Concern over US recovery makes Indian mkts strong

Rohit Chatterji, MD and head (investment banking), JP Morgan

The success of the recent share offerings from state-owned companies has created a positive momentum that will sustain for a while, feels Rohit Chatterji , MD and head (investment banking), JP Morgan . Mr Chatterji sees no reason for foreign funds to cut back on their India exposure in 2011, provided news flow does not significantly disorient the markets. In a freewheeling chat with ET’s Bodhisatva Ganguly and Deeptha Rajkumar, he talks of how the coming calendar will see the return of the corporate investment cycle, which in turn will drive corporate earnings growth by 18-20%.

India is back on the global map this year in terms of increased fund-raising and M&A activity. What have been the key forces driving this trend?

India has been the beneficiary of capital inflows seeking markets with underlying earnings growth. With the glide path for recovery in Europe and the US still uncertain, Indian markets are on a stronger wicket. Global pension funds have also increased their allocation to emerging markets this year. Secondly, the active government privatisation programme — with large and liquid offerings — and the strong secondary market performance of those stocks have fuelled institutional and retail interest in Indian equities.

On the M&A front, inbound M&A has been driven by confidence around projected growth rates in the Indian consumer and industrial segments over next 5-10 years, as evidenced by activity in healthcare, consumer, and steel. And also a desire to exit non-core businesses to either delever or reinvest into core operations, like in the case of GMR and Tata Steel . Outbound M&A has been led by a search for backward integration into resources like coal, or for technology and expanded footprint in new markets.

The perception is that with regard to M&A, the volume of deals has more or less been the same but the deal size has gone up significantly. Going forward, where do you see acceleration — in outbound or inbound activity?

That is a function of, firstly, increasing asset valuations and, secondly, the deal activity being driven by larger corporates doing larger deals. That said there have been several smaller deals as well. 2011 should see faster growth in outbound deals. This will be evident particularly in natural resources and industrials, as leading Indian houses build global scale across their core businesses. Domestic consolidation in telecom and associated towers businesses is also expected.

The domestic market has seen a significant amount of activity this year thanks to the government’s disinvestment agenda. Going forward, do you see this activity being sustained and will investor interest be of the same scale?

SAIL and IOC (share offering) processes are currently underway, and ONGC should also come to the market in the first quarter of 2011. The divestment programme this fiscal will raise close to Rs 500 billion in proceeds for the government, more than what was initially targeted. The privatisation programme should continue into the next fiscal as the government targets a deficit reduction from 5.5% to 4.8%, but the magnitude will moderate.

Foreign investors should stay keen and we anticipate inflows similar to the $28 bn-odd seen this year, provided there is no news flow that risks disorienting the markets. This year, corporate earnings benefited from a growing consumption and employment theme. Next year, the corporate investment cycle should return, and should help drive earnings growth by 18-20 %. This will help boost the stock markets as well, and should underpin continuing FII interest. The Indian retail investors could be more momentum driven, basing their decision off the performance of the last Government deal. We have to see the impact of a likely moderation in ULIP investments next year, following new IRDA regulations.

While investments into India and China have seen a sharp rise this year, there is a perception that India is still playing catch-up in the fund raising/M&A space vis-a-vis China. Your comment?

The two countries are at different stages of growth. Yes, China did raise 4-5 times more equity capital than India this year. Its share of global M&A volume has also increased significantly , with the SOEs driving large international acquisitions. I do not expect this gap to close quickly, looking at the pipeline of deals from the two countries. To us, however, the rate of growth from the current base is very important, and that makes India a very exciting place to be.

The popular perception is that India is an overbanked market. How much pressure has this placed on fees (both government and private issues) and in terms of league table ranking?

Yes, the fee levels for certain types of deals can be lower than in other markets. However, the key is to find specific areas where one can add value or offer differentiated ideas or service. League table rankings are only relevant up to a certain point.

There are signs that a lot of new money has come into India markets. Going forward what will be the ‘game-changer’ for India?

The game-changer in my view will be to most efficiently channel foreign capital into the infrastructure sector in India. Connecting the capital-hungry segments in infrastructure to the investible pool available internationally, both in debt and equity, in a cost-effective and well-structured manner can add a new dimension to our growth.

courtesy: ET , paper cutting :14/12/10

Govt claims further $1.2 bn for Bhopal victims

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has demanded more than $1 billion additional compensation for the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, a gas leak at a pesticide plant that killed thousands of people in 1984. Victims and activists have for years campaigned for more money and more severe punishment for those they hold responsible for the accident in the city of Bhopal at a plant owned by the U.S. company Union Carbide. The New Delhi government filed a petition to the country's Supreme Court on Friday to coincide with the anniversary of the deaths, an occasion which prompted victims and their families to take their protests onto the streets, an annual event. The petition demanded an additional $1.24 billion payment and raised the estimate of the deaths from 3,000 to 5,295, according to a report in the Hindu newspaper. The government said a review had found the calculation of earlier compensation payments to be "completely incorrect". Rachna Dhingra, a Bhopal activist, told Reuters the petition was largely symbolic and was unlikely to succeed given that, as Union Carbide no longer owns property in India, it cannot be held to account by the court. "I don't know what new magic the government of India is going to use to enforce this petition," Dhingra said by phone. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has set up a ministerial panel in response to public anger over what is a perceived to be a lenient verdict handed to seven Indian former employees of Union Carbide in June. The panel has demanded the extradition of a U.S.-based former chairman of the firm. Union Carbide is now owned by Dow Chemical , which denies any responsibility. Dow Chemical said it bought Union Carbide a decade after it had settled its liabilities with the Indian government in 1989 by paying $470 million for the victims. In the early hours of Dec. 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums. Activists say 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of the accident and in ensuing years, and about 100,000 people who were exposed to the gas continue to suffer today from ailments that range from cancer, blindness to birth defects. A previous extradition request for Warren Anderson , chairman of Union Carbide when the accident occurred, was turned by the United States, but the government panel has recommended that efforts be made to revive extradition proceedings against him. Anderson has been classified as an absconder in the case by an Indian court.

PICTURE PERFECT

Follow a few simple rules of photography to create stunning pictures.

