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-   -   Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33628733)

Mick 13-03-2008 17:39

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

Originally Posted by TheNorm (Post 34506309)
By not doing so, isn't the implication the data aren't private? I agree, eavesdropping is impolite - but is it illegal?

I wouldn't be suprised if it was in some countries, as it is illegal to worry a Squirrel in some parts of the world but in both cases, irrelevant to the issue about internet data being tracked and so relevant ads can be served from this data.

SMHarman 13-03-2008 17:40

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

Originally Posted by OF1975 (Post 34506217)
PhormUKPRteam

I am sure I have read somewhere that contrary to what you have said, Phorm WILL store data for up to 14 days for research and monitoring purposes. Despite trying unfortunately I can no longer find that information. Just to clarify matters can you give a cast-iron guarantee that NONE of our data pertaining to our surfing habits will be stored?

EY Report Page 2 Point II
Phorm has established industry-leading standards regarding storage, retention and deletion of data.
Blah Blah however,
  • This specific data cannot be accessed by our ISP partners.
  • Even this non-personally -identifiable information is automatically purged from the production system immediately (research and debug logs may be kept on a separate system for a maximum of 14 days).
  • Once the system purges this data, it is not possible for us to release it, either accidentally or deliverately.
Blah, Blah
Sincerely

Kent Ertugrul
CEO
Phorm, Inc.

Barkotron 13-03-2008 17:53

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

Originally Posted by TheNorm (Post 34506309)
Exactly my point. If you considered your data to be sensitive, you would use https (or another form of encryption). By not doing so, isn't the implication the data aren't private? I agree, eavesdropping is impolite - but is it illegal?

Yes. The Home Office advice mentioned a few pages back in the thread makes it very clear that intercepting these communications is illegal under the RIPA without explicit consent, unless the interception is essential to provide the contracted service. Having targeted adverts or some pathetic "anti-phishing" fig leaf is in no way essential to the service any of us pay our money for, which is for the ISP to transfer our communications to the recipient and theirs to us. Reading any more of the communication than is necessary to get it there is illegal, unless they have the explicit consent of BOTH parties, i.e. you _and_ the website.

The Home Office advice suggests that the website is giving implied consent to the interception simply by being a publicly-available website, but I can't see that standing up to a decent lawyer if they're profiling e.g. password-protected, but not https websites, which are reasonably common.

They also say that the users' consent can be contained within the Ts & Cs, but this would require us to give that consent as the interception would involve a massive change to the Ts & Cs given the privacy statements some people listed earlier.

You appear to be suggesting that if the Post Office were to open our letters, read them and sell the contents to a commercial mailing company, then that would be okay because we didn't bother to encrypt what we were writing about with a replica Enigma machine, or that it would be okay for BT to listen in to what we were saying on the phone because we hadn't made it private by using some kind of voice scrambling technology. Just because the message is plaintext doesn't mean we don't have the right to expect it to remain private from those we have contracted to get it from us to the recipient.

shawty 13-03-2008 18:35

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

Originally Posted by piggy (Post 34505963)

It does not state how they caught the original person and they caught the rest by posing as the original person and not by their browsing habbits.

Anyway, this is getting off topic.

Morden 13-03-2008 18:40

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

Originally Posted by shawty (Post 34505919)
Paedophiles get caught by either taking their PC in for repair or buying Child Porn. I dont think they get caught by their browsing habbits.

They can also scan the pc for images even if the disk has been wiped, there are some clever recovery tools out there for professional users. Limited userbase, but almost custom made to allow data to be recovered, even from broken drives.

But if the police have a suspicion they can request the logs from the ISP and even take away a server should they wish. I have personally seen a server go walkies with the police with the correct warrant. Not for a paed case though.

shawty 13-03-2008 19:08

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

Originally Posted by Morden (Post 34506381)
They can also scan the pc for images even if the disk has been wiped, there are some clever recovery tools out there for professional users. Limited userbase, but almost custom made to allow data to be recovered, even from broken drives.

But if the police have a suspicion they can request the logs from the ISP and even take away a server should they wish. I have personally seen a server go walkies with the police with the correct warrant. Not for a paed case though.

I understand that but the point was that Ive never seen or heard a case of a paedophile been caught due to their browsing habbits (going and searching for the actual porn), its always something else thats got them caught, like taking a PC in for repair or trying to meet up with underage people.

ceedee 13-03-2008 19:35

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

Originally Posted by TheNorm (Post 34506309)
I've seen couples in airports saying to each other "now where do we get a taxi" only to have some guy come up to them, presumably an unlicensed cab driver.

