Hank

Would the European Commission follow this up?

Dear x


Thank you for your correspondence regarding the use of Phorm's targeted online advertising product.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you, our office is currently dealing with large volumes of work. This has meant that we have been unable to deal with incoming correspondence as promptly as we would like.

I understand you have read our latest statement regarding Phorm on our website. As you are aware, this statement does not cover the 2006 and 2007 trials.

The Information Commissioner's Office considered complaints from individuals who were involved in the BT trials and concluded that a breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 was likely but that no further action was necessary in this instance to bring about compliance. This is primarily because the trials have already occurred, that future trials of the Webwise product should be transparent and in compliance with the regulations and that there is also no indication that BT are likely to undertake secret trials of this nature again.

We will however be contacting BT on a general level to ensure we understand the involvement of any IP addresses in the trials.

We are continuing to engage with Phorm and relevant ISPs in advance of any roll out of the technology to ISP customers to ensure that any public use of the product is transparent, and based on individuals understanding what they are agreeing to.

We will keep our website www.ico.gov.uk updated with any further statements about this issue.

I hope this information is helpful.


Yours sincerely


Case Officer
DP Case Reception Unit

---------- Post added at 18:27 ---------- Previous post was at 18:24 ----------

Lay money on it if you like, but the odds I would offer you are not that good. I think the chances are looking increasingly like you are right

Oh dear, is that the pooping of some pants in Westminster? All this stuff about data protection, leakings, thefts and loss of data...