I have to agree to disagree with you.
Cookies - if my site says it does not use cookies who is going to pay for the court case when someone finds the forged cookie in the name of my site? If they did not change the code between my website and the visitor's browser, how did the cookie get there? Just because the code is not visible in the final version of code delivered to the browser does not mean that content has not been changed. It is my domain name and I do not give permission for it to be used. It is a fraudulent cookie and fraud is a criminal act.
Search engines stealing content - since when? On each visit they check the robots.txt file and meta tags to check whether or not the site gives permission for the content to be cached. Some sites give permission and others do not. If search engines get it wrong, they can be sued for breach of copyright. Most webmasters permit the caching because it comes with a very useful link that sends lots of visitors.
I
am still waiting for the ISPs to contact me to get permission to copy my sites for the sole purpose of analysing my content to send my visitors to my competition - this is not the conduit role that an ISP should perform in delivering its service. Without that permission my sites are protected from interception under RIPA and any interception for a purpose for which there is no informed consent by both parties is illegal under criminal law.
The person accessing my site can not give permission for what my server sends them to be profiled - it s my communication to them and I have not given permission to the intercept. If they do so, they are in breach of copyright for passing themselves off as the owners of copyright to which they have no title.
Privacy - most people install software to prevent loss of their privacy and expect that same software to protect them from Phorm. They get a bit shocked to find out that they can't block Phorm and its snooping on their data stream. Not even the opt-out cookie prevents the interception of their data stream.
This is not yet live. So far it is only known in the tech press and forums. The general press don't want to publish anything about it because they are all signed up to earn revenue from displaying OIX adverts and they don't want to do anything to prevent that revenue stream.
Once it is live, the general public will be getting just as excited about this as are the techies.
Rather like in USA - people are starting to get a bit excited to discover that their prime ISP service which is the most expensive in the area is profiling them without giving them any notice nor asking permission.
Search around and you will find a few ISPs that have disappeared after going down the cheap rate, profiling and displaying adverts route. People do vote with their feet when they are not given value for money.
If you are happy to stay with a profiling ISP and host code on your site which will add to the profiling of all your visitors, then I have to disagree with you.