And it's rude, intrusive and (all too frequently) dangerous for the passengers!

When did Phorm (or VM, for that matter) obtain a license (my consent) to flog my data?

the_baby_jebus 13-03-2008 20:16

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 
just done a quick check on www.webwise.net, a.webwise.net and www.oix.com

admittedly these aren't confirmed as the domains that the opt-in/out cookie will be tied to, but bear with me

these 2 domains are not in BT's or VM's net block (it's fasthosts if you care)...

which means that if you visit any site (the guardian for instance) that is in oix, then the cookie will be read from somewhere outside BT or VM.. which is in direct contradiction to what we've been spun.. i.e. no data will go outside the ISP..

the cookie can be read by one of these sites then who knows.. your unique oix id and browsing habits, can now be strung together with your ip address and anything else your browser wants to give up..

edit : sorry for mentioning BT but i don't think this is a purely cable problem

shawty 13-03-2008 20:20

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

Originally Posted by ceedee (Post 34506432)
And it's rude, intrusive and (all too frequently) dangerous for the passengers!

When did Phorm (or VM, for that matter) obtain a license (my consent) to flog my data?

What data? Going by what VM and Phorm say, no data bearing anything that goes back to you is used. Any other data is surely owned by the website you are visiting.

TheNorm 13-03-2008 20:29

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

Originally Posted by Barkotron (Post 34506335)
... You appear to be suggesting that if the Post Office were to open our letters, ....

Postcards, not letters; see posts 1122, 1128 & 1129

the_baby_jebus 13-03-2008 20:36

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

Originally Posted by shawty (Post 34506467)
What data? Going by what VM and Phorm say, no data bearing anything that goes back to you is used. Any other data is surely owned by the website you are visiting.

to be honest they've said so many contradictory things i wouldn't believe them if they said 1+1=2

and i don't think this is about selling YOUR data.. it's about ISPs jumping into bed with a know spyware pusher and expecting us to bend over and take it.. we're already the most spied upon people in the world in this country if you're happy with that then fine.. but most people don't seem to be

fatbloke 13-03-2008 20:41

Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
 
I emailed Virgin to opt out of this phorm deal,the very nice guy I spoke too said he would get back to me which he did...he didn't seem to know much about the deal but did say that Virgin are testing the water to see how it would go down with it's customers.
He also offered me the name and phone number so I could speak to someone from Phorm which I declined and pointed out to him that my Isp is Virgin and they alone are responsible for this deal, If I was targetted in any way with ads I would leave Virgin.
So if you haven't complained to Virgin yet do so and also get anyone else you know on Virgin cable to complain as well.

Morden 13-03-2008 20:53

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

Originally Posted by shawty (Post 34506410)
I understand that but the point was that Ive never seen or heard a case of a paedophile been caught due to their browsing habbits (going and searching for the actual porn), its always something else thats got them caught, like taking a PC in for repair or trying to meet up with underage people.


Or using chat rooms for which server logs are kept of.

And the last lot of arrests were done via a chat room sting.

No one is anonymous on the web they only think they are. There are footprints everywhere which can be tracked. Yes some are arrested by the way that you say and others are arested by other methods.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3789279.stm

shawty 13-03-2008 21:10

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

Originally Posted by Morden (Post 34506490)
Or using chat rooms for which server logs are kept of.

And the last lot of arrests were done via a chat room sting.

No one is anonymous on the web they only think they are. There are footprints everywhere which can be tracked. Yes some are arrested by the way that you say and others are arested by other methods.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3789279.stm

Thats still not what Im talking about. Im talking about actual looking at 'free' child porn images. I have not heard of any case were a paedophile was caught due to him searching maybe 'child porn' into google and finding images of child porn (you get my drift) and then that person going on to find more.

The only arrests Ive heard off are like you say, where a person goes looking for it and talking about it in chatrooms were it can easily be reported, trying to meet up with underage people, buying it via credit card or taking their PC in for repair.

I maybe wrong, but Ive not heard of such a case.

ceedee 13-03-2008 21:29

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

Originally Posted by shawty (Post 34506467)
What data?

My browsing data: what I'm looking at, where I'm looking at it, the time of day -- that's just for now.

Quote:

Going by what VM and Phorm say, no data bearing anything that goes back to you is used. Any other data is surely owned by the website you are visiting.
And going by the patent (have a look at [0042]?), they can mine lots more.
Why should I believe either of them when they say they won't use anything identifiable?
VM have lost my trust and Phorm never had it.

Are you sure this won't be the 'thin end of the wedge' of ISPs capturing and profiting from our internet use?


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