BT gives Phorm the boot
p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- Anyone who believes the net and people who fuel it aren’t major powers needs to think again.
We’ve just heard British Telecomn, aka BT, has dumped privacy pirate Phorm, promoter of an application it calls Webwise, which collects user information online to be later reapplied in what’s euphemistically called behavioural targeting — highly intrusive targeted advertising based on what people are doing, and where they’re going, online.
Webwise uses Deep Privacy Invasion, or Deep Packet Inspection, to siphon up data.
According to BT, “Webwise increases your protection against online fraud and makes ads that appear on participating websites more relevant to your interests. It’s completely free for BT Total Broadband customers and you don’t have to download or install any software for it to work.”
But not any more.
The news of Phorm’s abandonment by BT comes in an email from Alex Hanff, the man who’s waged a single-minded battle against the American advertising company and former purveyor of spyware.
Sir Tim Berners Lee, the man who founded the world wide web, recently told the BBC, “I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that’s not going to get to my insurance company and I’m going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5%.”
Apart from the legal issue of privacy infringement, there’s also the question of Phorm’s collection of cookie data from web browsers and which, he saidP, is arguably theft; “If you want to use it for something, then you have to negotiate with me. I have to agree, I have to understand what I’m getting in return.”
Now, BT has, “finally dropped plans to use Phorm,” and Phorm’s shares have sunk on AIM this morning down 25%, says Hanff on No DPI, going on »»»
It is difficult to explain how much one puts into a campaign like this, myself and others have done things we would never have imagined. We have engaged the highest levels of our political system including Peers in the House of Lords, MPs in the House of Commons, Members of the Royal Society. We have been to Brussels to the highest ranks of the European government and our campaigning has been honest and true with a simple goal.
Now finally, after 18 months Phorm’s House of Cards is falling,and it is falling on the day APComms hear oral evidence from yet more campaigners on various issues relating to Internet communications.
Tonight I travel to London once again to play my own part in the APComms inquiry tomorrow, where I will be discussing the importance of ethics in the modern world of business – focusing on the importance of opt-in versus the impotence of opt-out. But today I travel with the knowledge that we are winning and I hope everyone shares my joy. I will post more when I get back from APComms.
Says The Guardian, “BT has quietly ditched a controversial system that tracks the internet habits of its customers, developed by the technology firm Phorm, which has been attacked as online snooping by privacy campaigners,” continuing »»
BT was a key player in the development of Phorm’s Webwise system, which uses information about which sites an internet user visits to target them with relevant advertising on subsequent pages.
It carried out secret tests of the technology in 2006 and 2007 which are now the basis of a European commission investigation into the UK government’s failure to protect its citizens online. Last year BT carried out a proper consumer trial of Phorm’s technology. The results have been keenly awaited, not just by management at Phorm – whose chairman is former chancellor Norman Lamont – but by its other two potential partners, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.
But BT has decided not to proceed with rolling out Webwise to its 4.8 million broadband customers, dealing a heavy blow to AIM-listed Phorm. The company, which has received complaints from customers about Phorm, said the decision was down to its need to conserve resources as it looks to invest £1.5bn in putting a next-generation super-fast broadband network within reach of 10 million homes by 2012. Privately, however, BT bosses have been increasingly concerned about consumer resistance to advertising based on monitoring users’ online behaviour and specifically about the backlash against Phorm.
“Tonight I travel to London once again to play my own part in the APComms inquiry tomorrow, where I will be discussing the importance of ethics in the modern world of business – focusing on the importance of opt-in versus the impotence of opt-out,” says Alex, adding:
“But today I travel with the knowledge that we are winning and I hope everyone shares my joy. I will post more when I get back from APComms.”
Phorm’s downfall was brought about largely because of ongoing and relentless online pressure.
Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels should take note.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
July, 2009
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July 6th, 2009 at 10:04 am
This is a major loss. I was really looking forward to the enhanced online security that this advertising initiative would have offered. I’m sure the ads would have been of interest to me and I’m sorry to see those go too.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:25 am
an advertising troll? geez, where does the world find these retards…
July 6th, 2009 at 10:32 am
@surfer ——- read disappointed again. that is sarcasm not a retard
July 6th, 2009 at 10:44 am
my bad
July 7th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Kind of hard to tell for some that it is sarcasm.
But I could see that right away.
As for the demise of Phorm, the words of Nelson Muntz comes to mind: HA HA!!!