‘Black Wednesday’ Lamont joins Phorm
p2pnet news view | Advertising:- Following “differences” with Kent Ertugrul, the man who runs advertising data mining firm Phorm, the company’s non-executive chairman, Steven Heyer, CTO Virasb Vahidi and board members David Dorman, chairman of Motorola, and senior NM Rothschild executive Christopher Lawrence have “stepped down”.
And as they walked out, in walked Norman Lamont (right), former UK chancellor of the exchequer and a former cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, as a non-executive director, says Reuters.
PC Pro describes Lamont as the man who, infamously” led Britain into Black Wednesday during the Major Government.
“But perhaps the most intriguing appointment is that of Kip Meek, also as non-executive director,” says the story, going on:
“Meek is a former board member of telecoms regulator Ofcom and also has a stint at BT on his CV. He’s also the current non-executive chairman of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, which counts BT and several major ISPs among its members, and bills itself as the ‘UK Government’s leading advisory group on broadband’.”
Nine months of campaigning
The UK government says it has no concerns over the fact the firm uses its privacy invasion tool Webwise, a DPI (deep packet inspection) application, to ferret around online for confidential user data so they can be resold to advertising companies, and/or companies working with them, p2pnet posted last week, going on »»»
The European Commission expressed serious concerns over Webwise and Phorm Hanff launched an official criminal complaint to the City of London Police, p2pnet said recently.
But, “In a shocking correspondence from DS Barry Murray at City of London Police CID the police have stated they will not be commencing with a criminal investigation of BT and Phorm Inc.’s illegal, covert trials,” he said on NO DPI.
Now, “After nine months of campaigning for the prosecution of BT Group PLC and Phorm for intercepting over 100 million web communications in 2006/2007 for the purpose of behavioural advertising, the Crown Prosecution Service are now reviewing whether or not to take any action,” he tells p2pnet.
“It’s been a long fight which has seen commentary from the European Commission, respected academics, lawyers, UK government and the general public — we are now on the brink of finally seeing the UK government protect the Human Rights of the public.
“Now in a final push for prosecution it is imperative that the public send a clear message to the Crown Prosecution Service that action MUST be taken - to that end I am requesting a mass letter writing campaign to make it clear that this IS in the public’s interest.”
Meanwhile, “the European Commission is considering the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s response to its second letter asking for an explanation of why no action has been over the trial,” said The Register adding:
“A Brussels spokeswoman said the UK responded to the October 6 letter on November 13. The second EU letter contained ‘detailed questions on how the UK authorities have protected the privacy of UK citizens with regard to Phorm in the past, and how they intend to do so in the future,’ she said. ‘The Commission is currently analysing the response’.”
If the Commission believes authorities failed to enforce European privacy directives, it could bring a case against the UK at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, says the post.
(Cheers, Alex)
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Reuters - Phorm says non-exec chairman, COO leave company, December 1, 2008
PC Pro - Lamont and ex-Ofcom exec join Phorm board, December 1, 2008
p2pnet - UK: gearing up for possible Phorm prosecution?, November 27, 2008
expressed serious concerns - EC targets Phorm, May 27, 2008
criminal complaint - Very bad Phorm — ‘criminal actions’, August 15, 2008
p2pnet - UK government OKs Phorm privacy invasion, Septembver 22, 2008
The Register - Prosecutors gather evidence on secret BT-Phorm trials, November 27, 2008
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December 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Cannot wait to kick thiese twats out at the next election (Nulabour) that is.