Cable Forum - View Single Post - Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]

Green Disease · 25-07-2008, 23:21

First time poster long time lurker. I have followed this issue for several months, after first reading about it on El reg. I have had Virgin Media broadband for several years. In the whole it has been pretty good, although the past 6 months I have seen a downturn in the service. Connection issues such as DNS, DHCP problems, blank pages loading. The other day I had a blank browser page suddenly pop-up with an URL I had looked at earlier in the day. Had me paranoid, so did virus scan etc..

Virgin Media have been a little too quiet for my liking in regard to how deep they are in with Phorm. From Virgins own site "we have run a small technical lab test on a private internal network, not connected to the internet". Interesting how they add the last 5 words. Not sure how much they would glean from such a test.

If they were to introduce Webwise, they would lose all 4 services we have with them, even though it would cost a small fortune to move to other suppliers. I would make sure the whole estate knows about the scumware.

Clearly BT have jumped in with both feet, and are tied into a least doing a large scale trial. They probably have already purchased the servers required, and are currently gathering dust somewhere. I have read I few comments about whether Phorm kit is still sat on the Kingston RAS. Has anyone asked them that question?

I have been looking at the illegal downloads issue and found a link to the consultation paper that BERR have produced:-http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47139.pdf

Alternative regulatory options considered:

Option A4: Requiring that ISPs allow the installation of filtering equipment
that will block infringing content (to reduce the level of copyright infringement taking
place over the internet) or requiring ISPs themselves to install filtering equipment that
will block infringing content.

I take it Phorms system could quite easily do this.

Hmmm interesting conversation between ISP's and government departments.
ISP: You want us to crack down on illegal activity, we have been in touch with a company called Phorm that have the technology called webwise which can see everything users visit on the internet, and there fore allows us to block infringing content. We gain revenue from the targeted ads we provide to our customers, but it also allows us to do the biding of your paymasters so its in both our interests.

Government: Sounds good to me, we cant see anything wrong with this, you'll be providing a valuable service to your customers......and to the government.

I find it rather unnerving that the government seems to be turning a blind eye to Webwise/Phorm, there's something bigger afoot. I will continue following this issue, as I believe that Webwise and other similar projects will break the WWW.

25-07-2008, 23:21	#12731
Green Disease Inactive Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 7	Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] First time poster long time lurker. I have followed this issue for several months, after first reading about it on El reg. I have had Virgin Media broadband for several years. In the whole it has been pretty good, although the past 6 months I have seen a downturn in the service. Connection issues such as DNS, DHCP problems, blank pages loading. The other day I had a blank browser page suddenly pop-up with an URL I had looked at earlier in the day. Had me paranoid, so did virus scan etc.. Virgin Media have been a little too quiet for my liking in regard to how deep they are in with Phorm. From Virgins own site "we have run a small technical lab test on a private internal network, not connected to the internet". Interesting how they add the last 5 words. Not sure how much they would glean from such a test. If they were to introduce Webwise, they would lose all 4 services we have with them, even though it would cost a small fortune to move to other suppliers. I would make sure the whole estate knows about the scumware. Clearly BT have jumped in with both feet, and are tied into a least doing a large scale trial. They probably have already purchased the servers required, and are currently gathering dust somewhere. I have read I few comments about whether Phorm kit is still sat on the Kingston RAS. Has anyone asked them that question? I have been looking at the illegal downloads issue and found a link to the consultation paper that BERR have produced:-http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47139.pdf Alternative regulatory options considered: Option A4: Requiring that ISPs allow the installation of filtering equipment that will block infringing content (to reduce the level of copyright infringement taking place over the internet) or requiring ISPs themselves to install filtering equipment that will block infringing content. I take it Phorms system could quite easily do this. Hmmm interesting conversation between ISP's and government departments. ISP: You want us to crack down on illegal activity, we have been in touch with a company called Phorm that have the technology called webwise which can see everything users visit on the internet, and there fore allows us to block infringing content. We gain revenue from the targeted ads we provide to our customers, but it also allows us to do the biding of your paymasters so its in both our interests. Government: Sounds good to me, we cant see anything wrong with this, you'll be providing a valuable service to your customers......and to the government. I find it rather unnerving that the government seems to be turning a blind eye to Webwise/Phorm, there's something bigger afoot. I will continue following this issue, as I believe that Webwise and other similar projects will break the WWW.