Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff
With respect ISPs are turning a profit there are scores of ISPs out there who are "mature" companies and doing quite well. Yes they might want to make more profit but who doesn't? That doesn't mean it is ok either legally or morally to categorically invade people's privacy.
The biggest problems ISPs faces in the UK are almost entirely regulatory based. OFCOM have failed the country so often with regards to BT's control over the telephone network's infrastructure that is goes far beyond unacceptable. BT holding back ADSL as long as they could in order to monetise on the significant investment they made into their failed ISDN product didn't help matters either.
LLU has been made as difficult as possible by BT in order to try and keep their grip on the infrastructure and the cost of BT Wholesale products to the ISPs is a farce (made worse again by OFCOM).
However, BT will be having a bit of a shock soon because they simply cannot keep up. With use of the sewer systems to deliver high speed broadband coupled with LLU some of the larger industry members will soon be in a much stronger position to genuinely compete with BT not just through the provision of data products but also voice which until now has very much been BT's domain due to their control over PSTN.
Alexander Hanff
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I don't disagree with any of that Alex. Although I think on the provision only area there are not so many doing as well as you might think. ( my wife is a senior finance director with ties to D&T and I see more reports than are made public )
Having said that I have not argued for the ISPs to be able to avoid any regulatory statutes or even be allowed to circumnavigate guidelines.
I'm totally with and behind you in this camp. I just think that some people need to accept that with our ISP ( NTL in the most part on this forum ) they have a huge debt, they are providing a service that is as of yet not a utility and that they can be expected to turn a profit. I'm all for making money, it's my reason for being. I'm all for others making money. I'm just not happy that companies like Phorm want to use me to make money when there are better options for me and the people I have contracts with that don't include a former spyware company that came so late to this market that they have had to jump into the poorer UK market because they are already squeezed out of the US market.
bottom line. Your response implied I thought that it was ok for companies to invade our privacy to make money and I'd like to make it clear that nowhere, in any of my replies, have you seen anything that hints to me believing that.
---------- Post added at 18:29 ---------- Previous post was at 18:25 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by dav
If, as some are suggesting, targeted advertising is 'inevitable' then I would like to offer my own simple solution. Let me manage what ads I see. I'll willingly tell VM what sectors I wish to receive ads from. Supply me with a page on the selfcare pages with a load of tick-boxes that I can enable ads for cars, holidays, insurance etc. Over time, I'll change these as different things become more relevant to me. The big advantage with this is that I, the user, have been engaged, informed, given control and have not had my browsing redirected and my habits profiled.
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I'm with you on that. Give me choice to be involved either fully or allow manageable ways to be involved partially but also give me the option to be fully uninvolved if this is my wish. Find a solution that does not mean you break UK law to use my data to achieve these ends then I'll just carry on as I do, seeing no adverts and not worrying that my data is being profiled for profit ( I don't care if it's profiled for security. I really don't and it annoys me that some people do for no other reason than they like the sound of their own complaining )