Phorm - a sign of things to come?

[santa claus]

This battle won't be over yet. Too much money is involved. Incidentally, adblock, router blocks etc are useless - the data is collected direct from your ISP with currently Virgin Media, TalK Talk and BT interested. That's nearly everyone and they'll get around to everyone else soon if this is allowed to go ahead.

Adblock may stop you seeing the ads but they will still be 'there' in the sense that your data has already been harvested direct from your ISP.

[peterb]

Vote with your feet - if these ISPs do implement phorm's data harvesting, leave and go to an ISP that doesn't. If enough people do it - maybe the penny will drop.

[Lucio]

Vote with your feet - if these ISPs do implement phorm's data harvesting, leave and go to an ISP that doesn't. If enough people do it - maybe the penny will drop.

It'd be lovely if that was the case however, in my area I have two alternatives to BT. Be Broadband, who has refused service based on distance (we're just over 6km from the exchange), and Sky Broadband who insist you use their router, which won't work with our laptop (as it only does WEP standard).

There just isn't enough compition in the market still, because there's only a very few companies and most compitetors have to do strange things to shave their costs down.

[peterb]

It is BT the ISP that is proposing to sell you browsing data, not BT the ADSL line provider. So you could go with any other ISP (Zen, or whoever) using an ADSL connection.

[santa claus]

But you don't have to be a visionary to see the way this is going. Turning your back is never a real solution.

1. "I did not have relations with that woman".
2. "We won't invade Poland".
3. "Don't worry, there's no hurricane on the way".
4. "There can be no whitewash at the Whitehouse".

5. "Your data is held anonymously. We don't know who you are. This is not spyware".

[Sinizter]

I just found out that I might be moving to Norwich soon - seems to be some sort of broadband blackspot as most of the exchanges even slightly away from town only seems to have BT, Tiscali or Virgin Media. The other options in a few places being TalkTalk or AOL.

Cant really decide which one is the best if I do have to pick one.

[Phil_P]

As long as it is proven and upheld it is illegal, I am very happy to hear that.

Exactly. It may well be illegal, but until it's been proven in court. Also, who's going to enforce it.

Maybe we should just let 'em do it and then slap them with a huge class action law suite

[santa claus]

........a huge class action law suite

Or bathroom suite

[Jay]

use a VPN if you want to screw them over.

[Salazaar]

But you don't have to be a visionary to see the way this is going. Turning your back is never a real solution.

1. "I did not have relations with that woman".
2. "We won't invade Poland".
3. "Don't worry, there's no hurricane on the way".
4. "There can be no whitewash at the Whitehouse".

5. "Your data is held anonymously. We don't know who you are. This is not spyware".

Turning you back is the best way forward. It's a commercial decision not a political one and in that case money talks. Turning your back on a company which is doing something wrong is the best way to teach them a lesson because ultimately their customers' money is their bottom line.

Remember turning your back on a company by refusing them money is not the same thing as turning your back on the problem.

[badass]

Turning you back is the best way forward. It's a commercial decision not a political one and in that case money talks. Turning your back on a company which is doing something wrong is the best way to teach them a lesson because ultimately their customers' money is their bottom line.

Remember turning your back on a company by refusing them money is not the same thing as turning your back on the problem.

Unfortunately that doesn;t work in this country as for wevery person that gets off their arse and either spends a bit more on a different product or can be bothered to switch, there are 10 that will get "outraged" yet do nothing.

[Salazaar]

Unfortunately that doesn;t work in this country as for wevery person that gets off their arse and either spends a bit more on a different product or can be bothered to switch, there are 10 that will get "outraged" yet do nothing.

Then that lack of outrage just illustrates that the country as a whole actually doesn't give a rat's arse about the issue.

The thing is, in an open market, if there's demand for spyware free products then there'll be companies willing to provide. As a consumer you just have to make your choice.

[Phil_P]

Or bathroom suite

Thank you for pointing out my inability to spell

[SiM]

This is being talked about on BBC news now

[Sinizter]

This is being talked about on BBC news now

They almost made it sound like it was a good thing. The emphasis on them sending you "relevant ads" rather than on the part where they monitor everything you do.

[SiM]

They almost made it sound like it was a good thing. The emphasis on them sending you "relevant ads" rather than on the part where they monitor everything you do.

They also thought that deleting cookies would prevent this monitoring... I thought that the monitoring is done on the ISP's side