By Dushyant khilnani AND Sandeep balachandran

As clichéd as it may sound, the truth is that a picture speaks a thousand words, and a well-shot picture always stands out. When you enter a living room, it’s common to see family portraits and vacation memories on the walls or show cases. Now, it can be embarrassing to have washed out or grainy pictures in those photo frames. In this workshop, we discuss the various aspects of shooting the perfect picture in different scenarios and enhancing them after they’ve been shot. Right from the initial steps of shooting, using proper cameras and equipment, to the post processing and printing of images, we’ll give you brief step-by-step guides on the various crucial aspects.

Photography

When shooting outdoors, the most important aspect to look at is lighting. With the right amount of lighting, you can achieve just about the same output as you would using in-house or studio lighting. However, there are certain factors to consider when shooting outdoors.

Camera settings and techniques

First and foremost, avoid shooting at noon or when the sun is directly overhead. Apart from the lighting conditions, you will also need to look into your camera settings. If you have a normal point-and-shoot, you should consider having settings like aperture, shutter speed and the manual mode. However, not all cameras come with a manual mode. In such cases, just the aperture and shutter speed controls will suffice. We have taken both indoor and outdoor shoots into consideration for the following tutorial as there are no fixed settings that apply to all situations.

STEP 1: RULE OF THIRDS

A very common mistake that most of us make when shooting portraits is to place the subject right at the center. While it might seem like the most natural way of capturing portraits, it definitely has the makings of a very dull and unimaginative picture. The basis of this rule states that if you were to divide a rectangular frame with two equidistant vertical and horizontal lines into nine equal parts, then the point where the lines meet is where the subject should be placed. This rule is applied to prevent positioning the subject at the center. To make things simpler, you can enable the ‘grid’ view option that most cameras come with.

STEP 2: APERTURE AND SHUTTER SPEED

Both aperture and shutter speed are inversely proportional to one another, which means that if you increase the aperture range, the shutter speed will automatically decrease, and vice versa. However, this only happens when you choose to shoot either in aperture priority mode or shutter speed mode. The shutter priority mode is best used when you're shooting either in low light or when the subject that is being shot requires a really high shutter speed, like when you're capturing fast moving objects. If you want greater control over the depth of field, then the aperture priority mode should help achieve this. Decrease the number of f-stops to get a better depth of field. This is best used when you only need your product or subject to be your point of focus.

STEP 3: ISO

The selection of ISO settings plays an important role in photography and how your images turn out. The lower the camera's ISO levels, the finer will be the overall image quality. However, the ISO levels all depend on the lighting conditions. Better the lighting conditions, smaller will be the ISO levels. However, we recommend not going beyond ISO 400 when using digital cameras, because anything over this value will produce visible noise. The same cannot be said when shooting with an SLR, because SLRs come with a larger sensor size along with better post-processing capabilities. The best way to overcome the noise issues with digital cameras would be to set it to manual mode (if your camera supports this) or switch to either shutter/aperture priority while not going above ISO 400. It is recommended that you make use of a tripod, especially when you are shooting under low light conditions.

STEP 4: FLASH INTENSITY

Depending on what you are shooting, you will need to selectively adjust the flash intensity, otherwise you might just end up burning your overall image. We do not recommend using the on-camera flash, as you will only end up spoiling the overall image. Try making use of the Bounce Flash method discussed later on in this workshop. For point-and-shoot cameras though, the Bounce Flash method won’t quite work since the flash comes fit with the device. So apart from reducing the flash manually, you can have a white sheet of paper placed in front of the flash to further reduce the flash intensity.

Camera gear

LENSES TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN SHOOTING INDOOR AND OUTDOOR: As far as point-and-shoot cameras go, you obviously don’t have the choice of choosing the lens, as these cameras come fit with a decent amount of zoom out of the box. There are a few that offer upto 30x optical zoom, which is more than enough to capture objects that are at quite a distance. Adding to this are the preset scene modes that make the normal digital point-and-shoot a jack of all trades. So you get is a zoom lens, a macro lens and a normal lens all fit into one single unit.

However, the stock lens that you normally get with a DSLR gives a maximum of just 3x zoom, which isn’t much, especially if outdoor photography is what you are mostly into. Here, however, you have lenses to take care of each aspect of photography. There are three types of lenses that generally fit a DSLR - zoom lenses, prime lenses and macro lenses.

ZOOM LENSES: A typical zoom lens (24 – 90 mm) will give an approximate zoom range of 3.5x. However, if you want the best of both worlds, try going in for a 28 – 200 mm zoom lens. That way, you wouldn’t need to carry an additional lens when travelling.

PRIME LENSES: Prime lenses, on the other hand, don’t offer any kind of zoom. In other words, these lenses have a fixed focal length. But what they lack in zoom, they more than make up by delivering superior image quality. In addition, these lesnses are lighter and cheaper than traditional zoom lenses. They also have a larger aperture range that is capable of capturing images in low light conditions while maintaining the same shutter speed of a zoom lens. Prime lenses are best used when you require the picture to have a certain depth of field.

MACRO LENSES: Macro lenses are best used when you want to capture extreme close up shots of subjects. They are best used to highlight specific parts of a subject while blurring out the rest. However, they require sufficient lighting to make the overall picture stand out.

TRIPODS: Tripods are an essential part of any photographer’s equipment. So making use of a tripod when shooting will undoubtedly produce much better results. There are a few things that you need to look at before taking the plunge. First and foremost, you will need to check the overall weight of the tripod. This will depend on your requirements. If you are the kind to make use of several lenses and camera flashes, it would be advisable to settle for a tripod that’s slightly heavy. But if you are always on the move and all you have is the camera, you should consider buying a tripod that’s light and compact enough to carry. Secondly, check the tripod for stability as there are a few that tend to wobble when fit with a camera. The best way to do this would be to mount the camera with the legs of the tripod spread out. If it feels wobbly or uncomfortable, you should consider looking at something else.

NNext, consider the extensibility of the tripod. Choose something that reaches your height when fully extended. However, this also depends on what you are trying to shoot. Tripod heads should also be taken into account i.e.: their ease of use, overall movement of the camera when attached to the tripod, and if they are easy to detach when the need arises. So make sure you take all these into account before purchasing a tripod.

