Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Good idea.

I have emailed BBC Watchdog, pointing out that both BT and VM are planning (or pro-actively) doing this. Can I strongly encourage others to do same, so that the BBC will take up the course.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and...ct_index.shtml

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Now thats the most sensible thing i have read on this thread for a while! :tu:

Shame the mod who was involved did not look at it that way. :rolleyes:

Very good idea, i for one will be doing that. They say their is strength in numbers so the more that do the better!

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Um - I have been asking for a sensible discussion all along - so less of the blame the mod attitude when the person at fault is in the other direction. :dozey:

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

End of the day if user's of the mentioned company's accept this it would be folly for anyone to think their company won't follow the lead. This is a really bad idea on the part of VM and BT and they should think about how this is making their company's look right now because it isn't good. Reality is no matter what system phorm try and use most user's will not trust this company in anyway shape or form to abide by a damn thing it states.

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

The reason that VM, BT and Talk Talk, don't forget them, is discussing this is simple.

Profit, pounds, shillings and pence...simple as that.

Right or wrong, its capitalism at its best or worst depnding on your point of view.

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Interesting also that you have almost blown a gasket when a company you don't subscribe to is going to implement this but when you are shown that SKY is considering it, you just hope it wont happen. If as you say "its a blatant breach of privacy and akin to building up a personal profile of somebody's interests, hobbies, wealth and habits." Shouldn't you be actively campaigning against Sky doing it.

If you had bothered to read the thread you would have seen that the privacy aspects of this are regularly audited by Ernst and Young anyway. So your statement is just scaremongering .

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

They may not make much but their churn has dropped through the floor - why would you drop the telly when you'd then have to go and buy that free BB for £15 a month?

I didn't get on with it at my house but I can see why it's a boon for them ;)

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

OK, but they didn't pay all that mmoney for easynet just to keep customers going to alternative suppliers.

That product will have to turn in a profit, targetted advertising could be the answer. :)

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Have you actually read the Ernst & Young so called "approval"? It's a complete red herring and not worth the electrons needed to download it.

Firstly they audit against USA accountancy standards. We are talking about a system the needs to meet the UK standards. There is no specific audit against the Data Protection Act, or other privacy rules.

Secondly the disclaimers used, make the "certification" worthless:The bold is my highlight of a statement that basically implies they've vetted it, but don't really know.

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

On that, we can agree.
While, again, I agree with what you say, I can see two problems: 1) Many people don't live near enough an ADSL exchange for it to be viable for them to use ADSL (admittedly, a lot can get broadband via mobile, but this often comes with heavy restrictions). The second problem is what happens when/if a lot of ISPs use this system?

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Therein lies the caveat that we all should be afraid of "error or fraud may occur and not be detected".

Earlier in this thread I mentioned that a number of friends and family have been defrauded out of thousands by online theft by partial identity theft. In the very few cases where somebody has been caught they have always been in a position of trust and able to view data which in itself is logical because without data they cannot commit identity crime. That falls under the definition of fraud and is not usually detected.

If data is never seen, scanned, collected or read then nobody can know what is contained within. If it is read but filtered then at some point pre-filter it is all there and that is where the risk of fraud is the greatest. Online fraud is unfortunately a fast growing criminal area and to such a degree that many I know within banking will not use the net for financial transactions. IMO any mass surveillance will not decrease risk and just creates new holes for data to leak from.

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

If VM decide to press ahead with this idea i will use this as a way of foxing the system
http://tools.rosinstrument.com/cgi-proxy.htm
seems to work fine too.

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Im making a list of clean ISP's so that if in the event that VM do go through with this ad scheme we as customers can vote with our feet.

Here are some ISP's that have been vocal about REJECTING the Phorm scheme

Aquiss - source

Zen Internet - source

NewNet - source


please add to this list if more are found

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

Well on your first point, It probably has nothing to do with what country's laws apply because according to post 102 Ernst and Young are checking whether the systems safeguard total anonymity. Obviously the laws of the UK also act as a safeguard. That being the case I still think it is scaremongering to say they are building personal profiles.

Your second point is more of a concern but it maybe that they (Ernst and Young) are only saying that they were not asked to check out that aspect of it. I'm not being blasé, I would just like clarification what that means.

I should add that I am against Virgin doing this but I think that claiming that it is a major breach of privacy is an exaggeration. If it was that bad then as you have already implied it would be against the law of the land.

Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77 & 102]
 

No one pays for information that can't be verified i know there are some dumb people about but not that many. So how do phorm validate this information to their customers i might have missed this mentioned but i don't see how they can without invading privacy to some degree or another. Being honest we shouldn't be needing to have this discussion because VM shouldn't be thinking of doing it.