Browsing by numbers
The EU's Commissioner committee on data privacy head, Peter Sharr announced yesterday that he believes that TCP/IP addresses are private data. This viewpoint is in stark contrast to what most American companies believe, which is that since they identify the machine, not a person, they are public.
These addresses are numeric identifiers that are used to route network traffic, both locally and across the Internet at large. Since in many cases (especially for those with Broadband) users consistently use the same IP address, it can be used to maintain continuity of that person's browsing and in many cases, equate to the person's name, address and telephone #.
In other words, by retaining and using the IP address, a company can often know exactly who is "anonymously" browsing on their website.
Many companies have built a great deal of their business model on exploiting this personal information. Google, for one.
I agree in principle with the EU's philosophy, but as a practical matter, do not believe that US companies would ever accept being told that they could no longer retain the information.
Posted on January 22, 2008
