Bad Phorm

[Agent]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...phorm-internet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12...in_bittorrent/

[Aez]

I'm currently on virgin media and while the bit torrent aspect doesn't really bother me as i don't use it (although its a blow for the freedom of the internet) i'm more worried about what kind of sites will show up as adverts if you get my drift

[santa claus]

Thanks for the links Agent. Do you remember a while back when Gerald Ratner referred to the products retailed by his Company as "crap"? I sincerely hope that Virgin's CEO is not going to blight his Company's brand in similar fashion. In economically troubled times a brand is even more dependent on the support of its customers, any announcement that Virgin Media will exploit and fleece its subscribers is imho a very crap idea indeed. Greedy/inept accountants have created a World financial catastrophe; their tunnel vision only allows them to see £ and $. There are times when a fast buck can lead to an even faster demise.

I hope this is one crap idea that VM leave well alone.

[Onslaught]

Until stumbling over this post I had forgot all about the Phorm business, very interesting to see the current status especially as I am a VM customer - Thank for the links Agent. While I am not sure if there will ultimatly be an opt-out option as a customer, I am sure that with correct use of ad-block plus the adverts wont even appear.. unless they force you to view the adds before you can go on-line (not likely). In regards anonymity, a lot of online activity is monitored under normal use, via ISP (system logs) or your web destination, the refer tag even shows where your may have came from. Although I am not keen to have my daily web movements monitored (to a more specific extent) it may not be all bad. Then theres the possibility of spoofing your sites visited to confuse things more - I believe bad phorm had a plugin at some point for this. I will also avoid googling my name or home town .

[santa claus]

---I am sure that with correct use of ad-block plus the adverts wont even appear.. unless they force you to view the adds before you can go on-line (not likely). In regards anonymity, a lot of online activity is monitored under normal use, via ISP (system logs) or your web destination, the refer tag even shows where your may have came from. Although I am not keen to have my daily web movements monitored (to a more specific extent) it may not be all bad. Then theres the possibility of spoofing your sites visited to confuse things more - I believe bad phorm had a plugin at some point for this. I will also avoid googling my name or home town .

With respect I believe there is more to the Phorm concept that you need to know if you want to make a fully informed judgement of its impact on you (or other net users).

In a nutshell, Phorm is an ISP level intrusion, you cannot avoid it and ad-blocker is useless. It is true that web movements can be monitored but this isn't done routinely and specifically as you surf as an individual so that you personally can be targeted with advert trash.

For example, Phorm could log that you have surfed to the BBC, moved from the BBC to ebay, logged everything you look at on ebay and follow you on all subsequent surfing through forums, porn, music, gardening etc. They 'see' the internet at you see it; they see that you are reading this post. So, to say that "it may not be all bad" is an understatement. They will know what you read, when you read it, what your interests are etc.

You would be foolish to relinquish your privacy through apathy imho.

[Agent]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8021661.stm

[noTHINGface]

^^^ Just gets better and better doesn't it! I sincerely hope this is the end of Phorm once and for all...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04..._blog_oddness/

[santa claus]

Oh dear, the whole pack of cards is coming down and there'll be collateral damage unless the decision is taken to get out of the way fast. Amazon have turned their back on Phorm and so have Virgin Media: they know their customers won't put up with it. The ICO is now up to its neck in it. A head will roll.

[Lucio]

Well, things must be getting desperate, because even the BBER who were intially sending out "Phorm is ok" messages, have stopped responding! I've yet to recieve the latest reply after I asked for clarification regarding the Government's position on the EU reports.

[santa claus]

I've yet to recieve the latest reply after I asked for clarification regarding the Government's position on the EU reports.

A request under FOI would have statutorily tied them in to a deadline for reply to you. It shouldn't really be necessary but if you can't get answers to questions, it's an option. Apologies in advance, I'm virtually certain you already know this.

[Lucio]

A request under FOI would have statutorily tied them in to a deadline for reply to you. It shouldn't really be necessary but if you can't get answers to questions, it's an option. Apologies in advance, I'm virtually certain you already know this.

I've been doing this through my local MP at the moment, his office have been passing on requests for the information on my behalf and honestly, I prefer it this way because I'm hoping it means that if a vote ever comes up, that he'll remember that not everyone believes the marketing hype.



Out of interest, one of my friends was saying that it was impossible for the Phorm system to know who you were or to trace data you sent back to you. I believed that because they searched all your data for key words and stored it back to your phone number, it meant anyone with access to the system could look up your phone number and find your keyword list. I countered with the fact that a non-UK company was harvesting data and could potentially change what specifics their system kept (For example picking up port 443 traffic).

[santa claus]

Out of interest, one of my friends was saying that it was impossible for the Phorm system to know who you were or to trace data you sent back to you. I believed that because they searched all your data for key words and stored it back to your phone number, it meant anyone with access to the system could look up your phone number and find your keyword list. I countered with the fact that a non-UK company was harvesting data and could potentially change what specifics their system kept (For example picking up port 443 traffic).

This site should help with clarification. At the end of the day, Phorm were previously known as 121 media, a Company implicated in spyware. Says it all I think.