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Senior researcher at MIT and so-called inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has condemned all variations of ecommerce-based web tracking that serves to target certain audiences based on their browsing habits.

His comments follow the debate over an internet ad platform developed by web technology company Phorm, whose clients include such companies as TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse.

Mr Berners-Lee explained that this type of targeting could lead to information about a user’s habits getting into the hands of unwanted parties and that instead, ISPs should have to comply with the same rules and regulations that any other utility company would.

Phorm touted its service as one that could create a ‘gold standard’ for user privacy and make more marketing more efficient for advertisers, publishers, internet service providers and others.

Mr Berners-Lee said a user’s internet activity information was akin to a person’s private property, however.

“It’s mine – you can’t have it. If you want to use [that data] for something, then you have to negotiate with me. I have to agree, I have to understand what I’m getting in return,” he said.

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Widgets and gadgets that users add on to their PCs could pose a security threat, according to Finnish security company Finjan.

Finjan’s Malicious Code Research Centre has found that add-ons that add functions to websites contain code which make the PC they are on more vulnerable to hackers.

The security model that gadgets and widgets have must now be completely revised to take these findings into account, Finjan stated.

Finjan chief technology officer Yuval Ben-Itzhak said: ‘As widgets become common in most modern computing environments, from operating system to web portals, their significance from a security standpoint rises.’

He added: ‘Vulnerabilities in widgets and gadgets enable attackers to gain control of user machines, and thus should be developed with security in mind.’

Corporations may need to deal with a ‘vast array’ of new security considerations, added Mr Ben-Itzhak.

Meanwhile, a new report from Symantec has warned that internet crime has gone from simply causing trouble to a multi-million pound industry.

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