If you are not too keen on purchasing a tripod, you can instead invest in a monopod. Monopods are much lighter to carry and since they only have a single leg, they wouldn’t take you more than a few seconds to set up. They are also considerably cheaper than their three-legged counterparts. However, keep in mind that a monopod will not eliminate camera shake as well as a tripod, but will only reduce it to a certain extent. Their usage all depends on what you're looking to shoot. For example, a monopod would be best used when you need to shoot in cramped places, where setting up a tripod would be cumbersome or impossible. However, for outdoor shoots or when taking a slow shutter shot, a tripod would be a much better choice and would provide more stability.

BOUNCE FLASH: The problem with using a flash is that it tends to make the overall image look too flat or burnt. For instance, if you are shooting a product that is dark and reflective, it won’t come out right if you have the flash directed at it. You’ll get an extremely over exposed picture that wouldn’t effectively grab the viewer’s attention. There are many ways to get around this problem, such as investing in a flash diffuser or by making use of the bounce flash method. Adding a diffuser helps soften the overall light, thereby making your pictures look more natural. However, bounce flash is a totally different technique of diffusing light. For starters, you can try the ceiling-bounce by tilting your flash towards the ceiling at an angle of 75 – 80 degrees. Here, the ceiling acts as a diffuser and reflector as it bounces the diffused light onto the subject. However, you will need a pretty low ceiling to make this work effectively. If it’s a person that you are shooting, you might notice shadows underneath the eyes as the light is being reflected from a higher surface. In such cases, the reverse ceiling bounce method is the way to go. Here, you have to tilt the flash 45 degrees backwards, allowing the light to hit the wall, then the ceiling, and finally on your subject. Here again, you will need to make sure that the rear wall isn’t too far away from the flash, otherwise the final image will turn out rather dull and dark, making the flash pointless.

For outdoor photography, you can make use of reflectors. There are various types of reflectors that one can make use of, such as lamp reflectors, board reflectors and portable folding reflectors. Unlike bounce flash, portable reflectors are flexible to use as you can have them positioned just about anywhere to help give you that perfect shot.

POLARIZERS: If you are into outdoor photography, you should consider investing in a polarizer. Such filters are mostly used when the requirement is to eliminate reflections. Moreover, they also help in saturating and darkening the overall image. When shooting with a polarizer, the direction of the sunlight should be perpendicular to the position of your lens.

PROPS: Adding props to your products can enhance the overall outcome of the photograph. For example, if you have a gaming laptop that you would like to sell/resell. Just photographing the product won’t quite define the product at hand. A better and more viable approach to this would be to have some kind of a gaming poster in the background along with the product. However props will vary from product to product. It is best to keep it simple and minimal. Moreover, make sure that the prop isn’t as big as the product, because then the whole focus would be on the prop rather than the product.

Here are two questions you should ask yourself when shooting with props –

1. Does it enhance the product that is being shot or does it simply overwhelm the subject?

2. Does it help define exactly what you want to convey to the potential buyer?

‘SAVE AS’ FOR PRINT AND WEB

When giving photos for printing to a professional studio, there are certain specifications with regard to the DPI and resolution of an image that you must keep in mind. This is also the case when you want to upload images on websites. There are various sizes (in inches) of prints that studios offer, such as 16 x 20, 8 x 12, and, the most common, 4 x 6. Ideally, 200 dpi to 250 dpi images suffice for these sizes. But when you want to blow up an image, use higher dpi and resolution. The larger an image, the more pixels are required to maintain the image quality, or else the image would lose detail and cause pixilation. So a higher-quality image helps scalability. While 4-color (offset) printing machines, which are used for printing magazines, booklets, etc, need images in the CMYK format, photo printers use RGB. Therefore, to print photos, save the files in medium or high quality JPEG. For web, a 72 dpi value with a 1024 x 768 resolution JPEG should suffice.

Benefits of RAW over compressed

If your camera supports RAW, use it. Why? Because the unprocessed file contains pixel information that can be used to make fine adjustments to the image using an image editor such as Photoshop without sacrificing details. Consider it as the negative equivalent to a film camera.

HERE ARE THE BENEFITS OF RAW:

Better image quality.

Freedom to manually sharpen and remove noise

RAW formats make use of lossless compression or remain uncompressed. So the file contains maximum detail when compared to compressed formats such as JPEG.

RAW files allow you to make finer adjustments to a wide range of parameters such as white balance, hue, saturation, sharpness, etc.

Fewer artefacts when increasing the overall exposure of an underexposed photo.

RAW ALSO HAS A FEW DRAWBACKS:

RAW files are two to six times larger than a normal JPEG. So fewer images can be stored on the memory card.

Since the files are large, the write speed is much slower than clicking in JPEG.

Post Processing

As the terms suggest, post processing is the cleaning and enhancing of images to make them ready to use for high quality print or web publishing. In this workshop, we’ll be using Adobe Photoshop to show you step-by-step guides to various techniques to quickly and seamlessly enhance portraits, landscapes and indoor product shots.

Cut-out

When you shoot a product, even with a white background, the backdrop isn’t always appealing, which is why cut-outs are used. The idea with cut-outs is to get only a product without its jarred background so that you can place the product onto a fresh white backdrop or another background of your choice. Here’s how to do it:

STEP 1: Open the image in Adobe Photoshop, zoom in to it (100%), and select the pen tool from the tool bar on the left. Create a digital trace along the edges of the product, we’ve used a laptop for illustration.

STEP 2: Look for the edge of the product that runs in a straight line, and click on it to create your first node. Instead of creating multiple nodes, go to the end of this straight line and click to create the second node. Ensure that the line joining these two nodes matches the edge of the laptop.

STEP 3: If the line doesn’t match, click in the middle of the line to add a new node. Hold down the [Ctrl] key and drag this new node to adjust the line. The same technique is used for curves.

TIPS: Use the [Ctrl] key whenever you would like to re-position or adjust a node. To delete a node, click on it and hit [Delete].

STEP 4: When you come across a curve or a protrusion, click on the last node in the row, and click on the other end of the curve to create a new node. You notice a line running across the curve, where part of the product is falling out of the trail. Here, use step 3 to bend the line and match it with the curve.

STEP 5: Now click on the last node to continue the trail along the edges. When you are nearing completion, at the starting point (the first node), you’ll notice a tiny circle next to the pen. Click on the starting point to close the loop. You’ve just created a cut-out path for the laptop.

