dailywireless.org » MetroFi SideGuide: Always On Intrusion

MetroFi SideGuide: Always On Intrusion

“Telecommunications Security and Privacy Act. Invasion of privacy is more like it”.
– Enemy of the State

Portland’s ad-sponsored Wi-Fi provider MetroFi announced today that it’s changing its online ad format, moving from 1-inch banner ads across the screen to Microsoft’s MSN SideGuide, which displays ads, a search box and news on the side of the screen, according to the Oregonian’s Mike Rogoway.

I haven’t seen it (yet). I’m uploading this story using MetroFi’s free service.

Microsoft says MetroFi users can disable their MSN SideGuide when using other networks, but now must first start and run the application as a requirement before using MetroFi’s free service.

Russell Senior, a volunteer at the free community WiFi organization, Personal Telco, has reservations about MetroFi. He says MSN’s new Sideguide software is going to be far more intrusive than MetroFi’s banner at the top of a page.

Codenamed Shadow, the main purpose of MSN Sideguide is to fund the free wifi networks that Microsoft is currently testing in Oakland and Portland with its ISP partner, MetroFi - the wifi connection will be dropped if Sideguide is not running. It stays on your screen.

Users must download Microsoft’s SideGuide to continue accessing the free WiFi service. If you’ve got a PC.

MetroFi says they’re committed to protecting your privacy while you’re using MSN SideGuide and will not be sharing your registration or email.

But you can’t help but wonder if Microsoft will record your surfing audit trail (probably) — even run it through the NSA’s “secret room” in the Westin Building if required to do so by law.

Narus believes all Muni-WiFi networks must have the ability to provide lawful intercept, which isn’t much of a surprise, given that the Narus Intercept Suite can capture packet-level, flow-level, and application-level usage information along with complete session packets for forensic analysis and intercept.

MetroFi has stopped expanding its Portland footprint, says the Oregonian, although it continues filling in areas where it had been testing equipment. MetroFi now serves about 29 percent of Portland, according to Haas, up from about 25 percent in October. MetroFi said more than 17,000 people signed on in November, the same tally it reported for October.

Microsoft’s Stefan Weitz, director of planning for MSN (above, left), spoke at a Muniwireless conference (pdf) on the viability of the ad-supported model (below).

The amount of time users spend online continues growing — 323,000 hours in aggregate in November, about 19 hours per user, reports MetroFi.

C/Net points out that widget ads aren’t commonplace yet, but they are cropping up more and more.

Many people are already using desktop widgets, which are small applications that update dynamically and offer a limited function for things like calendar, clock, weather, and news or RSS feeds. Yahoo offers them, as do Microsoft and Google, who call them “gadgets.”
Then there are the thousands of widgets on Facebook, things like Slide for photo slide shows and iLike for music recommendations, which have boosted the popularity of the social-networking site.

Still, widgets are (mostly) an option. SideGuide will be a requirement for free MetroFi service. Will it work on a Mac or Firefox? There’s disagreement on that point — but it seems inevitable.