Originally planned to begin in April, British Telecom is starting its third trial of the contentious ad-serving Phorm technology
It was supposed to begin in April, but was put on hold, supposedly for technical reasons. It’s drawn a massive fallout of criticism and it’s being investigated by the European Commission. But now British Telecom (BT) is going ahead with its third trial of the Phorm ad-serving technology, known as Webwise.
Those taking Phorm will get a unique identifier that tracks their browsing habits online and targets ads to them, according to ZDNet.
According to BT:
"Around 10,000 customers will be invited to opt in to the trial when they commence their browsing session. We will issue invitations at random."
This time BT is obtaining consent, which they didn’t during the trials in 2006 and 2007 – and that was the big concern among privacy advocates. Some of those concerns do remain, but Kent Ertugrul, Phorm’s chief executive, feels they will be addressed. He noted:
"There is a pattern that people become more confident through engagement with the technology, including the [Commission]. We’re confident that people will not only tolerate it but welcome [Phorm] as a big step forward. The fact is [that Phorm] is something that is being welcomed by all of the websites we’ve spoken with and with advertisers. Market research by ISPs suggests [Phorm] is welcomed by consumers."
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RSS"The fact is [that Phorm] is something that is being welcomed by all of the websites we've spoken with"
Utter twoddle! Kent may have spoken to a few websites himself, but is obviously taking no notice whatsoever of the webmasters opinions over this direct breach of copyright!
This system copies the viewed web pages, without permission on the ISPs network, then passes the profiled information over to Phorm's servers to be used for financial gain. There is no consent from the webmasters whatsoever, and is in breach of copyright. I have not given permission for my websites and web apps to be profiled, yet even if I submit my websites so they are not used, THEY ARE STILL COPIED!
Its wrong, very very wrong.
Phorm steal the content of web sites without the knowledge or consent of the creator. Then use the marketing intelligence to promote competitor sites.
Never mind the bogus assertions that you can opt out... its supposed to be an opt in for consumers.
To be legal, it should be opt in for web sites too. Good luck with that business plan.
There is no was this should be tolerated in the UK, or any other democratic country. None at all.
Look at the Petition Website if you like, not everyone concerned has time to reply to your obfuscations of the facts or follow the story though.
As someone who has viewed those pages in 2006 & 2007 & seen other events produced by these Profiler Systems (2008), I can assure others that the Software inside these DPI Boxes is basically "SPYWARE"
Someone's being economical with the truth, don't think it's BT though.
Cue the usual suspects.......
"Is my data still viewed when I am not participating?
No. When you choose not to take the service, or switch BT Webwise off, it's off. Those who have opted out will not have their browsing information profiled. No information is gathered, and therefore no information is stored. Customers who opt out will not come into contact with any Phorm-managed equipment."
Given the statement by a BT spokesdroid quoted by the BBC: "The web browsing traffic of those that "opt out" will pass through the Webwise system but will not be profiled or copied by it, he added. ", one gathers that BT is being, shall we say, economical with the truth.
Phorm offer NOTHING to the consumer, the anti-phishing is a trojan horse.