US class action against Phorm?
p2pnet news view Freedom | Advertising:- Whether or not NebuAD’s DPI (Deep Privacy Invasion) system violates privacy and wiretap laws is already the subject of a US class action lawsuit.
Fifteen customers are demanding more than $5 million in damages and want the case turned into a class action, “representing tens of thousands of Internet subscribers,” said the Associated Press, going on:
” ‘Like a vacuum cleaner, everything passing through the pipe of the consumers’ Internet connection was sucked up, copied and forwarded,’ stated the lawsuit, accusing NebuAd and the ISPs of breaking federal and state privacy laws.
Now Jospeh H. Malley, the lawyer in the NebuAD action, is contemplating a similar lawsuit against Phorm, another infamous DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) privacy pirate.
Alex Hanff, who’s been campaigning for action to be taken against Phorm in the UK, welcomes the news, but told p2pnet he believes it’s, “shameful that we need to look to the us to hold Phorm to account for their illegal activities”.
Phorm CEO was in the audience at a packed event sponsored by UK Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Miller and organised by Alex Hanff`s (right) privacy activist website http://www.NoDPI.org.
“Phather of Phorm Kent Ertugrul tangled with father of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, “in a tense encounter at a discussion on internet privacy at the Houses of Parliament,” said The Register recently.
The Phorm CEO was in the audience at a packed event sponsored by UK Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Miller and organised by Hanff’s privacy activist website http://www.NoDPI.org.
Says Malley’s class action document, quoted in NoDPI »»»
NOTICE; EVALUATION OF CLAIMS AGAINST PHORM, AND ALL ENTITIES ASSOCIATED WITH PHORM, RELATING ONLY TO USA CLAIMS.
USA USERS THAT HAD THEIR CLICKSTREAM DATA INTERCEPTED WHILE IN CONTACT WITH A UK USER INVOLVED IN THE UK PHORM TRIALS OF 2007- 2008 MAY CONTACT ME , IN CONFIDENCE ,TO DISCUSS ANY ISSUES, CONCERNS, EVIDENCE, AND TO EVALUATE WHETHER THEY QUALIFY TO FILE A LAWSUIT, IN THE USA COURTS, AGAINST PHORM AND ANY AND ALL ENTITIES IN ASSOCIATION WITH PHORM`S ACTIVITES.
UK USERS THAT WERE INVOLVED IN THE UK PHORM TRIALS, THAT HAD CONTACT WITH USA USERS AT THE TIME OF THE TRIALS, SHOULD CONTACT THOSE USA USERS TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEIR CLICKSTREAM DATA WAS INTERCEPTED, SO AS TO WARN THEM OF THIS MATTER. IF ANY OF THOSE USA USERS WISH TO CONTACT ME, IN CONFIDENCE, TO DISCUSS ANY ISSUES, THEN
FEEL FREE TO PROVIDE THEM A COPY OF THIS POST. I FURTHER NOTE THAT WE SHALL ONLY DISCUSS THE POSSIBLE CLAIMS OF USA USERS, AND NOT UK USERS.AS WITH SUCH LEGAL ACTIONS, THOSE PARTIES BRINGING THE ACTIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PAY LEGAL FEES OR COSTS UNLESS THERE IS A RECOVERY.
SO AS TO NOTE OUR INTEREST IN PRIVACY MATTERS, FEEL FREE TO REVIEW OUR RECENT FILINGS:
Lane et al v. Facebook, Inc. et al :: Justia News
Lane et al v. Facebook, Inc. et al – Justia – News – Free Legal Information – Laws, Blogs, Legal for this case: Lane et al v. Facebook, Inc. et al news.justia.com/cases/featured/california/candce/5:2008cv03845/206085 – 92k – CachedValentine et al v. Nebuad, Inc. et al :: Justia News
Valentine et al v. Nebuad, Inc. et al – Justia – News – Free Legal Information – Laws, Blogs, Legal for this case: Valentine et al v. Nebuad, Inc. et al news.justia.com/cases/featured/california/candce/3:2008cv05113/208758 – 117k – CachedSimon v. Adzilla, Inc [New Media] et al – 3:2009cv00879 – Justia
Justia Federal Filings – California Northern District Court – Torts – Property – Other Fraud – Simon v. Adzilla, Inc [New Media] et aldockets.justia.com/docket/court-candce/ /case_id-212162 – 51k – CachedTHANK YOU,
CONTACT ME AT MALLEYLAW@GMAIL.COM
Posts Hanff:
“It is his belief (and it is shared by us) that any communications over the world wide web by UK users who were at the time taking part in the trials in 2006, 2007 and 2008, with people in the USA would be an unlawful interception of their communications under US law; specifically the US Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other relevant State laws.
