IMPORTANT! BT, Virgin Media & Carphone Warehouse to sell your browsing habits

[Cows]

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/03/28/org-and-fipr-meet-with-phorm/

The Open Rights Group has commented on a meeting with Phorm

"the Phorm issue is far more likely to be decided upon in the court of public opinion than in a court of law"

Full text here...
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/03/28/org-and-fipr-meet-with-phorm/

 

[WWWeed]

just another update from the register:

BT secretly intercepted and profiled the web browsing of 18,000 of its broadband customers in 2006 using advertising technology provided by 121Media, the alleged spyware company that changed its name to Phorm last year.

BT Retail ran the "stealth" pilot without customer consent between 23 September and 6 October 2006. The technology was approved, pending a further trial*.

Documents seen by The Register show that the companies used the secret profiles to target advertising at broadband customers when they visited certain popular websites.

Phorm had purchased commercial space on these websites, although their URLs are not included in the documents. The groups targeted included people interested in finance (for an Egg credit card campaign), weight loss (a Weight Watchers campaign), and jobs (a Monster.com campaign).

The technical report drawn up by BT in the wake of the 2006 trial states: "The validation was made within BT's live broadband environment and involved a user base of approximately 18,000 customers, with a maximum of 10,000 online concurrently.

"The customers who participated in the trial were not made aware of this fact as one of the aims of the validation was not to affect their experience."

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) makes intercepting internet traffic without a warrant or consent an offence.

BT claims that when it launches, Phorm's technology will be legal under RIPA, despite counter arguments from respected experts on the legislation. The ISP's and Phorm's claim is based on advice from the Home Office, which was recently published and disputed on the influential UK-Crypto mailing list.

The government advice was solicited by the ISPs and Phorm in the run up to the announcement of their partnership on 14 February. Written by civil servant Simon Watkin, it argues that the system will probably be legal if consent is obtained from users.

I'd suggest BT users keep an eye on the smallprint of their contracts:

BT has said it plans to change its terms and conditions accordingly to comply with the law.

On the legality of the proposed opt-out system using cookies, the BT technical report states: "Whilst the... issue is not really a technical consideration of this report, it is mentioned since owing to the legal position, direct cookie dropping could not be trialed and should be verified once the legal position is clearer."

That means all 18,000 test subjects were always opted-in without their knowledge.

Something fishy is almost certainly going on at BT:

At the time of this newly-revealed first trial, Stratis Scleparis was the chief technology officer of BT Retail. He hopped across to occupy the same position at Phorm in January 2007. BT has not addressed our question over whether it is comfortable with the role Scleparis has played in the deal.

Looks like virgin are aware if the shit flying about:

an email written by Virgin Media director of corporate affairs Paul Richmond suggests the cable operator could yet pull out of its own deal with Phorm. He wrote: "We understand our legal position here [is that] we effectively have a MOU [memorandum of understanding]. We will work with this technology through trials and by sharing our understandings with the other large ISPs."

He goes on to suggest Virgin Media could back out of the plan if its brand is tarnished. "If at any stage we believe we cannot make this work for both our customers and our shareholders we will not proceed. We value our brand and our reputation enormously. Nobody knows the optimum way to implement this technology. We will trial this and find out," Richmond wrote. A Virgin Media spokesman said it has not performed any trials yet.

But the thing that really pissed me off was this:

We asked Phorm on Monday how it squares such claims with the fact that it participated in tracking and profiling 18,000 BT customers without their consent. 'Does Phorm believe its actions were ethical and if so, why?', we asked. Rather than answer the question, the company chose to send us this retort**:

We think it is unethical of the Register to seek to undermine a technology that enhances online privacy - Phorm's system ensures that ads are served with no data storage - something that will benefit readers of the Register and other websites.

In the interests of balance, we would like the Register to reflect the improved privacy environment Phorm provides over the other major online ad targeting companies detailed in the attached table.

how the fuck can anyone ever even think about suggesting Phorm enhances online privacy?!?!

More @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/01/bt_phorm_2006_trial/

 

[Kid_Eternity]

BT advert trials were 'illegal'

Trials of an online ad system carried out by BT involving more than 30,000 of its customers were potentially illegal, says a leading digital rights lawyer.

