Comments on: Why BT might have finished off Phorm

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:51:38 +0000

This is a good decision. I was ready to cancel my BT Broadband if they considered offering this as anything other than an opt-in feature for customers.

I agree with Jamie’s sentiments. The issue of BT having covertly tested this system on unwitting customers needs to be addressed, even if the British government doesn’t give a toss about privacy.

By: View From Planet Jamie » Phalling & Phading

View From Planet Jamie » Phalling & Phading — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:56:19 +0000

[...] pieces of analysis and those lacking in Clue and understanding. On the side of Excellence comes Barry Collins at PC Pro. Here’s a snippet: Make no mistake: BT’s decision to drop Phorm is a cataclysmic blow for [...]

By: Jamie Dowling

Jamie Dowling — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:12:42 +0000

This is excellent news and a good analysis but until the use of DPI for marketing and advertising purposes is clearly made illegal and the CEOs of the gang of 3 all publicly disassociate themselves from Phorm then Phorm will keep spinning and blustering as only it can.

There is still a reckoning to be had: those responsible for BT’s secret testing of Phorm’s technology (which has still to be proven legal) must be bought to book in court. That must not be forgotten in the aftermath of this announcement.

Your use of the word “cowardly” is, in my view, very appropriate. None of BT, VM or TT deserve any credit – public pressure has forced BT to backtrack and the others must surely follow. They deserve condemnation for becoming involved with Phorm in the first place.

By: Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:56:58 +0000

Good news that hopefully spells the end for Phorm in the UK.

But let us not forget that it is only through the hard work of dedicated private citizens that this issue was able to be faught. People have been labelled as Privacy Pirates, had a perfectly valid petition to the government completely ignored as falling under the remit of the toothless ICO, had to put up with Phorm launching a smear website naming and shaming those people brave enough to fight against their invasive technology.

The real losers in all this are BT, Virgin and TalkTalk for their complete failure to understand the moral grounds on which so many of their customer object to technology such as Phorm. They seem to have no respect for the privacy of their customers data and were all perfectly happy to let Phorm install kit within the boundaries of the ISP which should never be allowed to happen for advertising purposes. Non of these big three come out of this with a shred of honour or decency.

And worst of all is the British governments complete failure to protect its citizens, it is such a shame that it fell to Europe to pick up and fight our corner. New laws on online privacy are needed now to prevent this from ever happeneing again and it should be built around the following principles with regards to online advertising.

1) They should never be allowed access at the ISP level.

2) They must operate on an ‘Opt In’ basis.

3) There should be binding European wide governance and rules as to how Behavourial advertising companies should work, outside of the control of our own government whom cannot be trusted.

4) Unauthorised interception of online communications by ISP’s should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

All imho of course

By: Pingus

Pingus — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:19:15 +0000

BT deserve no praise for this decision, they were forced into it by public pressure. The public outcry, the work of the ‘privacy pirates’ from all over the web and the threat of prosecution made them think twice. Had the alarm not been raised they would have quite happily deployed this invasive,immoral system. On the subject of ‘partners’ let us not forget that this government . They were quite prepared to let this system go ahead,quoted the Phorm PR handbook whenever questions were asked and gave comfort and assistance to Phorm without a thought for the rights of the public

By: Warescouse

Warescouse — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:12:36 +0000

It is unbelievable in my opinion that BT ever got themselves in this mess. One of the most highly regarded telecommunications companies in the world getting involved with a company whose previous life as 121Media was associated with claimed spyware and rootkits. Not the sort of thing that you would expect from a company so highly regarded.

I think BT still will go through a long period of time where trust will remain low in the eyes of many others. Trust is gained over time. Once that trust is lost, it can be lost sometimes forever.

By: Barry Collins

Barry Collins — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:32:41 +0000

Indeed, you’re right. Now corrected.

Barry Collins
Online Editor

By: Alphageek

Alphageek — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:46:56 +0000

“Neither Virgin or BT have even tested Webwise with their customers, let alone committed to a rollout.”

Surely you mean “Neither Virgin or TalkTalk have even…”?