UK ISP's & PHORM debate heats up.

[juneau]

It started a few months back....

So, what's all the fuss about?

Simply put, three of the UK's largest ISPs (Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk) have decided to sell your private browsing history to an advertising broker. Yes, the entire list of every web page you visit gets sent to Phorm (the broker) in real time, as you click, so they can send you 'targeted advertising'. Naturally the ISP's are not too keen on telling their users this, they'd much rather feed us all platitudes about how it'll help combat phishing and how the targeted adverts will be so much better than the random ones we see today. In fact, they didn't even announce it to the UK press, we had to find out about it from the New York Times!

http://www.badphorm.co.uk/page.php?2

Then we at www.cableforum.co.uk started to fight back against them. We now have only not cut Phorms share price by more than 50% (http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/deta...=summary&it=le). But also have the backing of the ICO, RIPA, MP's, numerous technology based lawyers, but now we're getting a lot of media attention too.

We have also dug so deep that we unveiled to the public that the biggest telecommunication company in the UK proceeded to perform tests for this system dating back into 2006.... without the knowledge or consent of it's customers.

BT's spokesperson on the matter has had a very busy morning.

http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/pl...p?showId=11611
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/new...news=1&bbcws=1

I think the news reporters are just as angry as we are judging by those videos.

DOWN WITH PHORM!

Ps.... scary prospect..... Phorm have also been in talks with many US ISP's for a long long time.

[darth_nevus]

I wondered how long and where this would end up. this is a big brother concept to the T. it also makes you questiopn whether or not its an invasion of privacy. i'd have to assume they have similiar laws in Europe. from a legal standpoint, do they have a foot to stand on?

[Trooper110]

Piss off enough people and the ISPs will voluntarily stop doing it so they don't lose customers. Whether it's legal or not. That would piss me just a "little" bit though....

[juneau]

I wondered how long and where this would end up. this is a big brother concept to the T. it also makes you questiopn whether or not its an invasion of privacy. i'd have to assume they have similiar laws in Europe. from a legal standpoint, do they have a foot to stand on?

They're sneaking through loopholes. They've used the word annoymous so many times i've lost count.

We and a lot of others do see it as an invasion of privacy. It's also illegal on the ground of data interception.

Thankfully my ISP, Virgin Media, isn't actually signed up to the program. I think they're playing the waiting game and seeing what the outcome of this BT fiasco will be.

edit: Just remembered something. The CEO of PHORM used to be the CEO of 121Media. And guess what they did? Create spyware.

[-IRC-MIKE]

YEP... They sure did as I've removed thousands of variants. They were actually good at creating spyware.

I'm glad that is not my isp.

If the price is right, and it can be done legally, every isp may take a bite on it. Evidently there is a market for this kind of market.

[juneau]

YEP... They sure did as I've removed thousands of variants. They were actually good at creating spyware.

I'm glad that is not my isp.

If the price is right, and it can be done legally, every isp may take a bite on it. Evidently there is a market for this kind of market.

I just hope your ISP isn't one that Phorm is in talks with.

[juneau]

Uh Oh!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...040304052.html

Looks like you have tests going on too.