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Phorm - Internet privacy hits a new low

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:05 pm
by The Masked Marauder
Has anybody been reading about what Phorm (former 121Media) is up to in the U.K.?

Bad Phorm? U.K. ISPs to sell clickstream data to advertisers
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... isers.html

In a nutshell: since Phorm can't get people to install the adware/spyware on their computers, they're paying (read: bribing) several ISPs to let Phorm examine network traffic for targeted advertising purposes. All customers are automatically opted in; "opting out is as simple as blocking Phorm's cookie, and the company promises that no bandwidth throttling or other consequences will follow." Yeah, right....

At least one government advisory group has stated that Phorm's activity is illegal under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). Others have threatened to sue their ISP and/or Phorm if this deal goes live.

Personally, I hope Phorm suffers a loud, nasty, public death, to discourage other companies from trying this same tactic in the future. :evil:

Re: Internet privacy hits a new low

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:32 pm
by LanikSJ
I heard about that elsewhere and its no fun. Thankfully my CLEC hasn't tried that yet.

Re: Phorm - Internet privacy hits a new low

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:03 pm
by The Masked Marauder
BT and Phorm secretly tracked 18,000 customers in 2006

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.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/01 ... 006_trial/