get hit with advertising, no matter what," says Quittner, "so it might as well be relevant advertising — stuff you're actually interested in." In addition, Quittner points out, signing up for services using the Predictive software is entirely voluntary, unlike cookies, which are difficult for the average Internet to user to disable.