STEP 6: Now, go to the side panel, select the tab ‘path’, double-click on the work path, rename it, and save the file.

STEP 7: Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] and click on the renamed path to activate the cut-out selection. Now press [Ctrl] + J to duplicate this selection to a new layer with a transparent background. Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + N to turn this into a new layer and click OK.

TIP: Since the cut-out path gets saved along with the file, you can re-open the file and start from step 7, if an error occurs.

STEP 8: In the side panel, switch to the ‘Layers’ tab, and press [Shift] + F5 (you’ll be prompted) to fill this layer with ‘White’. The canvas will turn completely white. From the menu bar, go to Layer | Arrange | Send to back. You now have the laptop with a clean white background. Go to file | Save as, and save the file as a PSD (default).

TIP: At this stage if you want this laptop on another background, import the background (File | Open | background file). Revert to the saved laptop document, right-click on the cut-out layer, and select ‘duplicate layer’. Here, in the ‘destination’ drop down menu, select the document that contains your background image, and click ‘OK’.

Retouching

Retouching and enhancing images is perhaps the most common practice in photography. Be it for product or glamour photography, all images are cleaned before they get published. Using the stamping tool is a very quick way when there is very little correction to be done. But what really makes a huge difference is the layer masking technique (especially for human faces). Let’s look at each of them step-wise.

STEP 1: The clone stamping tool is useful for removing tiny marks, such as a finger print or stain, but it is tedious task when making major corrections. To use it, select the tool, push the [Alt] key and click on a clean area close to the mark. Then release the [Alt] key and paste the cloned portion onto the mark.

STEP 2: When cleaning images with uniform colors, the spot healing brush tool is even more effective. It quickly and automatically cleans tiny spots. All you have to do is use it as an eraser.

TIP: If you’re looking to smoothen the skin texture, layer masking along with gaussian blur can prove to be magical.

STEP 3: To use layer masking, first let’s duplicate the original image and turn it into a new layer. Press [Crtl] + J or go to Layer | Duplicate layer.

STEP 4: Go to Filter | Blur, and select gaussian blur. Keep the pixel count at 5.

STEP 5: Select the blurred layer, go to Layer | Layer Mask, and select ‘Hide all’. In the side panel, next to the blurred layer, you’ll notice a black (masked) layer. This layer acts like a coin under paper (original image), so when you shade it with a pencil, you get the impression of it.

STEP 6: To reveal parts of the blurred layer, which is underneath the original image, select white from the color palette and the paint brush from the tool bar, and start painting the marks on the original image. You’ll see the blurred layer partly surfacing, which makes the marks magically disappear, hence giving the face a smooth texture.

STEP 7: Do this carefully so that the details and sharpness are not lost, especially close to the nose and eyes. You can even control the opacity to give a more realistic look to the picture.

TIP: In case the blurring goes out of proportion, you can reverse the painting by switching to black (to retrieve parts of the original image).

STEP 8: To give a more vibrant look to a face or to tone it down a bit, press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + I and adjust the tones accordingly. You can also change the brightness and contrast level by using Curves. Simply press [Ctrl] + M to get the option on screen.

STEP 9: To flatten the image before saving it, go to Layer and select Flatten image. Now, to Image | Mode | CMYK and click Ok when prompted for conversion.

STEP 10: Finally, save the file as TIF if it is for print, or JPEG for the web.

Artificial DOF

Layer masking along with gaussian blur can be helpful in achieving artificial depth of field. The only addition would be that you’ll have to change the pixel count of the gaussian blur for different areas of the picture. The area in full focus remains sharpest (unchanged). As you move away from the focus point, you increase the pixel count for gaussian blur. For instance, in the closest area you can keep it at 2 pixels, and the most distant object can be blurred with about 5 or more pixels. It entirely depends on the perspective and how the image is shot.

Printing booklets

We checked with a couple of photo studios in Mumbai for printing prices. The starting price for a 10-page (20 sides) photo-booklet of 6 x 6 (inches) dimensions is approximately Rs 500 (the better the quality, the higher the price). Studios even take up printing jobs for pamphlets, brochures, etc, which can cost less because the pages could be fewer and they are usually printed in bulk. Also, in this case, you can ask for discounts of up to 10 percent.

– d

India denies visa to Pervez Musharraf

NEW DELHI: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who wanted to visit India for attending a seminar this weekend, was today denied visa.

The decision was taken after the Home Ministry expressed reservations over the visit of the former Pakistani military ruler due to his recent anti-India statements, official sources said.

Besides, the government also did not want convergence of elements opposed to the present regime in Pakistan on Indian soil for their activities.

Some of Musharraf's supporters had also applied to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for a visa to visit India around the time he was planning to travel here and the three other metros, the sources said.

Musharraf had been invited to attend a seminar hosted by the Young Presidents Organisation, an international outfit involving influential business leaders. The conference was scheduled to be held in Delhi on Saturday.

The former Pakistan president was among the guest speakers at the event.

Musharraf, currently living in self-exile in Britain, had recently said that India was responsible for creating unrest in Pakistan's south-western Baluchistan province and authorities have "solid evidence" in this regard.

He claimed that the involvement of India and Afghanistan in Baluchistan was creating unrest in the province. He was also the key architect of the Kargil war.

Almost a decade ago, Musharraf had visited India for the Agra summit and made two more visits in 2005 and 2009. In 2005, he visited India as President for watching an Indo-Pak one day cricket match and in 2009 to attend a media event after shedding power.

courtesy : TOI

Orkut Got Badges

Google has introduced badges in Orkut profiles to help you easily flaunt how active you are and how much you know of the social site.

For instance, if you have been on Orkut for more than 5 years, you get the “early user” badge while if you are active on Orkut forums, you are awarded with the “Super User” badge.

Some Orkut users have already been assigned badges though the full rollout will happen only in the coming week according to the Google Blog. Overall, this is a good way to give some recognition to the active Orkut users and, in the process, trying to keep them loyal to the site.

ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌: റിവേഴ്‌സ്‌ ഗിയറില്‍ നിന്ന്‌ ടോപ്പ്‌ ഗിയറിലേക്ക്‌

ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌: റിവേഴ്‌സ്‌ ഗിയറില്‍ നിന്ന്‌ ടോപ്പ്‌ ഗിയറിലേക്ക്‌

കടുത്ത തീരുമാനങ്ങള്‍ ഉള്‍ക്കൊള്ളാന്‍ സ്വയം സന്നദ്ധരാവുക' കഴിഞ്ഞ പുതുവര്‍ഷത്തില്‍ ലോകമെമ്പാടുമുള്ള മൂന്നര ലക്ഷം ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ ജീവനക്കാരോട്‌ ചെയര്‍മാന്‍ രത്തന്‍ ടാറ്റയുടെ ആഹ്വാനം ഇതായിരുന്നു. ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുകളും സാമ്പത്തിക മാന്ദ്യവും ചേര്‍ന്ന്‌ റിവേഴ്‌സ്‌ ഗിയറിലാക്കിയ ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ അപ്പോള്‍ തീര്‍ത്തും സമ്മര്‍ദ്ദത്തിലായിരുന്നു. 140 വര്‍ഷത്തെ വിജയ പാരമ്പര്യമുള്ള ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പിന്റെ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ തന്നെ ഏറ്റവും മോശം കാലഘട്ടമായിരുന്നു അത്‌. ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുകളെത്തുടര്‍ന്ന്‌ പിച്ചവെച്ചും ഇടയ്‌ക്ക്‌ വീണും മുന്നേറിയ ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ ഇപ്പോഴിതാ ഓടാന്‍ ആരംഭിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. റിവേഴ്‌സ്‌ ഗിയറില്‍ നിന്ന്‌ ടോപ്പ്‌ ഗിയറിലേക്കുള്ള ദ്രുതഗതിയിലുള്ള വളര്‍ച്ചയ്‌ക്ക്‌ ടാറ്റയെ സഹായിച്ചത്‌ ഒരു ദശാബ്‌ദം മുമ്പ്‌ രത്തന്‍ ടാറ്റ തന്നെ എടുത്ത ഒരു തീരുമാനമായിരുന്നു. 2000-01 കാലഘട്ടം. വാഹന വിപണിയെ മുഴുവന്‍ ഒരു തളര്‍ച്ച പിടികൂടിയിരുന്നു. ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സിന്റെ നഷ്‌ടം മൂക്ക്‌ മുട്ടെ എത്തി ഏകദേശം 500 കോടിയായി. ഈ സമയത്താണ്‌ ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ ഏതെങ്കിലും ഒരു വിപണിയെ മാത്രം ആശ്രയിക്കരുതെന്ന്‌ രത്തന്‍ ടാറ്റ നിര്‍ദ്ദേശിച്ചത്‌. ഉരുക്ക്‌, ഓട്ടോമൊബീല്‍, കെമിക്കല്‍സ്‌, ഹോസ്‌പിറ്റാലിറ്റി മേഖലകളില്‍ വിദേശത്ത്‌ സ്വന്തമായി യൂണിറ്റുകള്‍ തുടങ്ങാനോ, ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുകള്‍ നടത്താനോ ശ്രമിക്കണമെന്നതായിരുന്നു തന്ത്രം. പത്ത്‌ വര്‍ഷം മുമ്പ്‌ 50,000 കോടി രൂപയുടെ വിറ്റുവരവ്‌ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്ന കമ്പനിയുടെ കഴിഞ്ഞ സാമ്പത്തിക വര്‍ഷത്തെ വില്‍പ്പന മാത്രം 3,19,534 കോടി രൂപയാണ്‌. ഇടയ്‌ക്ക്‌ നേരിടേണ്ടി വന്ന പ്രതിബന്ധങ്ങളോട്‌ `റ്റാറ്റാ' പറഞ്ഞ്‌ നേടിയ ഈ വിജയത്തിന്‌ ഉരുക്കിന്റെ കരുത്തുണ്ട്‌. 2000 മുതല്‍ ഇതുവരെ ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ നടത്തിയ ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുകള്‍ക്ക്‌ ആകെ ചെലവായത്‌ 85,500 കോടി രൂപയാണ്‌. ഇപ്പോള്‍ ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ കമ്പനികളുടെ ബിസിനസില്‍ 57 ശതമാനവും ലഭിക്കുന്നത്‌ ഇന്ത്യക്ക്‌ പുറത്തുനിന്നാണ്‌. ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുകളുടെ കഥ ലോകത്തിലെ തന്നെ വന്‍ കമ്പനികളെ ഏറ്റെടുക്കലല്ല മറിച്ച്‌ അതിന്‌ ശേഷം ഇവയെ ലാഭക്ഷമമാക്കുകയായിരുന്നു പ്രധാന കടമ്പയെന്ന്‌ ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സ്‌ ചീഫ്‌ ഫിനാന്‍ഷ്യല്‍ ഓഫീസര്‍ സി.രാമകൃഷ്‌ണന്‍ പറയുന്നു. 2008 ജൂണിലാണ്‌ ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സ്‌ ജഗ്വാര്‍-ലാന്‍ഡ്‌ റോവറെ (ജെ.എല്‍.ആര്‍) ഏറ്റെടുക്കുന്നത്‌. മൂന്ന്‌ നാല്‌ മാസം കൊണ്ട്‌ ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട പ്രശ്‌നങ്ങള്‍ പരിഹരിക്കാന്‍ കഴിയുമെന്നായിരുന്നു ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പിന്റെ പ്രതീക്ഷ, എന്നാല്‍ ഇതിന്‌ മാത്രം ഒരു വര്‍ഷം വേണ്ടിവന്നു. 2008 ഒക്‌ടോബറില്‍ ജെ.എല്‍.ആറിന്റെ ഫാക്‌റ്ററികള്‍ പ്രവര്‍ത്തിച്ചത്‌ ഏതാനും ദിവസങ്ങള്‍ മാത്രമാണ്‌. ലിക്വിഡിറ്റി പ്രശ്‌നങ്ങളും അതിശക്തമായിരുന്നു. മാന്ദ്യത്തോടെ അമേരിക്കയിലും യൂറോപ്പിലും കച്ചവടം കുറഞ്ഞു. ഒരു വര്‍ഷത്തിനുള്ളില്‍ ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സിന്റെ നഷ്‌ടം 2505 കോടിയായി. ഇതില്‍ ജെ.എല്‍.ആറിന്റെ സംഭാവനയാകട്ടെ 1777 കോടിയും. എന്നാല്‍ കാര്യങ്ങള്‍ പെട്ടെന്നാണ്‌ കീഴ്‌മേല്‍ മറിഞ്ഞത്‌. കര്‍ശനമായ ചെലവ്‌ ചുരുക്കല്‍ നടപടികളും ജഗ്വാര്‍ എക്‌സ്‌.ജെ മോഡലിന്റെ ചൈനയിലെ മിന്നുന്ന പ്രകടനവും, അമേരിക്കയില്‍ വില്‍പ്പന കൂടിയതും കമ്പനിക്ക്‌ നേട്ടമായി. ഇതേതുടര്‍ന്ന്‌ കഴിഞ്ഞ സാമ്പത്തിക വര്‍ഷം ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സിന്റെ അറ്റാദായം 2571.06 കോടിയായി. ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സിന്റെ വരുമാനം ഒന്‍പതിരട്ടി വര്‍ധിച്ച്‌ 92,519 കോടി രൂപയായി. ഇതില്‍ ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ നിന്നുള്ള സംഭാവന 38 ശതമാനം മാത്രമാണ്‌. കൂടാതെ 1,34,000 രൂപ വിലയുള്ള നാനോ ഇന്ത്യയിലും അതിന്റെ 25 ഇരട്ടി വിലയുള്ള ജഗ്വാര്‍ എക്‌സ്‌.ജെ അമേരിക്കയിലും ടാറ്റ മോട്ടോഴ്‌സ്‌ വില്‍ക്കുന്നുണ്ട്‌. ടാറ്റ സ്റ്റീല്‍ കോറസിനെ ഏറ്റെടുത്തതും ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പിനെ സംബന്ധിച്ച്‌ നേട്ടങ്ങളുടെ മാത്രം കണക്കില്‍പ്പെടുത്താവുന്നതായിരുന്നില്ല. കാരണം കോറസ്‌ ലാഭത്തില്‍ രേഖപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന ചാഞ്ചാട്ടം തന്നെ. കര്‍ക്കശമായ ചെലവ്‌ ചുരുക്കല്‍ നടപടികളിലൂടെ കമ്പനിയെ ലാഭത്തിലെത്തിക്കാനുള്ള തീവ്രശ്രമത്തിലാണ്‌ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌. കമ്പനിയിലെ ജീവനക്കാരുടെ എണ്ണം 42,000ല്‍ നിന്ന്‌ 35,000 ആയി കുറച്ചത്‌ ഇതിന്‌ തെളിവാണ്‌. എന്നാല്‍ എല്ലാ ഏറ്റെടുക്കലുകളും ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പിന്‌ വേദനാ ജനകങ്ങളായിരുന്നില്ല. അമേരിക്കയിലെ സോഡ ആഷ്‌ കമ്പനിയായ ജനറല്‍ കെമിക്കല്‍ ഇന്‍ഡസ്‌ട്രിയല്‍ പ്രൊഡക്‌റ്റ്‌സിനെ ഏറ്റെടുത്തത്‌ ഇതിന്‌ ഉദാഹരണമാണ്‌. ഏറ്റെടുക്കലിന്‌ മുമ്പ്‌ ടാറ്റ കെമിക്കല്‍സിന്റെ സോഡ ആഷ്‌ ഉല്‍പ്പാദനം പത്ത്‌ ലക്ഷം ടണ്ണായിരുന്നെങ്കില്‍, ഏറ്റെടുക്കലിന്‌ ശേഷം അത്‌ 55 ലക്ഷം ടണ്ണായി. ടാറ്റ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ വളരുകയാണ്‌, രാജ്യങ്ങളുടെ അതിര്‍ത്തികള്‍ ഭേദിച്ച്‌, വെയിലത്തും തീയിലും വാടാതെ. അതോടൊപ്പം ഓഹരിയുടമകള്‍ക്ക്‌ ആകര്‍ഷക നേട്ടമാണ്‌ ഗ്രൂപ്പ്‌ കമ്പനികള്‍ നല്‍കുന്നത്‌. courtesy: dhanam magazine

