Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, has told the BBC that consumers need to be protected from systems that track their activity. Sir Tim said he would change his Internet provider if it introduced such a system, as he did not want his ISP to track him.

It was important that the fact he looked up a whole lot of books on cancer did not lead his insurance company to increase his premiums because they saw he was looking at such material. Sir Tim said his data and Web history belonged to him, and consumers' rights were very important.