Augments a browser without downloads, encrypting data as users surf, obscuring their identity, and allowing customers to choose how much information passes through the encrypter. Company plans to sell ads that will appear next to the URL-location bar on a browser. Dozens of new companies are betting that someday soon, Internet surfers will behave like James Bond in cyberspace. They dream of consumers, rabidly protective of their online privacy, who use technology to obscure their online tracks from the prying eyes of corporations and marketers. Each makes technology for Bond-like obscurity on the Web.
Good luck trying, say privacy experts, analysts and investors.
The hurdles are many. Consumers profess great concern over privacy but have only nebulous understanding of the risks and little inclination to change their online behavior. And companies need a lot of capital to keep up with rapidly changing technology. That means a lot of the companies vying for a piece of the privacy pie now won't survive what some see as an inevitable industry shakeout. Many of them aren't going to make it,'' predicted Beth Givens, project director at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego.