Suspicious of SideGuide, I wrote MetroFi and got a form letter with no pertinent information or response. At the bottom of my reply, it dawned on me that the forum of my discontent was not a one-to-one email. Nor, I would say here, is it in blogs.

At present, it seems like the most effective way to get to the bottom of this change and what affect it has on the user is to make it a very public debate. To do that I have sent an email to the manager of the news division of Willamette Week hoping the information I gave him (quoted below) will prompt him to assign an investigative reporter to determine whether a story is really here.

I did try to be some what subjective, as supposition more than fact has been flowing in the area blogs regarding this MetroFi service change. However, presuming that some of this supposition may be true, I did try to outline the key arguments and establish the conflicts that this change may or may not reveal.

The email begins:

MetroFi, as you know, is our local-area, free WiFi provider.

Early in January 2008, they changed their connection services for all free, unsecured users using Wintel computers. As their website explains, now PC-based users must install MSN SideGuide in order to make a WiFi connection to their modems around the area.

The MSN and MetroFi news releases regarding this change claim it is done to improve Metro-Fi’s advertising and advertising earnings. I have no complaint with a for-profit company making changes to shore up or improve their earnings. And I embrace any business model that can find a way to deliver free WiFI by selling advertising and making this advertising resident on a user’s browser. This model has been around since at least Juno.com.

From what I have read and understood, the City of Portland accepted Metro Fi’s installation and operation of this free WiFi service with the understanding that MetroFi would re-coop capital and operating expenses from the advertising they would sell and post on said browsers.

There is, now, a fundamental question about this change, which goes under answered and which, I have reason to suspect, operates outside of the tacit understandings or implied, legal consent given by the City to this operator - who piggy-backs hardware and services on City property.

The MSN and MetroFi websites and PR or news releases have been particularly silent regarding the specific operation of the SideGuide software. They tell you that SideGuide will deliver advertising and assist in searches made by the user. Nothing else.

An informed computer person might reasonably expect that, for MSN to recommend sites, it must, by necessity monitor search and surfing of the user. (How else do they know the interest of the user and direct them accordingly?) This is a question that has been immediately raised by Telco and ISD people around the area, in various blogs and sites (search “MSN SideGuide” on Google and find your share.)

One or more have stated that it is either certain or presumed that MSN is data-mining the search and surf history of every user connected through the MSN SideGuide. It could be paranoia. But, such a supposition does flow logically.

Since SideGuide is a browser (intended to replace Firefox or Internet Explorer), surf and search histories are logged on it - not another resident browser. For advertising or search results to flow from the action of the SideGuide browser, it follows that either the resident software or a MSN site receives and processes this history in order to deliver said results. It would be impossible for a resident software to have on hand, all known world sites, so at some point, this information must be going to MSN servers for analysis and back to the user in referral. (In the same way your Google search goes to them and the results come back to you.)

As you can imagine, neither MSN nor MetroFi provide any information on the web to describe precisely what MSN is obtaining and what they are doing with this information. The omission of this is what many are finding suspicious. All web information on SideGuide is vague, touting the benefits (targeted advertising and search results) while avoiding any mention of the software function or features.

And so, the question first becomes: is MSN data-mining surf and search histories and what are they doing with this information besides delivering informed advertising content?

No one is telling.

If they do data mine, what they monitor, record and sell is a history of events performed during a user’s unsecured connection. Being unsecured, one can argue a user has no grounds to claim a privacy intrusion. By my own ethical judgment, that’s a reasonable argument. An unsecured connection implies there may be no guaranteed privacy. (That doesn’t mean the average unsecured user has any idea that they have no privacy.)

However, in general an unsecured WiFi connection does NOT reveal the user’s identity other than the location of connection. While the user may be monitored as to connection at a given modem (point), and would-be intruders may have unsecured access to their actions, the actual user by name, city, computer ID etc. is not identified. Most importantly, a browser does not identify the user to the WiFi connection point and the user’s search and surf history is not permanently recorded by the modem point or it’s operator. Go into your neighborhood, Vivace Coffee House (I am near it too) and your surfing history is not a matter of permanent record.