THE INTERNET IS WATCHING YOU

THE INTERNET IS WATCHING YOU

Everything you do online is being used to track you and guess what you’ll want to do next. Should you be scared yet?

COURTESY : chip magazine

The owner of the corner shop has known you for a long time. He knows what you eat, that you like to drink Italian wine, and that you usually watch action movies on Sundays. That’s how he can offer you things that you need, like a new crime thriller, the perfect bottle for your next party, and reserved bags of your favorite snacks when you forget to order them.

What sounds like a pleasant community store in the past occurs every day on the Internet. Our “corner shop owner” is not behind the counter, but instead runs a successful online business that offers exactly what his customers need. He might have had to know you personally 30 years ago, but today the business’s computers simply have to analyze your online visiting habits.

Now imagine that man in the store is following you around, reminding you to buy a gift for the party you said you’d be attending on Facebook last week. Or imagine that he’s seen your status updates about starting a diet, and starts telling you about the store’s low-fat foods section. This is pretty much what’s happening online these days. CHIP shows how online shops today use advanced Deep Packet Inspection to screen customers such that they can offer exactly what the customer wants. We also give you the lowdown on how behavior-based advertisements work with behavioral targeting.

Online shops collect data en masse

Online shops such as Amazon swear by one rule: get to know everything about our customers. The more information it has, the more specific its user profiles will be, and the more effective its advertisements. Thus, products that one has viewed on Amazon influence the display of others. For instance, if someone buys a Wii game console, he will be offered accessories for it in the future.

Many find this invasive and Amazon has had to face criticism from individuals, activists, and even the media. German TV host Günther Jauch famously called out the store after he once received a package with something he called “erotic”, which had not been meant for him. Since then he has constantly received pornographic recommendations. Though Jauch’s surprise has given rise to plenty of jokes about his supposed gifting ideas, it also exposes the weaknesses of this system. Amazon does not know that the erotic product was not supposed to match with Jauch’s profile.

Amazon also often displays products that are not of interest to the customer—a waste of advertising space. In one such example, Amazon displayed two different types of refill packs for a coffee machine it was selling, in the advertising module titled “Customers who bought this product also bought…..” The packs did not work with this machine at all! This is annoying for those who see an opportunity and quickly buy what looks like a good product, assuming it matches.

