Privacy group launches Phorm spoiler

 

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Posted on 20 May 2008 at 07:59

A privacy group has launched a new piece of software that it claims will make the data collected by the Phorm advertising service "absolutely worthless".

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The AntiPhorm group - which describes itself as "a loose conglomeration of concerned individuals comprised of artists, programmers and designers" - says it wants to prevent ISPs from profiting from their customers' personal surfing habits.

"By harvesting the information you divulge every time you surf the internet, BT alone expects to make an additional $170M annually," the website claims. "The increase of data mining, profiling of you and your surfing habits is a worrying trend, on a global industrial scale."

To throw Phorm off the scent, the team has developed an application called AntiPhormLite that sits in the background, visiting random sites. "It connects to the web and intelligently simulates natural surfing behaviour across thousands of customisable topics," the site claims.

"This creates a background noise of false information disguising and inverting your own interests. We believe our technology is indistinguishable from that of a typical user engaging the internet."

The aim is to make the data collected by Phorm useless to the ISPs involved, such as BT and Virgin Media, both of which are trialling the service. "It appears we can't stop your ISP tracking and selling your surfing behaviour but one solution could be to make the data they do collect absolutely worthless to their clients," the AntiPhorm site claims.

The AntiPhormLite application is available for download here. PC Pro has not tested this application to date.

Phorm was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

Author: Barry Collins