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

36% now.. it's like watching a sinking ship ;)

Who'd have thought shares could be so much fun.

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

wow a loss of almost 5% in just 4 minutes, thats pretty bad. Should make for an interesting discussion at Phorms Shareholders meeting on Thursday.

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

in other news VMs stock is rising (now falling back a bit again), but thats more to do with the potential sale as i reported elswere the other day.

Neil might just get his comfy chair bonus after all ,i wonder if it happens ,weather Neil will still be CEO and what effect if any it might have on this Phorm deal...to many ifs right now.

http://www.businessweek.com/investor...amp%3B+markets
"Virgin Media (VMED) rises on reports that Richard Branson could scoop $750 million if Virgin Media is sold to U.S.

private equity groups, which are actively considering launching a takeover bid, despite continuing turmoil in the credit markets.

According to a private document entitled "Project Coaxial" - seen by The Observer - Blackstone, Cinven, KKR and Providence Equity are prepared to offer $6-$7.5 billion for the company, in which Branson's Virgin group holds a 10.5%, reports The Observer. "
http://investing.businessweek.com/re...sp?symbol=VMED
Virgin Media, Inc.

(VMED:NASDAQ)

LAST $14.69 USD CHANGE TODAY +0.80 5.76% VOLUME 3.4M

OPEN $15.76
PREVIOUS CLOSE $13.89
DAY HIGH $15.76
DAY LOW $14.34
...
"
i wonder what the other ISPs prices are doing, anyone checked?

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

http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/resources/Global_Review_07/$file/EY_Global_Review_2007.pdf
Page 37?

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

Blimey, their stock is down 34.91% as of 16:11. I wish I could say that's because of the backlash to their scheme, but unfortunately I think it might be more to do with some board room shifting (I saw somewhere they were planning to change various board rules/start issuing extra shares etc) than the righteous indignation of e.g. the 2,417 people who have signed the Downing Street petition.

2,417 in a few days is pretty impressive for those petitions - it normally takes quite a lot longer for them to get that big. This really seems to have struck a nerve with net users...

[EDIT: Oops, so slooooooow to post :)]

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

...or maybe some City-types have heard on the grapevine which way the Information Commissioner's Office is leaning on their little scheme..;)

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

By opt-out though, do they mean just the opt out cookie which still means that you are still going through Phorm services and they are still monitoring, just not actively displaying personalised adverts (e.g. not really a full opt-out), or like TalkTalk has said to do where opting out means completely bypassing the Phorm servers at the ISP level and getting a real opt-out so you have nothing to do with Phorm at all if you opt-out?

I would hope for the latter, but I fear it is likely to be the former

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

Consider that information correct at the time of going to the press, having seen those kinds of emails before, then conflicting information given by the same team, it is very much a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

Not their fault, they only publish what they are told.

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

the way that email reads VM hell bent in going ahead and self destruction.

Also I feel either VM / PHORM or both are lieing. Someone keeping a log of either mac addresses or IP for this mystical random number to target us.

PHORM must think we are idiots.

Now the way I see it if it is IP address based then would assume I can kick the bloomin heads by changing MY IP with my router there confusing the destination.

I have also thought about a system idea but it needs to find out the way they targets us.

The Dephormation addon is good but I wondered if it could be addapted to cause a mis-information mismatch.

Allow them to infest us manipulate there devious ways and return back a false random number to try and report false information.

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

I don't know, after reading some of the 'discussion' on that shares site here the bad press does indeed seem to be a definite factor.

A comment by a user on that site was:

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

How secure is my website forums from Phorm?

I posted the following elsewhere, but have yet to receive a reply from anyone at Phorm:

After having read all the posts on this thread, I see that virtually no-one has brought up this aspect of the problem with Phorm. Forums that are visible to Member only ensure that no-one who isn't a member gets access - including bots as I have a total bot exclusion in my robots.txt file. If Phorm accesses my forums without permission they are as far as I can tell, falling foul of the DPA. Seeing as Phorm does not obey robots.txt comands, maybe all of us who own webstes and forums, and wish to keep them safe from prying eyes should send Phorm a DPA notice specifically refusing to allow them access?

Another point regarding this - phorm say they only collect regularly occuring key words from webpages, the rest is striiped out - well, usernames and aliases are regularly occuring keywords within forum pages, so how would the phorm software know that 'manxminx' is my username, and therefore is a piece of personally identifying data?

Why should I have to buy a security certificate to make my forums https? In other words, why should I have to pay to block Phorm? Website and forum owners should be able to opt out, yet no-one, Phorm included has brought this up. And what about members of social networking sites that have made their profiles friends only? If one of their friends use a Phorm enabled ISP, then Phorm has access to those private pages . . . .

Ali (Note to Phorm- that's my name, which is personal data as it identifies me. I do not give permission for Phorm to scan any personally identifying data within this forum post).

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

You make a very good point. I belong to two user groups where technical information which is commercially valuable is available only to those who pay a subscription. As the information contained within is only protected with username and password, why should a profiler be allowed to mirror what I pay for.

IMO it is an unwarranted and unwanted piggy back intrusion into areas that they have no paid for rights of entry. Of course they may argue that whatever is seen is instantly discarded but the fact remains that it is scanned and something of commercial value extracted albeit supposedly just advertising profiling.

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

From my understanding they will not be taking data from form fields which is where details like this are entered. So unlikely to be picked up.

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

Well with so much conflicting information, or downright none at all its understandable.

I have to say this though, cookies do not need IP information passed to them to work. Ther's no point in going into the technicalities of my statement, as there is plenty of information out there. PHPSESSION (sp?) cookies, similar to those used on this site do not need IP information, just a session specific identifier.

I am not saying that Phorm aren't getting IP information, because many will not believe me, not even sure if I know for certain, I am just saying that setting cookies in a browser session is a lot less covert than people think.

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

The fact is that people will perceive this to be Spyware even if it turns out not to be. The mere fact that this company has been involved with Spyware and Root kits is where they will ultimately fail as a company and a trusted part of the system.

The trust they need in this product will never be achieved.