Guys, simply loving your comments, arguments and feedback! Apologies for not replyig sooner, but I travel continually.
Ok - I posted the blog with a deliberate middle-ground approach and yes am happy to provoke.
Like may of you i am a technologist who finds himself exposed to a many steps ahead of where the rest of the consumers are.
Yes I work in digital advertsing. Yes I am against being tracked unlawfully.
- I do not agree with Oystercard's RFID scam that came in without question (you do realise these things can be picked up from half a mile away I assume - not the 'touch-in, touch-out' marketing lie that was fed to us all).
- I do not agree with the DVLA's descision to put RFID chips in all numberplates without telling us exaclty why. (watch out next time you take your car in for an MOT)
- I am aware of the evidence of how many people are more concious of advertising now they skip them - they speed up and slow down at certain points not wishing to miss their programme, and the 3 sec spots either side of normal TV ads have huge impact as a result.
- I also have developed some of the most successful behaviourally sequenced adverts online, and seen the global results of how users not only welcome them, but give away personal data within them in order to personalise the ads. But it was done in what I believe WAS ethical, because it followed an opt-in model, so I know it can be done.
I can also see how the dots will be joined. I drive my car, past a billboard which will show me a targeted advert and a flashing icon on my GPS to lead me to the shop - based on the fact I put a can of coke in the bin, or based on the fact I was just searching for Ski-holidays. This links GPS, RFID to Internet streams to show me related adverts. Its a huge business opportunity!!! And F*&CKING scary big-brother world that few out there realise is coming (and here in trials).
Now I can see what Phorm are doing, but it is not purely them, - there are many other types of technologies that are part of this and helping close the loop.
We have opened Pandora's box that is a fact, and I know many of you in technology can see what I see, but the problem we face is do we STOP all advancement (knowing people probably would rather have personalised media content and relevant adverts), or will they change the law to make it acceptable (bearing in mind you now have RFID in UK passports! and your 'wave-and-pay' Barclaycards are backdoor ID cards)
I have seen various movements to ban RFID, ban Phorm, and what have you - but I am also a realist. I do not think you are going to stop this, as this is merely a begininning phase and there is to much pressure to get to a crazy utopia as I outlined above.
But if we are going to make an impact for the correct reasons, then we need to tackle the issue from both sides of the argument, because in court, money talks - and government security and advertsing bucks of big brands will have a huge persuasion (and both will be sited for development and installation of technologies).
All the time people personalise homepages using RSS feeds, use Amazon and iTunes to recommend content - we are going to have a fight against people who will quote "see we are just giving consumers what they want and who cares about a few Geeks... they will get over it..."