Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

To quote Bruce Dickinson when Iron Maiden were being messed about by the organisers of Ozzfest, "these colours don't run" (cleaned up some there). Personally I've been online for a very long time and fully intend to continue for a hell of a lot longer.

Any time Phorm appear and start to spin or "clear up misunderstandings" just point them to the public meeting footage at tobymeres.net where Dr Richard Clayton and Alexander speak excellently about why Phorm is illegal. That will wipe any smile off their faces.

For any newcomers to the forum, whether registered or guests, you can see my analysis of the recent public meeting here which also includes Simon Davies' introduction to the proceedings (also at tobymeres.net)

By all means let's have informed discussion and questions from people who rightly want to know more. This is a hot topic, a long thread and issues move quickly. I'm sure the moderators will act to prevent this turning into something one might find in the local goth or science fiction online communities.

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

That I find your continued ad-hominem attacks offensive and unhelpful is irrelevant.
I requested that you substantiate and reference your expressed opinions in order that other readers could adequately evaluate them.
You are completely free to ignore those requests but I will attempt to highlight that, and I'm sure others will draw their own conclusions.


@Russ - Should you find any of my posts to be in any manner uncivil, please contact me by PM to explain how they detract from the accepted 'rules' of debate and I'll do my best to comply.

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

I am currently just drafting a letter to send to Mcafee regarding Phorm as I have noted that neither Mcafee or Symantec seem to have given any indication as to their thoughts or stance on Phorm/Webwise whereas other industry players have. The Mcafee response, if any, would be interesting to read.

Webwise (YEAH RIGHT!)
 

Dear customer

You may have heard recently that Virgin Media will be working with a company, Phorm, to provide our broadband customers with new online protection and enhanced features. When we were looking at this solution, we had some questions, and you might do too, so we’ve put together the information below to help you understand what it’s all about and how it’ll help to make your internet experience safer, and more relevant to you.

Phorm is the company providing this innovative solution, and it’s called Webwise. Webwise will help provide you with a safer and more relevant online experience by helping you avoid scam emails or websites, as well as making your online experience more relevant through advertising that matches your areas of interest.

A safer experience
Webwise will help you avoid scams, such as ‘phishing’ – this is where someone pretends to be a well known brand, like a bank, but is looking to steal your confidential information. You might receive an email which appears to be authentic, asking you to enter details such as account numbers and passwords, which are then stolen and used fraudulently. Commonly known as ‘phishing’, these websites can be hard to spot as they are designed to look just like genuine websites.

Webwise checks these sites against a regularly updated list of fraudulent sites and warns you if you’re heading to one. You’re given the option to continue to that site or not, so Webwise won’t restrict your online experience in any way, but at least you’ll be able to decide for yourself and avoid this form of identity theft. In this way, Webwise can help to protect your personal information.

A more relevant browsing experience
Another great thing about Webwise is that it can help reduce irrelevant advertising. As you browse web pages, Webwise looks at things like search terms, and learns what topics might be of interest. This is done without collecting any personal information, so once again your privacy is protected. These topics are then used to help some advertisers replace their adverts with ones that might be more relevant to you. Don’t worry, you won’t see any more adverts than you currently do, some of them will just be more relevant. For example if you searched for keywords like “Paris� and “Eurostar�, instead of random uninteresting adverts, you might see an advert for French hotels instead.

Protecting your privacy
Webwise has been designed from the ground up to protect your privacy and anonymity. As the system only learns about topics of interest, it does this anonymously, ensuring your privacy is completely protected.

We found that this system met our high standards for simplicity and privacy – so your privacy is assured. These privacy standards were also verified independently by Ernst & Young who conducted a detailed audit of the whole process and Webwise solution.

As a Virgin Media customer, you won’t be forced to use Webwise, so you’ll be able to keep your internet experience as it is now.

We are currently at the early stages of working to deliver the Webwise solution and will be writing to you nearer the time to advise when the solution will be ‘switched on’ providing more detail of what this will mean to you. Given the benefits of Webwise, we’re pleased to be offering you this service and making your web experience safer and more relevant.

Virgin Media

(********S) :rolleyes:


Questions and answers

What benefits will the customer see?
Webwise automatically increases protection against online fraud, including phishing and identity theft by checking against its continually updated list of known fraudulent and untrustworthy websites. If someone who has switched on Webwise visits any website on the list, they'll receive a warning, so they can choose whether or not to visit that site.

