[warescouse]

Originally Posted by Dephormation

Phorms system is different. It not only monitors your traffic, it actively interferes with it, creating fake cookies and forcing unexpected redirects to imposter web sites. Any pages which are returned may have advertising inserted (if they are OIX partners).
In other words the privacy, security, and integrity of your communication with your desired web site is compromised (and vice versa).

Phorm have not published the algorithm or method they use. Indeed there was no reference to the anonymisation process AT ALL in the leaked 2006 report.
They have made oblique statements which claim names, and identifiers will be filtered out, but this is obviously unlikely to be successful unless you know the names of everyone on the planet, your filter is multilingual, and you know the format of all identifiers in use on the planet.
Look at this page, put yourself in Phorm's shoes, and ask yourself how you will remove all identifiers from this page? roadrunner69, dephormation, NTLvictim... are those names? Are they personal identifiers?
Phorm claim they will not process form data, but that assumes the form data is a post request, and seems not to include search engine forms. In other words, they will process form data if it is commercially attractive for them to do so.
Clearly, after a moments thought you'll agree, its complete nonsense to claim they can fully anonymise data.
Yet ICO did not ask BT how this algorithm worked, nor inspect its operation.

Your only assurance is that Phorm claim they will not profile you while you retain their opt out cookie. This assurance is given to you by a firm that F-Secure labelled creators of "one of the most widespread malicious rootkits of 2005", and who co-operated with BT running two trials of their spyware in 2006/7, without advising their customers, ICO or (supposedly) the Home Office.

Parasitic both in the sense of taking your personal information and selling it, and taking the one thing that makes the net the valuable resource it is (content and services data), and abusing that too.

There's only one conclusion. Phorm must be stopped.

@Paul Delaney
Another hard hitting argument for your MP is that Phorm also profiles children's on-line data and the fact that none account owners can opt you out or in, unbeknown to you, is a strong argument. Also stating the fact that Phorm intercepts your data whether you have opted in or have opted out is worrying from a security point of view. Surely the argument is that this should be done as consent at account level and not by cookies.