What do you think can be determined about you from browsing the web? That you have an interest in poker and live in New Zealand perhaps? This can be ascertained by a single click of the mouse. And the latest software that analyses your online behaviour can apparently determine a huge amount about you. A recent article in New Scientist suggests that the company Acxiom have lifestyle information on 200 million US citizens. If you're on a site that's geared up for it, they can track everything you do in a browser, how long you spend on a page and what you buy using JavaScript. Then you have companies like Phorm who use 'deep packet inspection' technologies that essentially allow them to see everything you look at and to analyse it as they wish. Wikipedia defines deep packet inspection as 'enabling advanced security functions as well as internet data mining, eavesdropping, and censorship'.

There are two sides to this - firstly why is my privacy being invaded? Personally, I don't have a problem with it but I'm sure there are plenty reasons that I haven't considered as to why this should be illegal. The American's are totally against it but in the UK Phorm is running their software on British Telecom's internet infrastructure. The biggest reason that I should be worried about this is that both companies have gone out of their way to remove any trace of them working together presumably in an attempt to keep the British public in the dark. If there's nothing sinister, then why cover it up?

The other side of the coin is that this is good for the businesses and their customers, us. I hate advertising - the BBC's ad-free television and radio is as far as I'm concerned the best in the world significantly because they have no advertising. But you're not going to get away without advertising any more - Google have seen to that and made AdWords an extremely profitable business for themselves and their customers by targetting adverts to the search terms we send to their search engine. It's good for us to - if I'm looking for a drum kit then it's great to see 10 adverts from companies that have gone out of their way (and to a cost to them) letting me know they have something appropriate to look at. If it's not appropriate then the company will just end up out of pocket because they won't make any money out of it which keeps the adverts highly targetted. Google have taken this further by allowing websites to display AdWords that can be similarly targetted, usually based on whatever the website is about.

So this is the next step in that process; target ads specifically to you, wherever you go on the web. Have you seen Minority Report? Targetted advertising based on knowing your identity, what you buy, your likes and dislikes, your lifestyle and so on. And this is the kind of information that is becoming increasingly known by the likes of Phorm, Google and BT. So don't be surprised when in a couple of years time you're browsing a website when an advert pops up saying 'I know you ordered your wife Pip some flowers for her birthday on Friday, but remember last year? She told all her friends about that pear tree you bought her and she wants to put a plum tree next to it - click here to get it delivered to home Friday'. Expect it sooner in the UK.