[mark777]

Originally Posted by Portly_Giraffe

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1. Webwise/Phorm is Illegal

To carry out the kinds of communications interceptions needed by Phorm, either a warrant has to be obtained or the parties at both ends have to give their permission.

This is covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. This is our phone tapping law and it strictly forbids other people from listening to or reading our communications unless under these very specific circumstances.


In addition the data has to be kept private and not misused. The Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 provide safeguards against this.

Suppose Stephen Gerrard buys a new fridge in Currys. Because of DPA/PECR, Liverpool FC can't sell Currys a list of all their season ticket holders phone numbers so that Currys can ring them up to try to sell them a fridge like Stephen Gerrard's.

In the BT Trials in 2006 and 2007, consent was neither sought from nor granted by any of the tens of thousands of users affected. The trials flagrantly breached the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, and also the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

The basic principles of Phorm have not changed since then. It involves snooping. Even with user opt-in, website owners will not have given consent for the pages they serve to be intercepted and read. And whether their data is really private or secure is questionable.
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Some suggestions of mine in bold which I am sure could be better phrased! The aim being to bring home just what these laws mean in normal life.