Amazon opts out of Phorm

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 15 Apr 2009 at 11:10

Amazon has confirmed that it has written to Phorm and asked that its sites be opted out of the Webwise behavioural advertising service.

The online retailer was responding to a letter from a customer who had written expressing his concerns over the Webwise system.

"I remain extremely concerned that Phorm/Webwise may process and store my personal data whilst I am accessing the Amazon UK site," the customer wrote. "Could you please take the necessary steps to exclude users visiting Amazon UK from being processed via the Phorm system?"

The request brought the following written response, signed off by Brian McBride, the managing director for Amazon.co.uk: "You can be assured that we take the security and privacy of our customers' information very seriously. We have no connections with Phorm and do not use their services including OIX and Webwise. I can confirm that we have emailed Webwise requesting we 'opt-out' for all of our domains."

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the letter was genuine when asked by PC Pro.

The news will no doubt cheer the Open Rights Group, which last month wrote a letter to the UK's major websites, including Amazon, requesting they boycott the Webwise system citing "significant concerns being expressed by many of your UK internet customers".