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You want your ISP to [be able to] spy on, and track, your browsing habits? For unencrypted pages, that would probably take the form of DPI and injected javascr

You want your ISP to [be able to] spy on, and track, your browsing habits? For unencrypted pages, that would probably take the form of DPI and injected javascript. For encrypted (SSL) web traffic, all your ISP has access to are 1) the ip of the website, 2) SNI hostname, if any, in the SSL helo, and 3) how long the TCP stream stays alive, which is probably not representative of your interaction with the site. They have no page-level information. There's already a service that is probably capable of doing what you ask. It's called google analytics. Google's in the payment business, and google's in the tracking business. If only all publishers could agree to use analytics.js, and petition google to implement micropayments with some agreed upon fee structure.

herodotus 9y ago
I am sure there are ways to design such a system that precludes tracking. For example, suppose I have a browser that includes an extension that does this: I want to visit U (some url). My browser sends a request to the no ad service to see if U has signed up. If it has, then it sends me a once-only token. I send this as proof of status to U, and they send it to the no ad service to claim their micro payment. The only parties who know I have visited U are (a) my ISP - I assume all requests probably go through them; (b) the no ad service (actually, all they really know is that I asked for a token); and (c) U, of course - although all U knows is my IP address, nothing else. Anyway, that is roughly how such a service might work. I am sure that even better safeguards could be designed into it.