[Anonymouse]

I've had a reply from my MEP, Gary Titley. He sent me a copy of the reply Glenis Willmott (another Labour MEP) got from Viviane Reding, of the European Commission. The gist of it is that the Commission is aware of the matter - so they should be, given the number of people here who've told 'em about it! - and noting the general principles for the protection of personal data (Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC). The interesting part is:

The responsibility for the enforcement of national legislation transposing EU Directives is with the competent national authorities.

(Given that she's talking about the ICO we might argue that last, but...)

The ICO, the UK Data Protection Authority, has issued several statements concerning Phorm. According to these statements, the ICO has been told that the users will be duly informed about the technology and presented with the possibility to become involved, i.e. to provide their consent by positively opting-in, and that they will also have the possibility to change their mind at any moment later.

Hmmm. That's news to us, isn't it?

The ICO states that it will be in close contact with Phorm and BT during a trial of the technology involving around 10,000 BT broadband customers who will opt in to the trial.

They will? Has anyone told them that? Again, hmmm.

The ICO finds that, according to the explanation provided by Phorm, there does not appear to be any detriment to users in the operation of the Phorm system (yeah, tell that to Stephen Wainwright!) but it will keep the Phorm products under review as they are rolled out to verify whether the assurances Phorm has provided so far are confirmed in practice.

HMMM.

As a brief OT aside, have a look at this...I couldn't stop laughing.