Quote:
Originally Posted by madslug
After following this forum silently for some time I thought it best to add my voice and make a little more noise.
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I have just been reading Phorm's answer to PECR and 'valid informed consent'.
"Since Phorm technology does not use IP addresses to target advertising there is a strong argument that Section 7 of PECR does not apply to our service."
Everything else on that page only mentions the means of delivering the ads. This is all Phorm is, the deliverer of advertising. Nothing more. Dealing with anonymous information.
It is the ISPs who need to get the consent of their users, not Phorm. The inference is that all the ISPs are doing is obtaining their customers consent to having the adverts delivered to them, which includes being given a UID (they get that when they opt-in) and allowing the UID to be read by a javascript which is hosted on the web page delivering the ads.
What fools we have been to think that there could be anything else involved.
All that work done by Richard Clayton, none of his comments apply to the display of adverting, so nothing to do with this discussion.
<snip>.
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I was under the impression that it was the ISP that everyone was after as regards the informed explicit consent. After all, if the ISP drops webspies because it cannot get the consent then Phorm can pack up and go home.
Section 7 and 8 of PECR does apply in regards informed consent, presumably to the ISP
Section 3 RIPA applies in regard informed consent again presumably to the ISP.
That particular document mentions:- Since Phorm technology does not use IP addresses to target advertising there is a strong argument that section 7 of PECR does not apply.
PECR defines "traffic data" to mean
any data processed for the purpose of the conveyance of a communication on an electronic communications network or for the billing in respect of that communication and includes data relating to the routing, duration or time of a communication;
It's not just about IP addresses!
The Home office document, 'targeted Online Advertising' dated january 2008, states that consent under RIPA for the ISP customer can be obtained via suitable T&C's I would suggest that is misleading and would be unlawful under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations
To be fair, Rrichard Clayton did a technical analysis. It was Nicholas Bohm that did the legal analysis and that analysis mentions that it was the Information Commissioner who drew attention to the provisions of PECR.
It's getting late and I can't think straight.