From: Tim May[SMTP:tcmay@got.net]

Just a note about what's happening with Web advertising.

Went to a site, www.imdb.com, to check something about a film. Up popped a doubleclick.net ad. In front of the main page, obscuring it. I clicked the close box. Up popped a _different_ ad. I clicked the close box. Yep, up popped a third ad box. I closed it. I think it stopped at this point.

[...]

--Tim May

I do a lot of my random web browsing thru www.safeweb.com, which allows me to disable pop-ups. It also 1: Causes the direction and content of my browsing to be obscured from any observer between me and the Safeweb site. 2: Obscures the target site from knowing who is surfing them. 3. Manages cookies intelligently. It's not perfect - safeweb.com could build a pretty good profile of where I surf. Ideally, you'd want to chain through two or more non-colluding Safeweb type services - think of it as a remailer for HTTP. Also, In-Q-Tel (the CIA VC firm) is one of Safeweb's investors The CIA's story is that they want a way for their agents to surf without leaving footprints. Safeweb appears to have been founded a group of programmers of Chinese descent, and is designed to act as a route around the Great Firewall of China. There's even a entry proxy called 'Triangleboy' which should allow Safeweb to be used if the main site is blocked. Unlike a lot of the people on this list, these guys actually write code. Peter Trei