The ads will appear on the pages you are browsing and/or on the pages of subsequent browsers. The idea is to target you with things that interest you. It could be regarded as a form of profiling. Data already collected shows the car you drive, the food you eat, what you buy, where you go on holiday, who you owe money to etc. Targeted ads effectively reveal the next level - what you think about.
You will be pwned
Originally Posted by santa claus
Don't you see?
The free market will prevail, people who are willing to pay extra, will. Those who don't mind (ie at work someone having that sort of info wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Its hardly as thou its not already been monitored).
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
Thankfully, not everyone is as subservient, defeatist and compliant as you. Don't you see?
because at home, i'll be using a company that has a data collection policy that i agree with, dosen't mean i can't see why some would benefit from it.
fact of the matter is, most ISPs have very low profit margin between the wholesale cost from BT and their running costs. Something like this could help them charge a price less than the wholesale cost from BT. Thats a competative edge, and there are many who aren't as well off as I, who would jump at it.
Just as people like me would gladly pay more to avoid it, even to the point of starting up an ISP if needs be.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
I accept that there are always varying points of view. I'm inclined to believe that most internet users would prefer their privacy. Profit margins are not my problem; they are the ISP's problem. I pay them a subscription for a service; they have to decide how to keep it competitive without selling my data and effectively getting paid twice for the same thing, both times at my expense.
I think the concept proposed by Phorm could be illegal. Doubt you would support an illegal initiative.
Thanks for elaborating Santa
adblock ftw
Yeah, but there will be a market for non-Phorm ISPs, people will pay to not be spied on and the market will prevail. Despite it being a fairly unpleasant way of doing business Phorm will not end the world as we know it!
You do work for the Daily Mail right? If not you may be missing out on a very lucrative career
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Adblock will be useless. You can block the ads but they will still be 'there' you just won't see them. Your ISP will have sold off your data long before this stage. That's the rub - this is an ISP level intrusion.Thanks for elaborating Santa
adblock ftw
If it isn't already illegal, it damned well should be. If Phorm are receiving all of our personal details, who knows what they would be doing with them? What we need is a government that listens to the people (i.e., not the current one) and will take steps to stop this sort of thing. Otherwise, we'll all end up as victims of our own selves. If I thought it would lead to any action, I'd happily start a petition to ban all ads altogether, but companies already make way too much like that anyway to even consider stopping.
imo, it's in severe breach of the DPA, so it needs to be stopped NOW, with all companies who continue to deal with Phorm being heavily fined/prosecuted/whatever, to stop them from carrying on.
Even as I type this, I'm getting ads pop up. It's got to be the most annoying invention on the internet.
If all ISPs did eventually sign up with Phorm and used it, then I'm with Saracen on this, I would completely stop using the Internet. I managed it before, I can manage again. That's what computer comsoles and TV are for.
Doing without would have some unpleasant side-effects, but it wouldn't be a struggle. It would simply mean some lifestyle changes .... and not necessarily all bad ones.
As it is, I probably spend more time than I should on the internet, and much (though not all) is purely for convenience.
Emails? Use a dial-up connection. I did that for many years before broadband (or any high speed connection was available) and can do so again. Or I'd dig the fax machine out again. Or, if this data-rape idea goes ahead, I'd expect to see services become available that anonymise connections, at least enough to collect email. If not, use a web-based remote mailstore and don't have a personal internet connection. And read your email at the library or a net cafe.
Or .... have a minimal home internet account, use email (and encrypt it), and simply not browse the web at home.
Looking up prices? As above, the library or internet cafe.
Online gaming? I don't do that anyway, so couldn't care less.
Online shopping? Again, I buy VERY little online. And on those odd occasions, either do it via a net cafe, or better yet, the good old-fashioned phone. And if a company only takes orders via the internet .... well, that's okay too. I just find someone else to buy from. After all, I'm already more concerned with service than rock-bottom pricing, which is why I don't buy much via the internet anyway.
So would it be a "struggle"? No. Not at all. It would just mean adjusting my habits, and if I was 'forced' to spend less time online, I'd no doubt end up spending a lot more doing other things. Unlike many here, I've spent most of my life without the internet, because for most of it, it didn't exist.
