Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildie
ok but the advert has to point to some web site they want you to visit has it not? unless its redirected cos its hashed in the serving server, either way the end result has to be a web site they want you to visit and that`s the one needs to be blacklisted.
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Not necessarily. You may look for information that suggests that you are buying a new car. The adverts targetted at you may be for a particular manufacturer such as Ford and there's no real need to visit Ford's own website.
Where it gets down and dirty is that Phorm only regard your actual address as PII so they are free to keep note of your location in other wats. This means that you could get an advert for your local Ford main agent instead of Ford Motor Company.
It depends entirely on how far the no PII statement is valid. At the most basic level, Phorm already know that you are in the UK because of the ISP's they are dealing with and that narrows the whole game down to 1% of the World's population before they even start. Factor in the other information that can be assumed from your search - car buyers are over 17 - are you searching for a people carrier which would indicate a family etc etc.
The simple act of looking for a new car says so much about you that coupled with similar amounts of between-the-lines analysis of other searches would make it very simple to identify you.
Just how close can Phorm get before it becomes "personally identifiable" in a legal sense especially when they are have access to multiple sets of data even though each data is anonymous in it's own right?
The answer is that even under the ICO guidelines Webwise will have more than enough information to be able to identify you within your first few hours on-line and there's no way around that other than to ban these systems before they can be used even for a few minutes.