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

I probably won't be able to do any more transcription until early next week. Here's what I've done so far. (File is plain text but uses Unix style line endings - WordPad should be able to open it but Notepad will probably make a mess of it)

rryles

Dephormation

12-07-2008 16:00

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

I've added another server side 'dephormation' method.

I'm ashamed to say I've lost track of the person who first suggested this to me, and I wish I could say the idea had occurred to me first, but it didn't. The code removes Phorm cookies from your domain, and sets the user to 'OPTED_OUT'. Not necessarily suitable for all sites (esp those with no cookie policies), and obviously completely dependent on the method Phorm ultimately use to inject their parasitic evil into your communication traffic

No code to write, simply copy my php into your web site folder, and plonk an image on your pages like the one below (or a better one if you're a graphics wiz).

If you're on shared hosting you might even be able to opt out all the web sites on your shared host, by setting the 'domain' parameter value in the setcookie functions appropriately. Eg, blueyonder.co.uk. Wonder if that would work? :)

Update; rats, of course it occurs to me you're still at the mercy of Phorm... they still copy your content regardless. It just makes it harder to profile the user. SSL that's what you really need. No two ways about it.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/07/1.php

Florence

12-07-2008 16:05

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravenheart (Post 34598237)

I'm having a problem doing the transcribing at the moment due to the painkillers after my surgery.I thought it would be an easy task, but the morphine is really knocking me about at the moment. I'll continue to work on the section, but i'm not sure how long it will take me :(

Sorry for letting folks down.

No worries I am sure this will be completed before i go for a few days break after my hospital appointment this week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rryles (Post 34598257)

I'm using some this software:

http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html

It is free, does variable speed playback and various other functions designed to make the job easier. It's available for most OS's though I'm finding the hotkeys don't work properly under Ubuntu.

Ravenheart - Don't feel bad. Anything, no matter how small, is a help. Your personal health is more important though.

Thank you for that will try that since windows media player refuses to let me rewind back..

fidbod

12-07-2008 16:18

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

rryles,

Just read the transcript. Thanks for doing it.

I particularly like this quote EoN> I think that's a legitimate concern. I've said previously with respect to the behavioural advertising that I have an antipathy towards it philosophically and I really do. It relies on a presumption that we are all content to subdue our spirit of enquiry and it relies upon an assumption that, as it were, we all lead very normal and straight forward lives. Actually we don't... and as you correctly identified there are some people who's lives are extremely difficult, extremely dangerous, by vurtue of the possibility of partners and/or relatives...

This is why the lords is a good thing. Unelected seats do allow genuine independence of thought.

Also it sounds like 80/20 have dropped Phorm - completely reading between the lines of course.

phormwatch

12-07-2008 16:37

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

Publicising the Protest Event

OK, guys, we have a mere four days until the protest in London. I suggest we concentrate our minds very hard in publicising the event as best we can in the few remaining days.

I will spend a good deal of time within the next few days posting details of the event in every forum, newsgroup, blog, etc. that I can manage.

I respectfully suggest that other people do the same.

If anyone has any more ideas about publicising the event, please post them here and share them, so everyone else can do the same.

rryles

12-07-2008 16:57

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Florence (Post 34598328)

Thank you for that will try that since windows media player refuses to let me rewind back..

There is more than one way to use that software, depending on your preference. You can set it so that every time you stop plaback it moves back up to 5 seconds.

isf	12-07-2008 17:30

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dephormation (Post 34598324)

I've added another server side 'dephormation' method.

-- snip --

Update; rats, of course it occurs to me you're still at the mercy of Phorm... they still copy your content regardless. It just makes it harder to profile the user. SSL that's what you really need. No two ways about it.

This is what I came up with, and yes I'm well aware something this hard line isn't appropriate for many sites. There's also the problem where adware scanners may remove only the webwise cookie, something else for Phormed ISPs to deal with!

