Can an Eavesdropper Protect Your Privacy?

NY Times Bits article here.

I wonder if there is a way to find out if an ISP is using this new technology, or whether there will arise a way to opt out of it, i.e. since it is about targeted advertising presumably that you want to see, and the fact that it builds a profile of your computer? How private is that - not very, counterintuitive or not!

-- Tom

 

Maybe I am one of a kind but I dont want to see ads, regardless of if it is adverts on something I am interested in. When I want buy something I search for it - when I want.
Or maybe, if this new stuff is really good at finding my interrest, I might turn on advertising when I am looking for something to buy, in theory there would only be adverts on the stuff I am looking for.. but the key is I want to control when I look at ads.

As long as there is a IP that my computer shows to the world, I am identifiable. I guess for me personally I wouldnt be more (or less) private with the system they present compared to today, since I am counting on that if anyone (that has the power) want to monitor me, they are already doing it with the means available today (Echelon anyone?). If I ever want to hide my doings I would use Tor (and crypotgaphy) or something that is developed with open source..
As long as I can block the ads, I really dont care about this Eavesdropper. .