Quote:
Originally Posted by D_Advocate
I have a personal interest in enjoying my experience on the web/internet. Anything that improves that experience will be welcomed. Anything that doesn't will not be. If Webwise contributes to a better experience without detriment to my browsing/access, and doesn't impinge upon my basic rights, then I will welcome it.
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Back in Post 9575, Oblonsky summarised the argument:
Quote:
Originally Posted by oblonsky
... any third party which is allowed to plug proprietary information gathering equipment directly into an ISP sets a really dangerous precedent. We only have Phorm’s word over what they actually do, it’s too complex to regulate.
Once Phorm get in, and I trust a lot of what Phorm say about privacy, then along will come NebuAd and all the other data rapers. Each will be under increasing pressure to compete with the features of one another, some will perhaps only pay lip-service to privacy issues in a bid to get ahead.
I repeat – who will regulate all these wannabe data pimps? Who will inspect 10 or 20 proprietary machines with constant software updates installed in ISP data centres throughout the UK? What about data security?
What about the fact that Phorm mangles your HTTP stream and threatens to break some application which rely on a direct answer to HTTP GET, not THREE REDIRECTS?!
Whilst some if not all of the legal arguments against Phorm are untested, one stands out: RIPA.
As a nation we either choose to respect the sanctity of personal communications or not. There’s no in-between. There can’t be, because the sector is too complex to regulate.
Your ISP carries personal communications, as a country we either respect that, in which case we don’t allow advertisers to tap the communications in exactly the same way that phone conversations and private mail is respected, or we allow the advertisers in.
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Beyond the question of what may or may not have been or be lawful, D_Advocate's position, and Oblonsky's (which I would imagine is shared by most of the posters here) will no doubt be evaluated by BT Retail's users should the trials or full deployment go ahead.
All published surveys so far indicate that most people will take an anti-Phorm/Webwise position once they know what is going on. The burden of the argument is therefore on those supporting Webwise and similar schemes to show that people will welcome them. So far no evidence has been presented to support this. Perhaps that evidence should be presented before this dialogue continues.