Analyzing surfing habits

Behavioral Targeting techniques are an evolution of this idea, which many marketing professionals consider a wonder weapon. Behavior-based advertisement displays take into account where the user comes from, which websites he has visited previously, and what he has clicked on.

For a long time, Google’s AdWords service has been displaying advertisements after detecting keywords on a web page. However since March 2009, the search giant has also been offering behavioral targeting and can display specific advertisements to groups of people. For instance, if a user has been browsing through a sportswear website for a football shirt in August, he might be shown ads for another website with Christmas offers on similar products in December. Google itself describes its technique as using cookies which save tracking information on users' computers.

The possibilities available to a shop through behavior-based display are as endless as the creativity of search and marketing providers. If a customer only clicks on special offers, the online shop can even discourage him by directing him to a slow server in the future and spoiling the fun of bargain shopping. In addition, the dealer puts the customer at a disadvantage by not displaying advertisements related to special offers. These will be shown only to customers they want to reward!

Online shops also apply marketing tips from the real world. For instance, if a retailer wants to attract only well-to-do customers, leaflets with attractive offers are only put in mailboxes in upmarket areas with well-situated residents. Similarly, one can use geolocation information to analyze the place of origin of a surfer and recommend specific offers to him or her. The coordinates obtained through IP address identification on the Internet are very fine-grained, but modern cellphones and certain desktop browsers now supply precise GPS locations, which can even be used to guess the financial behavioral pattern of any surfer.

In-depth analysis divulges too much information

Deep Packet Inspection, or DPI in short, is a technological continuation of this personalized advertisement strategy. While theoretically a surfer can avoid behavioral targeting by not allowing any cookies, DPI traces a user’s activities on the Internet as if he or she is under surveillance. In theory, every website that is called up can be recorded; every mail can be scanned in real time—and with the help of keywords found in these, an individual profile can be created through which advertisers can send users specific offers. For instance, if an advertiser detects a number of messages to a car dealer from a customer inquiring about certain accessories, advertisements for those very products can be inserted in advertisement spaces as he or she browses the Web. However, online shops cannot use DPI by themselves; they need Internet service providers to offer it, but they seem to be cautious of violating user privacy agreements. Governments will soon be forced to formulate policies to regulate this practice.

The technology is not new. It is already being used for things like filtering viruses and spam. ISPs normally look at the IP headers of data packets in transit (in which the sender and the recipient IP addresses are mentioned), which means they can easily use the same techniques to search through an entire packet. This way the provider gets an insight into the actual data that is being sent and received.

DPI can be misused, but there are no cases that could be cause for any alarm at present. It possible for providers to analyze data traffic, and manipulate it as well—just like cybercriminals do when they attempt to send malicious code to a victim.

When a user calls up a website, he receives more than just its source code. The Internet service provider can use DPI to slip in JavaScript that displays an advertisement, even if the website owner designs his/her website advertisement-free. Spyware installed on your computer can also do this. In the worst case scenario, a website owner is not even aware that an advertisement has been embedded into his site. ISPs could also determine which users are generating the most peer-to-peer file sharing traffic, and which are using their service mostly for email, leading to bandwidth throttling.

In 2009, British Telecom started the first tests with a DPI service provider, Phorm, without informing its customers. In Germany, T Mobile and Vodafone allegedly manipulate cellular data traffic and assign identifying codes to users. The argument is that this enables faster access to frequently used websites, but the downside is that the injected JavaScript can sometimes lead to errors in displaying sites in a browser. In addition, DPI has a negative connotation since it is used for monitoring and manipulating specific Web content—countries such as China and Iran use it to filter and censor the Web, which is alarming for free-speech advocates and political campaigners.

Advertisers do not always need ingenious techniques to get information about surfers from the Internet. Users voluntarily give away plenty of information too. For instance, Amazon users can create wishlists in which they save products they desire but do not own yet. Friends can have a look, to order the products and send them to the creator of the list as gifts. What many do not know is that if one isn’t careful with his or her Amazon settings, the wishlists become public and the whole world can access them through search engines.

Web 2.0 follows specific identities

Social networks are also ideal data sources for marketing professionals. Data collectors have been known to make the most of Facebook with its open API. One can program applications that convince users to grant them access to personal information, including details about their other friends. Other less ethical means include persuading people to add a fake profile as a “friend”, thereby granting it access to more of your user profile, which most people leave totally visible to their friends. Through the Facebook API, programmers can access information about members, including details such as their employers, religious affiliations, and sexual orientation. According to the Facebook developer Wiki, applications can access over 50 sets of user information—which is interesting for marketers and hackers alike.

American students of MIT at successful in programming a “radar” system for Facebook, which can analyze the information stored in a user’s friends’ profiles to draw conclusions about that person, even if his own settings made all information private. This should be a warning sign for users of a community not to publish too much of their real lives online. Most importantly, people need to be cautious about the kinds of applications, games and quizzes they click on, since doing so grants all of them access to one’s personal information.

While Facebook is a superb example, all of this also applies to other services that identify individuals, such as OpenID and Google Accounts. These let users log into dozens of websites with a single username and password. For example, with a valid Facebook account, members can use the Facebook Connect system to log in to the video sharing portal Vimeo which also lets you publish your “likes” on your wall. This is easy for users and opens up new ways for companies to court customers if they are ethical. Online shops are experimenting with ways to display products that friends have bought or looked at often (although this famously spoiled many people’s Christmas shopping surprises when Facebook demonstrated the capability with its highly criticized and short-lived Beacon advertising program in late 2007).

Another example is a promotional online trailer for the videogame Prototype, which came out in mid 2009. Those who used Facebook Connect suddenly found themselves becoming part of the trailer! It accessed users’ names, photos and professional backgrounds through their Facebook profiles and integrated this information into scenes in the trailer.

Users become advertising figures

People are more receptive to recommendations from friends than from strangers, so companies try reaching customers personally by creating so-called fansites. Any user can, for instance, become fans of products, people, companies, and even designs. With Facebook’s Open Graph tool, companies even have the opportunity to put advertisements on external websites to receive testimonials from members of the fansite, and gain advertising exposure through the profile picture.

