Bog Off, Busby

So BT thinks it acceptable to snoop on the browsing habits of 18,000 of its customers. The company wheeled out some ugly prat of a talking head on breakfast tv this morning to try and put a positive spin on it, along the lines of how it will make the browsing experience more personalised for its customers. But in reality, it's probably more likely that they've been caught out in their voyeuristic marketing activities and have been forced to go public. Unlike Talk Talk and Tiscali, who have also been trialing the same software but haven't (yet) been outed.

While it's always fun to see a big company like BT put on the spot, I think the media reaction has been a little hysterical. Every website you visit invariably leaves behind a cookie on your computer, and every search you make is similarly stored - often for marketing purposes. Nevertheless, there is a subtle difference in what companies like Google do and what BT and others are trying to do. With the former, this profiling occurs only after you have requested information by using a search engine or visited a website. In the latter, you have no choice about how this profiling occurs. While it's conceivable that the former could be quite useful (and lucrative - it's where Google makes its cash) the BT approach is restrictive, intrusive and just plain stupid. But luckily, it's also easily defeated:Swap ISPs, or if that's not an option, simply get into the habit of clearing out cookies after every session. The more useless the system becomes for advertisers, the quicker it will be dropped.