Daylife/AP Photo by Ramon Espinosa “You want me to buy what…?”

The UK’s mobile phone networks are to start selling data about the internet sites visited by their customers to advertisers.

The companies have been collecting the information over the past year and will use it in an attempt to generate more advertising. News that the industry has been monitoring what users do on the mobile web is likely to infuriate privacy campaigners.

“You can really start to build up a compelling case that says if you are a media company or advertising company, this is where you should be targeting your spending…”

In the fixed-line world, BT has come under intense criticism for using technology developed by Phorm to snoop on what its customers are doing on the web, even though customers must give their permission before their traffic is watched and all information about which sites are being visited is immediately anonymised.

The GSMA stressed that the traffic data it had been collecting in the UK had also been anonymised and it had checked with European regulators to ensure that its service complied with the relevant laws.

Michael O’Hara described the data as “a real measurement of what people are doing with their mobile device.”

I know, I know. It’s Opt-in and I do, in fact, opt in for a couple of services accessing my home entertainment system.

The Brits serve as stalking horse for most of the Western Establishment’s assault on civil liberties and I’m doubly suspicious of anything their teleco gatekeepers come up with.

Thanks, Cinaedh