Roll up, roll up! Scariest story of the day!

Great read over at Spywaredaily.com - it involves cereal, singing and (ye Gods!) animated heads that wobble their lips. If you haven't already gone blind - and it is possible - you'll see how the latest ad gimmick involves linking your phone number to your IP address, and firing those suckers to a web server in one lovely package.

At this point, assuming your brains haven't burst, you'll also see how there's lots more of this stuff down the line. Interesting line from Google, who are playing with something similar to the above:

"We won't share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser," according to the FAQ. "When you're connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can't see it. In addition, we'll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time."

Now, Google rock. And the Google idea is that you can get in touch with an advertiser you see, via your Phony-Mc Ring-Ring.

This is clever. And something I could actually envisage myself using from time to time.

The other thing, with the cereal? Hmmm. Not sure. And, this does beg the question (and I can already see legions of Phone Phreaks jumping up and down with glee), what happens if some shady lunatic sets something like this up, but isn't so bothered about who he shares the collected data with? It could happen.

Of course, the mere threat of someone exploiting it shouldn't mean the technology is canned - that would be stupid.

However - it might be wise to start stocking up on potential counter-offensives now, before the Interweb starts to burn again.

Those flames really hurt...