Cable Forum - View Single Post - Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]

popper · 18-05-2008, 22:55

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05...maden_privacy/
Privacy? Forget it. Sell your brain and desires to the highest bidder

Web $9.95

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By Ashlee Vance in Santa Clara → More by this author
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Published Sunday 18th May 2008 21:14 GMT

---------- Post added at 22:55 ---------- Previous post was at 22:50 ----------

http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2...ges-all-alike/
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Twisty little passages, all alike

May 18th, 2008 at 19:29 UTC by Richard Clayton
Last month, on the 4th April, I published a document describing how the Phorm system worked and blogged about what I thought of the scheme.

The document had been run past Phorm’s technical people to ensure it was correct, but — it turns out — there were still a handful of errors in it.

A number of helpful people pointed out that I’d misdescribed third-party cookies (which didn’t matter much because Phorm specifically uses first-party cookies), and I’d managed to reference RFC2695 rather than RFC2965 !
....
The Phorm system does some of its tracking magic by redirecting browser requests using HTTP 307 responses.

When this was first explained to me at the meeting with Phorm there were two redirections (a scan of my notes is here), but having thought about this for a while, I asked for it to be explained to me again later on, and it turned out that I had previously been misled, and that there were in fact three redirections (here’s my notes of this part of the meeting).

It now turns out, following my further emails with Phorm, that there are in fact FOUR redirections occurring! This is not because my notes are rubbish — but because Phorm have managed to recall more of the detail of their own system!
...
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18-05-2008, 22:55	#6801
popper Inactive Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 3,270	Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05...maden_privacy/ Privacy? Forget it. Sell your brain and desires to the highest bidder Web $9.95 Page: 1 2 3 Next > By Ashlee Vance in Santa Clara → More by this author Rate this story Published Sunday 18th May 2008 21:14 GMT ---------- Post added at 22:55 ---------- Previous post was at 22:50 ---------- http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2...ges-all-alike/ " Twisty little passages, all alike May 18th, 2008 at 19:29 UTC by Richard Clayton Last month, on the 4th April, I published a document describing how the Phorm system worked and blogged about what I thought of the scheme. The document had been run past Phorm’s technical people to ensure it was correct, but — it turns out — there were still a handful of errors in it. A number of helpful people pointed out that I’d misdescribed third-party cookies (which didn’t matter much because Phorm specifically uses first-party cookies), and I’d managed to reference RFC2695 rather than RFC2965 ! .... The Phorm system does some of its tracking magic by redirecting browser requests using HTTP 307 responses. When this was first explained to me at the meeting with Phorm there were two redirections (a scan of my notes is here), but having thought about this for a while, I asked for it to be explained to me again later on, and it turned out that I had previously been misled, and that there were in fact three redirections (here’s my notes of this part of the meeting). It now turns out, following my further emails with Phorm, that there are in fact FOUR redirections occurring! This is not because my notes are rubbish — but because Phorm have managed to recall more of the detail of their own system! ... " "