Quote:
Originally Posted by Portly_Giraffe
Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas for the "simple" website. I do intend to change its name to make it more acceptable to organisations such as the BBC, and will let you know once that's in place.
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Sorry I'm a bit late back to the party, Portly-Giraffe, but I've also been doing some thinking...here's what I wrote:
What is Phorm?
Phorm is a new element of the internet that is being added by your ISP, using equipment and software supplied by a company called Phorm.
What Does it Do?
It’s function is to read every word of every website that you visit, analyse it, and create a constantly-updated profile on you, your interests and your online habits. Your ISP will then send this profile to Phorm, who will use it to select advertisements which will then be shown to you on any participating website that you visit. As a sweetener, they have also added a phishing detector that tells you if you are about to visit a known phishing website. This function is already built into Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Is it safe?
Phorm claim that their technology cannot be used to identify you personally, but many technology experts believe that is not necessarily the case, and could potentially be open to both abuse by the company and attacks by hackers.
Is it Legal?
Phorm claim that is complies with the UK data protection act because it does not keep personally identifiable information on you. However, many technical and legal experts in the UK believe that it breaches the Regulation of Investgatory Powers Act 2000 (“RIPA”) because it intercepts your communications without the explicit consent of both you and the website you are visiting.
Can I Avoid it?
The ISPs will allow you opt-out of receiving the targeted advertising, but in it’s current form, all but one ISP (Talk Talk) will still intercept all your web traffic even if you opt-out. The only difference being that they won’t send you the adverts afterwards.
What If I want Nothing to Do with it?
At the moment, if your ISP is BT, Virgin Media or Talk Talk, the only way you can be sure that your traffic will not be intercepted is to move to an ISP that has stated that it will not use Phorm technology.
Has It started Yet?
As of 5th April 2008, BT have run 2 secret trials of this system without informing the customers that were used as guinea pigs; one in 2006 and another in 2007. Legal action by individuals over these has not been ruled out. All three ISPs who have signed an agreement with Phorm have stated that the system has not started yet on their networks, but BT plans to start a trial in the next few weeks, this time asking those customers selected first.
Is any of it any use to you? I realise it's rather simplistic, but I was aiming for the same writing style as the FAQs on Phorm's Webwise site (or at least, the way they were written the last time I visited before blocking the entire domain!)