Spyware goes reputable?

...though this isn't your common or garden Spyware. It doesn't mess with your PC, inject processes into your Explorer shell or randomly spawn files called "t3h P00pst3r 0wnz j0o".

It's spyware that messes with something altogether different: your reputation.

That's right - Opinity tries a new tactic - like / don't like what you see on a news source, financial "guru" or E-Bay auctioner? No problem, start compiling a lovely little dossier on them for the Opinity users to browse at their leisure.

While this could have some useful applications, in practice it's hard to think what they would be. Sites such as E-Bay already have their own rating system, so that's out of the window (though they apparently want to partner with both E-Bay and Slashdot). At present, anyone you search on has to have an Opinity ID already, so you'd need to volunteer yourself to this surreal form of character examination. Its only in Beta stage, so that could change. Then anyone and everything could have their own "Opinity rating", like it or not. Even with a legit ID, the possibilities for malicious individuals nobbling your rating are huge. It wouldn't take much to flush someone's rep down the tubes, and then the fat lady is singing, the walls are shaking and you're wishing you'd gone to see a film instead of a crummy Opera.

Opinity will be one to watch - not so much for its own concept, but for the ones other, more - disreputable? - companies will cook up based on this model. Expect money to change hands for a good score, with backstabbings and double-dealings all over the place.

And here was me thinking the one thing money couldn't buy was a good reputation.