Quote:
Originally Posted by unicus
Just been snooping around with Phorm's (and Ke(u)nt's) history as 121media/Peopleonpage and quickly looked at whether VM's Pcguard recognises any as spyware and it does (peopleonpage) Also PCguard's Privacy Manager deletes cookies so any system based on that would be useless without explicitly trusting the cookie and if they did it for you then you've lost even more of your privacy.  |
Seeing as you mentioned People On Page I will take the opportunity to repost about the rootkit they used in that software. Its a very important part of the reason why we CANT trust Phorm and why we shouldnt swallow the whole "it was adware not spyware" line that the PR monkeys keep posting. The Apropos rootkit:
http://www.f-secure.com/sw-desc/apropos.shtml
This is a key as it comes back to the issue of trust/credibility. Phorm seems, with its PR posts relating back to this issue, to almost buy into the old metaphor I have mentioned before; the Poacher-turned-Gamekeeper. Their argument goes something like this:
"we used to be an adware company but people didnt like that and couldnt distinguish between adware and spyware so we stopped that business model and are now working with the ISPs to protect your privacy. We are the good guys now. You can trust us. Honest. We have changed. We are on your side now."
The problem with that argument is that it has already been torpedoed by the revelations about BT and the secret trials in 2006 and 2007. The leopard hasnt changed its spots.
The poacher hasnt turned gamekeeper, they have just changed their method of poaching. F-secure and other companies labelled them as spyware. They
WERE spyware. Whatsmore they still
ARE spyware. All they have done is change the method they use. Instead of installing rootkits on end-users computers they are installing servers on the Internet Providers Network.
No amount of PR spinning is going to overcome our resistance to them.
DO NOT WANT!