Some browser companians, such as uTOK, promise never to use your information in that fashion. Other make no such promise. None of them have any other visible residue stream at this time without collecting and selling this information (Third Voice as of two weeks ago still appears not to have sold any ads for the service). And what promises exist can unfortunately be erased if the company in question is aquired by another, which is part of the Doubleclick fiasco. If you really care about your privacy, at the very least, I'd recommend against using any of the browser companions.

I don't usually emphasize this issue, but it is one that people should be aware of. Amazon, Alexa unit face privacy lawsuits: Alexa is a browser companion that, among other things, gives a "More Pages Like This One" type-feature. In order to display that information, the software must query the Alexa servers on every page view. This gives them access to your browsing patterns for every page you visit while this tool is activated. They may have stepped over the line, if this article is correct.

They're going to need a sympathetic judge, esp. if the copyright infringement case goes well for RIAA. Hard to accuse 'them' of unfair business practices if you are legally 'stealing' from 'them', isn't it?

Good grief, the list of unreviewed "Boundary Breaker" software just keeps growing, and growing, and growing...

From the fun typos department... "irights.editthispate.com". If Userland had a successful Edit This Pate technology, they could get out of the internet business for good. (It may help to know what a pate is.)

Some stuff there shows me I need to add some stuff to this site... like why you should care what I'm talking about. It's easy to forget sometimes your audience doesn't already have the same ideas you have :-).

Some good discussion about my uTOK review occurred over at Hack the Planet.

Somehow, it does not seem entirely impossible that the US will at least try something like this sooner or later...

More demonstration that a government can certainly take a good shot at regulating the Internet: New KGB Takes Internet by SORM. The regulation requires all ISPs to install a little "black box" rerouting device, and to build a high-speed communications line, which would hot-wire the provider -- and necessarily, all Internet users -- to FSB headquarters.

New "Boundary Breaker": uTOK.