Webwise also personalises online advertising by linking it to customers' interests, based on their anonymous browsing behaviour. For example, if users search for a deal on a car or visited motoring web sites, Webwise would help provide relevant advertising for car deals or insurance. Customers won't see any more adverts than they normally do - some of them will just be more relevant.

Isn’t this just spyware?
Webwise doesn’t record your activities like spyware does, in fact Webwise was designed to help ensure customer privacy.

How is customer privacy assured?
Webwise doesn't capture or store any customers’ personal details, only anonymous information about advertising categories that may be of interest to them. Webwise places a common cookie in web browsers - a small computer code with a unique, randomly generated number on it. With this cookie, Webwise can deliver warnings of potentially dangerous websites and replace some untargeted ads with more relevant ones. This cookie can be deleted at any time.

What information is collected?
We use the website address, keywords and search terms from the page viewed to match a category or area of interest (e.g., travel or finance). After matching, this information is discarded permanently, except the category information. The category information is only associated with a unique, randomly-generated cookie that can be deleted at any time from the browser.

Neither the web addresses, nor search terms you use are stored. They are purely matched to an advertising topic and then permanently discarded.
Webwise doesn’t store your internet (IP) address or keep a history of your browsing. The system or advertisers won’t know who you are or the websites you’ve visited.
No personally-identifiable information such as email addresses, surnames, street addresses, or phone numbers are ever stored.
No sensitive or personal financial information, such as credit card numbers, login IDs, passwords or bank account numbers are ever stored.
Steps are taken to actively ensure details such as credit card numbers, email addresses etc are never captured.
Why has Virgin Media partnered with Phorm?
We are very keen to ensure our customers have a safer online experience, but without blocking access. In this respect Webwise allows us to alert customers that they may be attempting to visit a site known to be fraudulent. Additionally, by providing customers with more relevant advertising, they should be able to find products and services that are more interesting for them.

Will customers be able to decide whether to use the system?
Customers won’t be forced to use the system, and will have the choice to keep their internet experience exactly as it is now. As we get closer to launch we’ll explain how this will work.

(********S):rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

Apart from contacting my MP and MEP's, with the general information/concerns, I have now contacted both the NSPCC and Childline, regarding the possibility of mis-directed adverts and the possibilities of data-mining the child's own internet activities.
Both the MP and the MEP's have replied, with the MEP's in particular being quite supportive.
As of yet, I haven't had any information back from the other two, but hopefully they might be concerned.

Colin

---------- Post added at 20:20 ---------- Previous post was at 19:51 ----------

On a slightly different note, a very interesting read from F-Secure here regarding our Kurt's previous incarnations.

Colin

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

You need to edit that URL.

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

Who's Kurt??

Im sure you mean KENT...

BTW, the link dont work, just takes me to cableforum main board..

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

Yes, his previous phorm is known to many...

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

And because the professional film hasn't been released & the Q&A session hasn't been published, we don't know if anyone asked these:

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

Your link just takes me to after a redirect to
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/

Did you mean
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001420.html ?

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

The F-Secure link should be

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001420.html

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

A few minutes ago I took the decision to post to an american health forum I frequent regarding the issue of Phorm as we know that Phorm are in negotiations with AT&T, Comcast & Verizon to roll out webwise or something similar over there.

I doubt what I have done in this instance will have much effect on Phorm at all but given the nature of the sensitive health discussions that take place there I thought I should give them a heads-up warning so that they can consider at the very least changing over to HTTPS. I gave them links to both badphorm and also to the NYTimes article.

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

I have a small sort of 'techie' question. I have blocked cookies on FF for every variation of Phorm and Webwise including OIX I can think of in .com and .net, inside out and upside down (so to speak). I don't seem to be able to do that in IE. I can block cookies for the very basic s of the names but not f'rinstance with www. prefixes or with bt.webwise combinations. Any answers gratefully accepted.

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

I have told the members of a UK based arthritis charity forum that I'm a member of, and I've also informed the HQ as to the implications the Phorm technology could have. I'm worried that despite the fact you have to be a member to use the forum, once you're logged in Phorm would be able to see everything.

Last week I wrote to all 3 leaders of the main political parties and so far I've only had a reply from David Cameron's office. I'll keep you posted on any other replies I get from the other people/organisations I have written to.

---------- Post added at 21:04 ---------- Previous post was at 20:59 ----------

I don't know if this site might help Bobcat, but it may be worth a look

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/cookies.htm

Also has a nice bit of info on adware cookies too,

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 

Many Ta's Ravenheart. Very useful and informative.
Sorry to hear you've got "arthur" too.
Chris.