phorm! ever heard of it ?? you will soon - as bad as a virus

hatab

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phorm! ever heard of it ?? you will soon - as bad as a virus or worse

just google or yahoo "phorm ad" and you will see loads of interesting but worrying stuff.


"A company that used to do Adware has now linked up with TalkTalk, VriginMedia and BT to monitor your internet use and provide adverts more specific to what you are searching for and looking at online.

BT have already run tests on 30,000 users and have monitored what they do on the internet"

those using Firefox can get an addon at http://www.dephormation.org.uk/ that permanently opt out of the phorm webwise product.

Read all the info before installing addon but it does look like that is a better option than big brother........
 
those using Firefox can get an addon at http://www.dephormation.org.uk/ that permanently opt out of the phorm webwise product.

Problem is that all this does is prevent phorm from serving their targetted adds to you. It doesn't prevent them from sifting through everything you do and producing a profile.

From whats already been said on newsgroups etc, all http based traffic, whether opted in or not, will go through phorm's redirectors. This will very likely include any web based email you may have.

For web stuff, your only defence would be to make sure everything is encrypted (https) and even then you may still be profiled. They will still know you have visited a certain site even if they cant tell what you did whilst you were there !

Phorm claim they will not collect any personally identifiable information but based on their past track record of being heavily involved with spyware type software I have trouble believing those claims.
 
The Information Commisioner's Office has stated phorm must be an opt in scheme: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/ico_phorm_tougher/

However, as nozzer states, all things suggest that opting out only stops the targeted ads, everything still passes through Phorm - at least with BT anway, who have the most to loose as the 'biggest' ISP (by subscriber).

Phorm may even be illegal under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7301379.stm

An interesting point raised in this months .net is what will happen when ISPs realise that it instantly nullifies their arguement with the BPI/MPAA/RIAA that its impossible to monitor their subscribers' actions...
 
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