So, the second question is: does MSN SideGuide recognize every user connected and do they build a continued, on-going history record of all connections made since installing the MSN SideGuide?

No one is telling. But, if you wanted Big Brother to be watching everything you do, every time you go on the web from any MetroFi site, this could do it.

The remainder of the unanswered questions are fairly simple.

1. Might this, what they could be doing, be considered invasion of privacy?

When MSN gets into mining our search and surf histories, that might be a pretty severe invasion of privacy. Well, as I said, not too private on a public, unsecured connection. But, very severe when MetroFi and MSN fails to inform users of what they are doing. There must be an agreement between parties that the user gives up all privacy in exchange for the services MSN and MetroFi render.

2. Have the MSN SideGuide users accepted a software user agreement that does not specifically reveal the extent of this intrusion? Does it intentionally bury this information in a blanket user agreement — allowing MSN to do what they want, as they want?

If so, it may be argued that this is deception by intentional omission.

3. Has MetroFi breeched any tacit, implied or written agreements with the City of Portland?

It is likely that the City of Portland’s intention to allow MetroFi to install equipment on City property and operate a free citizen’s WiFi service in select areas was predicated on MetroFi agreeing to re-coop capital and operating expenses through banner advertising. This agreement may not restrict advertising to simply “banner” publication, but, at the time of this agreement, it is unlikely that MetroFi or the City were aware of the SideGuide product or it’s features.

This is not a program that just displays advertising banners on a browser. Instead, it introduces a new MSN browser (currently free) as MSN leaps into the WiFi browser software market. It is probably intended to mine on-going user data and to maintain a permanent and continuing history of the user’s surf and search transactions. And while this data helps Microsoft better target advertising to the end user, this data may be sold to 3rd parties. None of these features can be construed as “advertising.”

It is a promotion of MSN software, but not by mere advertising. Instead, the MSN product is marketed as a condition to use the free Wifi service. One may not use the free service unless one uses the MSN product. That is not advertising. In fact, no one may use the free service unless they agree to use the product. Advertising, by it’s nature, informs a user. This is not informing with the intent to allow a user to decide whether they will or won’t subscribe to a product. This is conditional. Use it or you may not have free access to WiFi. This was never the City’s intention, I am sure.

If SideGuide is a data-mining instrument then MetroFi would be earning income from selling access to this marketing data to MSN. I do not believe income selling access to a user’s marketing data can be construed as advertising income. At least, I’d like to see the written agreement that implies that.

If SideGuide is recording an on-going user search and surf history, then MetroFi is also earning income from MSN for providing access to this data without knowing consent of the user. (Knowing being the operative word here.) I do not believe that being paid to supply access to this data, while withholding from the user information regarding same, is a form of advertising.

4. Does the MSN SideGuide user agreement really explain exactly what the software does, what it’s obtaining, what’s it’s storing and how the information is being used or sold?

In a word, not likely. If their PR releases are any indication, MSN and MetroFi are purposely omitting this information. (Admittedly, I haven’t read it, as I refuse, without better public information, to download and install it.)

5. Does the City of Portland know that these changes have occurred? Have they been informed of all features, including those that may be deemed intrusive? Have they been given an opportunity to examine whether these new services are in compliance with their agreement(s) with MetroFi?

In my experience, not likely. These operators would not willingly share any information which might contradict the terms of their agreement with the City. And frankly, Microsoft has a blatant history of acting at the edges of the law and stalling court rulings and decrees until they have succeeded in commanding a target market.

In summary, I leave you with this one parting thought: in his first book, Bill Gates imagined the perfect business plan to be one where his company earned a penny every time someone went through the public intersection.

Microsoft sees the future in the internet as a compound delivery system. To achieve his goal of a penny for every pass on to the information highway, SideGuide is a perfect adjunct, a future toll booth for the WiFi point. Must we promote this market grab just so we can have free Wifi in Portland? Was that really the City’s intent?

I hope your staff will find this interesting and worthy of a review. It may not all be paranoia. A little truth is often found at the bottom of public hysteria.

Left by Dirk on February 14th, 2008