The Internet, we’re told, wants information to be free.

It also wants information to be free of government regulation.

And so far it largely has been, thanks to promises of self-policing by web publishers.

But both the industry and the government might become bystanders in that tug-of-war according to this Wall Street Journal piece.

Taming the Spies of Web Advertising

Where Industry Self-Regulation Has Failed, Technology Will Step In

We’re about to see what happens when industry self-regulation fails. It will not be pretty. And it will be the free market, not government, that applies the pain.

The industry is the online advertising and marketing business, notably the marketers that develop targeted advertisements based on your Internet activity.

Those would be the ads that attach themselves to you like barnacles as you surf the web . . .

Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.