I'd rediscover books. Or rather, get around to reading some of the substantial pile I have waiting to be read that probably would have been read if I spent less time online. I'd perhaps spend more time just listening to music. After all, I didn't buy a good hifi to use it for background music, which is what it's used for much of the time now. Who knows, I might spend more time out on my bike, or take up golf.
Well, alright. Not golf.
But I could spend a lot more time out with my camera.
I rather feel that the internet is like a crack cocaine addiction - a hard habit to break (I'm told), but your life will be likely to improve a fair bit if you do. Or if I do, anyway ..... break the net habit I mean. I don't even smoke cigarettes, let alone crack.
Sure, I'd give up forum activity, at least on anything beyond occasional dropping in. So that's no moderating, here or at several other sites. And I'd give up running a couple of other sites, too. So I'd give up paying for the hosting.
I'd get to have a good reason to drop into the local library several times a week, and as it happens, there's a decent coffee shop 100 yards down the road. So I could spend a couple of hours in the library, have a coffee, wander round the shops, and so forth, instead of sitting at a keyboard. That sounds tough.
"Struggle living without it"? You've got to be kidding. I'm actually starting to fall in love with the idea.
EDIT - Oh, and quite seriously, with no kidding, I'm starting to like the idea. Really, REALLY like the idea. Question is .... can I break the habit?
santa claus (19-03-2008)
Phorm is illegal!
Gov advisors: Phorm is illegal | The Register
Hate to say I told you so but it's all a storm in a teacup! You can all stop ranting like crazies now
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anyone else watching PHRM and willing it down?
PHRM - Phorm Inc. - Google Finance
edit: nooo its going back up!
Last edited by MadduckUK; 18-03-2008 at 10:34 AM.
Vodka
its still up 1.9% over 5 days.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
You're selling the idea to me, for one... I couldn't have put the points you make better myself (correction, couldn't have put them as well). I've also lived without the internet a lot longer than with it, and what you notice very early on is how many applications you find for it that you never suspected you 'needed' - but start to make themselves feel like a genuine requirement, overnight almost. Like a lot of people I start off to do one specific task, which leads you off on a tangent & so on, & from there you could go on indefinitely, addictive is the word. 'Ooh that looks interesting.. & I'll just do this while I'm here..' &c. The upside is the genuinely useful stuff, but there's a fairly large percentage of my internet usage that is of the time-wasting noodling-about variety, thus saving me from jobs I'm putting off doing. Another point as a fairly new nontech user is unless threads like this put potential problems right under my nose, people like me just go along happily unaware of most of the info-gathering or pitfalls because you don't have a thorough knowledge of how the net works.
I rather feel that the internet is like a crack cocaine addiction - a hard habit to break (I'm told), but your life will be likely to improve a fair bit if you do.
"Struggle living without it"? You've got to be kidding. I'm actually starting to fall in love with the idea.
However - in terms of giving it up, one major hitch -I also used to lived nearer facilities & could do as you say & use the library &c, but now I no longer have that & also not driving, the net has actually become a huge huge part of life. Without online postage, banking, shopping, I would be up a creek - and grocery shopping without a car - no thanks. So in principle I could live without some of the things I use the net for but for the rest, if it came to no more internet full stop - I'd either starve, or have to move, simple as that. Which is the first thing I'll be doing anyway when my 6 numbers come up.
btw what's on the top of your unread book pile? (real or hypothetical) - just out of curiosity.
Last edited by sammyc; 18-03-2008 at 03:13 PM.
Judging by his post, I'd say dust.
Seems like this Phorm discussion is gathering momentum elsewhere on the web. Hopefully with the news outlets posting/commenting it'll enlighten users who otherwise wouldn't have heard about it.
PS. I'm very much against it at least with regards to their opt-out stance.
I'm having a heated discussion with someone on another forum about it - it's not that he doesn't mind it, he actually thinks it's a really good idea and is happy to be on it.
If I'd not known him on that forum for as long, I'd swear he was deliberately arguing, but he's a long time poster that I've credited with plenty of intelligence, so I guess he's serious :-|
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