[oblonsky]

I heard from someone at BT who I've been working with on a recent work contract that the trials could run "seemlessly" into full deployment. That is, Phorm may not be switched off at the trial exchanges, just that it will then be switched on accross the country. This may not be news to some people but certainly surprised me.

BT originally stated on their beta forums that when Webwise was fully deployed, users would have the option to fully opt-out of Phorm (presumably at the account level), however this functionality would not be available for the trial. The trial itself will invite users from an "interstitial" request for permission, which means Phorm has to intercept a browse request in order to get permission, indicating that everyone will be opted-in at an account level.

BT/Phorm also published details of the consent gathering exercise which showed cookies being dropped to indicate opt-out.

If the rumour at the start of my post is correct, has BT given up plans to offer an account-level opt-out?

Or will they offer it, but just not by default, meaning there are three levels of Phorming:
1.) Phormed
2.) Opted-out by cookie
3.) Account-level opt-out

So technically there will actually be 4 states any user can be in:
A.) Phormed, phorm UUID cookie present
B.) Opted-out by cookie
C.) Unknown (no cookies present)
D.) Account-level opt-out

I have it on very good authority that on the absense of any cookies on your machine, and the absense of an account-level opt-out, users will ALWAYS be presented with Phorm's interstitial request for consent. That is, the default user state will be C.).

This could seriously break a whole range of application which use HTTP to do something other than browsing, yet use IE as a browser identifier

It will also mean all users on your connection who regularly clear their cookies will be nagged to rejoin Phorm each time, and I fail to see how this will satisfy the ICO demand for informed consent and opt-in. However I hear from a little birdy that BT/Phorm's interpretation of "opt-in" is that the check-box on the webwise intersitital screen will not be checked by default!!!

Rumour: unconfirmed but I feel that any hope I had that BT would roll this out as a true opt-in system have been dashed.

Again, this is unconfirmed rumour but I heard also that Google's upcoming suite of broadband diagnostics tools was done with the likes of Phorm and NebuAd in mind. I really really hope that this is true.

The above post is personal opinion only, reporting my experiences and conversations with colleagues. If BT/Phorm feel that any of the above is untrue, then alert me and I will correct it. Email privacy.watch {at} gmail {dot} com and mark the email subject FAO Oblonsky.