“This was of course one of the issues raised here in the UK; that under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act it is required that all parties in a communication give their informed consent before said communications can lawfully be intercepted.”
Said the Daily Mail recently »»»
The inventor of the world wide web has launched a damning attack on plans to spy on the internet browsing habits of millions of households.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee warned such technology was even more sinister than allowing companies to install TV cameras in our homes, and said the details revealed could be used by stalkers or foreign agents wanting to blackmail British politicians.
Internet providers BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are all considering a system known as Phorm, which would track the web pages that their 11million customers look at.
The potentially lucrative system creates an anonymous profile of a surfer’s interests which is then used by retailers to target them with relevant adverts.
Phorm insists it is far less intrusive than the existing tracking and profiling of surfers by internet search engines such as Yahoo and Google. It says there is nothing to link a name or address to the profile and customers can also opt out.
However, Sir Tim, 53, told a Parliament summit on privacy laws: ‘It is very important that you can use the internet without a thought that, when we click, a third party will know what we clicked on in a way that might affect how our insurance premium changes, whether we can get life insurance or another job.’
The technical term for monitoring the details of individual’s web surfing is ‘Deep Packet Inspection’.
Phorm says it’s, “striving to create a new, more responsive, intuitive kind of internet experience.”
Right.
For advertisers.
Kent Ertugrul made his bones online with spyware and, “Spyware purveyors will never give up their quest to track your online travels,” said Grey McKenzie on National Cyber Security last year.
Ertugrul, “once flew wealthy business executives to the edges of space in Russian fighter jets for $10,000 a time,” says the story, continuing »»»
He offered people the chance to turn their life stories into CD-Roms. And he planted pop-up adverts in personal computers with sophisticated but notorious ‘ spyware’.
Kent Ertugrul is clearly a man with grand ideas. Now the American former investment banker is back, this time with a controversial deal involving broadband.
TalkTalk, BT and Virgin Media, the three biggest broadband providers in the country with more than nine million customers, last week announced a deal with Ertugrul’s Aim-listed Phorm that will put ‘targeted advertising’ in front of millions of internet users.
Ertugrul used his links to the former Soviet security apparatus to develop the Phorm software, which tracks what internet users look at to allow companies to throw ‘relevant’ advertisements on to web pages that have signed up to the system.
BT and its rivals love the idea because it would give them a chunk of advertising revenue that until now has been carved up between website developers and search engines such as Google.
But customers’ appetite for this type of advertising is regarded as small, especially because, unless different family members use separate log-ons, searches by one member will influence the ads seen by others, creating a situation fraught with pitfalls.
Stay tuned.
Deep Privacy Invasion – Net spy firm NebuAd sued, November 14, 2008
Associated Press – Web tracker NebuAd sued over privacy claims, November 13, 2008
The Register – Phorm CEO clashes with Berners-Lee at Parliament, March 11, 2009
packed event - Phorm phounder tangles with Sir Tim, March 12, 2009
Hanff – Jospeh H. Malley prepares for possible litigation against Phorm in the US, March 15, 2009
Daily Mail – Internet ad tracking system will put a ’spy camera’ in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web, March 12, 2009
National Cyber Security – Kent Ertugrul Spyware Tsar Cuts Deal With British Broadband Companies To Use Phorm Tracking Software To Target User Shopping Habits, February 25, 2008
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March 16th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Time somebody kicked phorm in the balls.