PHP Code:


		
			
<?php



/* Based on an idea by gjamie

** http://www.badphorm.co.uk/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?3090.30

*/



define('PHORM_COOKIE', 'webwise');

define('HTTP_403', 'HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden');



function inphorm(){

  echo '<html><head><title>',HTTP_403,' | Illegal Interception</title></head>'

      ,'<body><h1>Forbidden due to Illegal Interception</h1>'

      ,'<p>Please contact your ISP for assistance.</p></body></html>';

}



function set_detection_cookies(){

  $exp = time() + 3600;

  setcookie('dummy', '1', $exp, '/');

  setcookie(PHORM_COOKIE, '1', $exp, '/');

}



if (isset($_COOKIE['dummy']) && !isset($_COOKIE[PHORM_COOKIE])){

  header(HTTP_403);

  if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] != 'HEAD')

    inphorm();

  exit();

} else 

  set_detection_cookies();

pseudonym

12-07-2008 17:56

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dephormation (Post 34598324)

{FirePhorm}
Request URL: http://www.dephormation.org.uk/serve...phormation.php

(Originating URL:http://www.dephormation.org.uk/serve...phormation.php)

Method: GET
Host: www.dephormation.org.uk
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-gb,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 300
Connection: keep-alive
Cookie: webwise-test=SYGGfXWiQMuawIuR0qMJxw||
Cache-Control: max-age=0

Response - status = 200

Connection: close
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:47:46 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET, PHP/4.4.6
Set-Cookie: uid=deleted; expires=Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:47:45 GMT
OPTED_OUT=YES; expires=Wed, 28 Sep 2016 15:47:46 GMT; path=/
Expires: Sat, 1 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: image/png

I think you might be creating the wrong type of cookie there. (uid & OPTED_OUT are webwise.net "master" cookies)

According to R.Clayton the phorged cookie will be labelled / contain "webwise" and the value of the opt-out cookie will be "OPTED_OUT".

Rchivist

12-07-2008 18:26

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

Important breaking news on iPM on data collection and snooping and changes in way interception of communications will take place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/ - there is a link to the podcast - I imagine it will eventually surface on the BBC Technology pages.

podcast here - http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/...80712-0545.mp3

I think this sounds significant - talks about probes "in the network" that can report direct to the surveillance teams without the permission of the operators.

Sounds just like the mobile phone equivalent of Phorm's DPI equipment.

I haven't heard the details yet - but it made it to the Saturday PM bulletin so will also be on the BBC PM page.

Also includes an item about the police and ecrime and the Lords follow up report.

Dephormation

12-07-2008 19:00

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by pseudonym (Post 34598403)

I think you might be creating the wrong type of cookie there. (uid & OPTED_OUT are webwise.net "master" cookies)

According to R.Clayton the phorged cookie will be labelled / contain "webwise" and the value of the opt-out cookie will be "OPTED_OUT".

Cheers, I'll check that out.

Mind you, given how uncertain Phorm were when they told Dr Clayton how their own system worked, it could be anyone's guess what it actually does. :nutter:

phormwatch

12-07-2008 19:04

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

So... no suggestions for publicising the upcoming Protest?

Dephormation

12-07-2008 19:25

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by pseudonym (Post 34598403)

Just looking at the text of Richard Claytons analysis... it is very confusing.

It talks about a 'webwise' labelled cookie for the UID. Does that mean the cookie is named webwise, or the name is chosen by Webwise?

And when it talks about the method used to copy the 'OPTED_OUT' value, it says "If the user has set a cookie within the webwise.net domain indicating that they do not wish to be tracked, then this preference setting will be copied (by the method already outlined) into the cookies created for all other domains. That is, the cookie for these domains will have a generic "OPTED OUT" value and there will be no UID".

Is that name "OPTED_OUT" and value "YES" per the webwise domain??

This whole thing is such a technical shambles. See para 33 - if you opt out, your UID is sprayed across every site you ever visited. Your visits to those sites would still be profiled, even though you thought you'd opted out, while the copied UID cookies persisted.

:bsmack:

We must stop this cack every being launched. It is cack. Utter utter utter cack.

Wildie

12-07-2008 19:31

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by phormwatch (Post 34598426)

So... no suggestions for publicising the upcoming Protest?

guy forkes mask and capes you dont want them to phorm you and serve you ad`s now do you one for all and all that.
:D

SelfProtection

12-07-2008 19:33

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by phormwatch (Post 34598426)

So... no suggestions for publicising the upcoming Protest?

Probably a short post & link to the main event story would be best.
https://nodpi.org/2008/05/30/protest-at-the-barbican/

Interesting what lengths BT are going to to get new customers.
http://12078.net/grcnews/article.php....privacy#48923

OldBear

12-07-2008 20:32

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

Little bit of OT fun for the weekend.

Any forums members here thinking of bumping off their significant other? If so, do it now!

Because if Phorm/Webwise hits the Net he/she is going to know what you're up to.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7503519.stm

:p: :p:

OB

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