Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob
Anyone else find it a bit odd that so many of the recent pages of this post are referring to a protest about BT, and yet this thread started about Virgin Media 
And yes, I know that BT are the only ones who've actually implemented the technology, I know that if they do get away with it, others like Virgin Media could follow suit. I'm just getting the impression that this thread has somewhat derailed from it's original purpose. Indeed I suspect the vast majority of potential readers, who are not that in depth knowledgeable about IT (bear in mind this site has always been intended as a help site), will now steer a wide berth and miss the point completely as to why Phorm and Virgin Media would be bad news. |
I think it is inevitable. If the thread stuck exclusively with Virgin Media - where would it go and what would it talk about? How long would it last? VM have done nothing, and the retraction/retrenchment that they have made has, I think been due to the deep doo doo that BT have got themselves into, and that VM have quite cannily, exploited to their commercial advantage.
It's very difficult to protest effectively about something an ISP are vaguely maybe thinking of exploring, perhaps, in the future. And which they remain almost totally silent about.
But with yhe BT angle, the anti-DPI protest has a gift which is almost too good to be true.
A large, high profile international comms company using it's UK ISP arm to conduct covert illegal trials - not just once but twice - and then threatening to conduct more trials, but getting caught out constantly about exactly when so they get delayed four months in a row...
Incompetent management unable to effectively implement the technology without it falling over and leaving fingerprints all over the internet and media.
Useless communication within the company and crass ineffectiveness in the communication between the company and their customers -- so that customers get lied to, misled and generally abused to the extent that civil action becomes a relatively simple evidential process.
Total lack of due diligence so that every legal pothole gets stumbled into - DPA, RIPA, PECR, CMA and regulators get flooded with complaints and issue statement after statement.
Total failure of the company to carry their staff with them so that significant documents get leaked.
Natural corporate tendency to lie, (arrogance exceeds prudence) so that contradictions can be easily exposed.
Public statements by the company that don't really NEED deconstruction because they are so obviously incompetent and evasive.
I think with a company like that taking the lead role in implementing Phorm's seedy snoop technology, it is not surprising that anti-DPI protests tend to contain a lot of focus on BT. Without BT there would simply be nothing of much public interest to talk about - the discussion would be all about Richard Clayton's technical report on what "might" happen and it would be almost impossible to get public and press interest.
No - you should get on your knees each night and thank God for BT and Emma Sanderson. They've done more for the anti-Phorm cause, than even Alex!!! Take all the BT related stuff out of this thread and there isn't much left. It's about BT because BT are not just an ISP, they run the major part of the network, and they are the inevitable "test bed" for the technology. And they were stupid enough or greedy enough to fall for the Phorm bait, while Virgin Media were canny enough to keep their cable pure and unsullied and wait on the side lines to see how things turned out, and which side to back, making sure they only backed the winner after the race was over. If Phorm fails, Virgin haven't done too badly, if it succeeds, they can join the bandwagon.
That's just my opinion as a BT customer. And a very very big thank you to you people here - you've been brilliant.