BT has said it trialled a prototype of Phorm, which matches adverts to users' web habits, in 2006 and 2007.


The company did not inform customers that they were part of the trial.
Nicholas Bohm, of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, said tests without the knowledge of users were "an illegal intercept of users' data".


A spokesman for BT said the firm had no comment about the legality or illegality of the 2006 test.

 

[Cows]

Oops... more bad PR for Phorm again, this time for their Wikipedia entry self-edits...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/08/phorm_censors_wikipedia/

An alternative to the Dephormation plugin is TrackMeNot

 

[Radar]

Dozy fuckers. You'd think they'd be bright enough to use dialup with a throwaway PAYT mobile for that kind of shite so at least they couldn't be easily caught.

Yet they want me to trust confirmed idiots like these with my browsing history ??

no.fucking.way.

 

[cybertect]

Oh, joy!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/17/ripa_phorm_shambles/

 

[kyser_soze]

Ha ha ha.

About 2 months before I left the ad-world behind, 121 gave a small conference to about 35 online planner/buyers about this system and every single one of them said 'Privacy will be an issue'...looks like some people don't listen...

 

[gnoriac]

Not dead yet, EU on the case, Register

The European Commission is considering intervening over the failure of UK data watchdogs to punish BT for the way it secretly co-opted tens of thousands of customers into trials of Phorm's profiling system to serve them targeted advertising.

...

Now however, the European Commission is considering calling BT to account in lieu of a domestic response. A European Commission spokeswoman told The Register on Monday: "We are continuing to monitor this closely. If need be we will take action."

People who feel strongly about the trials or believe they were unwittingly profiled in 2006 or 2007 should write to Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, the spokeswoman said. ...

Reding's spokesman told The Register: "This is first of all a matter for the UK authorities to deal with, as it is their responsibility to apply EU law in the UK."

"In case of incorrect application of EU data protection law by a national authority, the Commission could start infringement proceedings against the country concerned." He wrote that the European Commission does not currently have "indications that the UK authorities, in assessing the Phorm case, would have acted illegally".

What a surprise, the UK govt can't be arsed to do anything about a major corporate that appears to have acted illegally. Just glad we have a higher authority these days.

 

[WWWeed]

I'm glad you resurrected this thread, I stumbled across the British Telecom "Phorm" report over on wiki leaks:

British Telecom "Phorm" report: PageSense External Validation Report by BT Retail Technology, dated 15 Jan 2007. 52 scanned printed pages with occasional pen highlights, 17Mb.

The internal British Telecom report shows that the carrier committed at least 18,875,324 allegedly illegal acts of interception and modification during its controversial covert "Phorm" trials.

The report also indicates that personal identifying IP addresses were likely used, despite BT previously assuring the public and ICO that no personally identifiable data was used. IP addresses are recognised by the Data Protection Act.

In addition to the 18 million regular advertising injections or hijackings, it appears charity advertisements were hijacked and replaced with Phorm advertisements.

“The advertisements were used to replaced [sic] a ‘default’ charity advertisement (one of Oxfam, Make Trade Fair or SOS Children’s Villages) when a suitable contextual or behavioural match could be made by the PageSense system.”

A "cookie" was covertly "dropped" onto 7,000 unsuspecting BT customers computers in collaboration with Phorm (Media121).

"Estimations were that approximately 7,000 had received a cookie"

The report concludes that the "opt-out" system would not work, since BT customers find themselves opted back in every time they changed computers or wiped their cookies:

"The latter issue regarding opt-out could not be specifically trialled either since [BT] conducted this test as a stealth trial".

get your copy @ http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/bt-phorm-report-2007.pdf or http://www.wikileaks.org/leak/bt-phorm-report-2007.pdf

I'm yet to read the report, but once I get some time I'm gonna have a flick through it.........

 

[wishface]

So if your browsing habits are detected by Phorm as surfing an arseload of lesbo swedish porn, that's the sort of stuff they will send you as recommended adverts?

 

[WWWeed]

So if your browsing habits are detected by Phorm as surfing an arseload of lesbo swedish porn, that's the sort of stuff they will send you as recommended adverts?

bassicly yeah thats how its going to work.

to be fair however phorm have said that they wont monitor material like adult or personal content.