People who recommend products of their own accord are particularly of interest to online shops. Economists have conducted research on filtering out these opinion makers in the populations of online networks through community analysis. There are plenty of scenarios for such identification services to thrive in, when advertisers start linking information from the digital world with the real.

Data and the Google juggernaut

Of course no discussion of privacy online is complete without analyzing Google’s data-mining habits. The search giant is in a position to use its multiple online properties to gather amazing amounts of information, and possibly even link these profiles to individuals in the real world. The company’s motto has long been “Don’t be evil”, but it’s difficult to ascertain what exactly the company considers to be within this limit and what is too much. Incidents of anti-Google dissent are growing more common, from strangers being able to follow you on Google Wave, to protests in the publishing industry against the mass digitization of books, to rumblings of antitrust cases because of the company’s dominance in online advertising. Jeff Jarvis, blogger and author of the book “What would Google do?” sharply criticizes the company for a product called Sidewiki which collects user comments about websites and saves them on Google servers. The site operators themselves, and the furious Jeff Jarvis, have no control over it. Google copies entire libraries, and has detailed photographs of the entire planet, covering all countries and cities, many streets and houses, the oceans, the Moon and Mars. Google offers an operating system for mobile phones, and soon there will also be one for netbooks. Google says "It is our mission to organize the information of the world and to make it accessible and usable worldwide”.

The information of the world also includes health data. Google has for example invested in the start-up 23andMe, run by Sergey Brin's wife Anne Wojcicki, which offers genetic analysis for anyone. Will we one day be able to run a search to find out which illnesses we are predisposed to?

One can also see it as part of a strategy to be omnipresent on the Web. In order to submit and read comments in Sidewiki, the Google toolbar must be installed. This piece of software doesn't have a very good reputation, and continuously provides Google with user information, linking information on sites you surf to Google services, such as addresses in Google Maps. On the sidelines of the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair, Google announced its entry into the digital book business. Google soon intends to digitize every book in the world!

Even the Chrome browser doesn’t have a clean record when it comes to privacy—it identifies each user with a unique ID. As of version 4.1, the ID is purged when a user first downloads an update, but it should not be there at all.

Brilliant ideas underlie most Google services. They are easy to use, technically solid, and best of all, they’re nearly all free. Google does a lot of good as a company by investing in alternative energy production and giving employees an allowance if they buy a hybrid car. But Google is also greedy for data. It commands the largest Web index available, and has insight into every website, photo and video.

“We are building a mirror world,” said Marissa Mayer, head of Google Search, a few years ago at the Digital Life Design Conference in Munich. The company is setting up a digital copy of our world. It records down to the last detail, how we move in it.

Google tracks 80 percent of all websites

One can hardly elude Google today. It does not help if you stop using Google Search, YouTube, Picasa or even the services requiring registration like GMail, Docs and Calendar. With its astoundingly wide network, Google is present on 80 percent of all websites—for lay persons often invisibly. After its acquisition of advertising network DoubleClick, around half of all ad banners on the Web originate from Google servers. The more inconspicuous, but still more widely spread text ads come from Google AdWords as well. The Google Analytics service works completely secretly, allowing website operators to analyze the click-paths of their visitors. Whenever a surfer lands on a site that uses this service, Google sets a cookie with a unique ID and records his or her IP address. Thanks to its super dense network, Google can then see exactly who moves how on the Internet. Every click or search query generates a log entry with an IP address and unique cookie ID as well as a time stamp. The log file of YouTube until mid 2008 alone was over 12 Terabytes in size.

For database security as well as privacy concerns, the different databases for each Google service are not necessarily tied to each other, but it is technically possible and Google certainly has to have the know-how. Even when there are no actual names, the records have enough parts to piece together a picture of the person who is sitting at a PC, where he lives, what interests he has, and how much money he spends. Google justifies its passion for collection by being able to improve its services with the data. Only in this way can it know how to show personalized relevant search results, or ads that users are more likely to click on.

How much is too much?

One can pick up interesting tidbits from the official company blogs, such as the fact that some employees are excited about the idea of building a 3D model of every building ever built on the planet. Google Building Maker already makes the required tools available. On an academic level, most of those working at high levels in the company are IT pros, mathematicians and statisticians—most of them toppers from prestigious universities. For them the masses of data collected are like toys with which they can run riot. They work on them as if possessed, to write algorithms which recognize patterns and structures in what seems like random chaos. There are no limits. Suggestions for projects which might seem outlandish are particularly welcome at Google. Lars Reppesgaard quotes a Google software engineer in his book The Google Empire: “One day, someone suggests some wild endeavor for which he needs a few thousand computers, and you say ‘OK, you’ve got it’.” Usually it takes new employees a couple of months to get so far, but the moment can come anytime.

DEEP PACKET INSPECTION

China uses it for Internet monitoring, the same way as Tunisia and Iran. Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) has become an explosive topic since it first started being used not only used for Internet security, but also for on-the-fly-manipulation of websites, be it to silence political dissidents or display personalized advertisements.

Personal privacy becomes a concern when companies start matching individuals to the profiles they generate online. Serving advertisements by harnessing this knowledge is a questionable practice in terms of data protection regulation, and most countries’ legal systems see this as a gray area. However, certain cases have come up in courts of law. The EU commission has initiated proceedings against Great Britain since it failed to prevent British Telecom from violating its user privacy guidelines. The fact that it managed to display advertisements through Phorm without users’ consent implies that the UK’s own laws do not have this kind of protection mechanism in place. Most countries’ laws have only limited control over what people do with the data floating out there, since they can hardly keep pace with the development of new technology.

However at least some countries, for example Germany, are becoming aware of the problem and have begun to enact laws precluding general-purpose monitoring of citizens through DPI.

What it means for users

Privacy sometimes takes a backseat when it could slow down innovative thinking. In the midst of protests about Google parsing its users’ email to show related ads, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin answered: “That is automated. No one watches, so we don’t believe that personal privacy is affected”

Data that doesn’t include specific private information can still be enough to personally identify you. One does not need to read crude conspiracy theories to imagine how interesting such data could be for the world’s governments, which are already overzealous about protecting their national security. Some agencies already monitor the eating preferences of airline passengers to filter cultural influences. What if new laws compel Amazon and Google to disclose their log files to prosecutors and intelligence agencies? Each innocent-looking mouse click would gain even greater importance; way beyond individual privacy concerns.