The Godfather says No - others may not

Most people involved in the internet have a tendency to sit up and take notice when Sir Tim Berners-Lee - creator of world wide web - says something.

So many travel companies - and other web firms, especially the ad-led ones - will be mildly irritated/concerned/dismayed at his latest missive during an interview with the BBC.

TBL says he will change his internet service provider if it uses new technology such as Phorm to track his history on the web and create user-targeted ads.

At the moment, three UK ISPs (Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk) are reported to have signed up to the system.

Now, a number of travel firms (Lastminute.com's award-winning system with Touch Clarity, for example) have already been using various bits of other clever kit to track user behaviour and serve them more relevant product information.

And by all accounts it works well.

But having the Big Cheese of the web come out and draw attention to the topic with consumers might just throw up privacy issues travel companies, and others, will be keen to distance themselves from.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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