How the hell they tell the diffrence between what is and is an argument for another day...........

 

[gmfreeman]

BT has just launched a trial of a spyware/adware "service" called Webwise on its broadband system.

During 2006 and 2007 BT ran secret trials of a spyware system called Webwise, developed by a spyware/adware company called Phorm. BT has just launched the latest public trial of Webwise, which intercepts and records all of your web surfing activity.

If you are invited to take part, just say "No Thanks".

For an example of the invitation screen see here:
http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail/webwise/bt-webwise-trial.html

For more information about the spyware/adware company called Phorm and the BT Webwise "service", see here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/30/phorm.new

If you agree to use the service then all of your web browsing activity will be stored, profiled and used to deliver "better" advertising...!

 

[keybored]

BT has just <snip>

This also just in: The popular "miracle mineral" asbestos (widely used in everyday applications due to its heat resistance and insulating properties) is now known to be toxic. Posters beware; inhaling asbestos particles could lead to serious illness.

You read it here first.

 

[gmfreeman]

Phorm this week launched a poorly-conceived PR campaign to attack a few individuals who had dared to criticise it. The PR campaign was dreamt up by Patrick Robertson, who was responsible for previously advising "arms dealing perjurer Jonathan Aitken MP", James Goldsmith and... Augusto Pinochet...

Phorm: Does its stroppy campaign site signal the beginning of the end?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/apr/28/phorm-startups

Phorm goes off the deep end
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Phorm-Goes-Off-The-Deep-End-102136?nocomment=1

Phorm boss blogs from a dark, dark place
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/28/phorm_blog_oddness/

Meet Phorm's PR genius
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/30/phorm_patrick_robertson/

Phiting dirty
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/the-data-trust-blog/2009/04/phiting-dirty.html

Foolish Phorm
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2144&blogid=14

Phorm Starts Foaming At The Mouth Over Its Detractors
http://www.badidea.co.uk/2009/04/phorm-starts-foaming-at-the-mouth-over-its-detractors/

More on Phorm
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/the-data-trust-blog/2009/04/more-on-phorm.html

Bad phorm as company website attacks critics
http://www.bitterwallet.com/bad-phorm-as-company-website-attacks-critics/10681

Phorm phights phoul phreedom phighters
http://notnews.today.com/2009/04/28/phorm-phights-phoul-phreedom-phighters/
(humour)

Phorm's Stopphoulplay site is a PR disaster
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/rupert_neate/blog/2009/05/01/phorms_stopphoulplay_site_is_a_pr_disaster

 

[editor]

Result!

BT drops Phorm targeted ad service after customers cry foul over privacy

• Controversial online technology is dumped
• Group behind system in talks with overseas firms
* The Guardian, Monday 6 July 2009

BT has quietly ditched a controversial system that tracks the internet habits of its customers, developed by the technology firm Phorm, which has been attacked as online snooping by privacy campaigners. BT was a key player in the development of Phorm's Webwise system, which uses information about which sites an internet user visits to target them with relevant advertising on subsequent pages.

But BT has decided not to proceed with rolling out Webwise to its 4.8 million broadband customers, dealing a heavy blow to AIM-listed Phorm. The company, which has received complaints from customers about Phorm, said the decision was down to its need to conserve resources as it looks to invest £1.5bn in putting a next-generation super-fast broadband network within reach of 10 million homes by 2012. Privately, however, BT bosses have been increasingly concerned about consumer resistance to advertising based on monitoring users' online behaviour and specifically about the backlash against Phorm.

"We continue to believe the interest-based advertising category offers major benefits for consumers and publishers alike," said a spokesman for BT. "However, given our public commitment to developing next-generation broadband and television services in the UK we have decided to weigh up the balance of resources devoted to other opportunities.

"Given these commitments, we don't have immediate plans to deploy Webwise today. However, the interest-based advertising market is extremely dynamic and we intend to monitor Phorm's progress …before finalising our plans."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/06/btgroup-privacy-and-the-net

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Excellent news. I'm not with BT or any of those mentioned but no doubt if they'd got away with it, others would follow suit