Peter N

I've been saying it for a long time. I posted this way back on 17th April on the BT forum:

The government wants to force ISP's to police their own networks - something which the ISP's don't want to do. The ISP's claim that they are "mere conduits" and are not able to monitor network traffic. If the government penalises the ISP's for interception without consent or warrant as a result of the trials then the ISP's would be in a stronger position to continue to refuse.

The time that it has taken to make this decision and the "hands-off" approach taken by No 10 suggests to me that the governement and BT have settled this over drinks in some London club. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that Patricia Hewitt - former Trade and Industry minister - has recently been appointed as a non-voting Director at BT with a salary of £60,000 p.a. for which she has to attend 9 meetings a year.

I've posted several times on the subject of the government's involvment with Phorm including this from 12th June:

Our government doesn't want ISPs to remain as "mere conduits". They have been pressuring the ISPs to allow interception for surveillance purposes related - at least according to the government - to security and serious crime.

The ISP have repeatedly refused claiming that they are both unwilling and unable to do this due to their position as "mere conduits". This is not entirely altruistic - big surprise - but relates to the fact that if an ISP is aware of the content being carried then they could be held legally responsible for it. Taken to it's extreme, it would mean that ISPs could be convicted of distributing illegal material.

If the government legislates to outlaw DPI and any other type on interception by ISPs then they will effectively have closed the door on their own scheme. In fact, by encouraging the use of systems like Webwise, the government are allowing the ISPs to paint themselves into a corner.

I would not be in the least bit surprised to discover that this government has already done a deal with BT guaranteeing them immunity from prosecution over the 2006/2007 trials in return for access to the data available to BT through the use of Webwise.

and this from the 18th June:

If the UK authorities don't act soon and do so in a open manner then there are going to be some very difficult questions for them to answer in the near future. At the very least, we need to know how it came about that the Home Ofifce held a meeting with Phorm in the first place.

What possibe reason would there be for the Home Office to be involved at any level with an internet advertising company? The Home Office themselves have stated that the business of Webwise falls outside of its remit. Is there some connection to homeland security - the Home Office's area of business?

The only obvious connection between the Home Office and Phorm is via BT as the Home Office is the body that has been trying to get ISPs to monitor web-traffic for their own purposes, something that ISPs have repeatedly refused to do stating that they are "mere conduits" and even claiming that such technology didn't exist.

It looks to me as though this government cut a deal with BT and that is why there has been no action taken over the illegal trials.

The whole thing stinks and anyone who still thinks that this is just about targetted advertising is deluded.

---------- Post added at 02:16 ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 ----------

BT have stated in their revised FAQs that opted out customers are completely removed from the profiling system.

I only include for the sake of accuracy and make no comment on the validity of the statement.

53. What happens when I switch off BT Webwise?

When BT Webwise is off you won't receive warnings before reaching fraudulent websites. BT Webwise will not scan or collect any data from the web pages that you visit to see if there are better adverts to show you; no data, in fact, will be analysed, stored or passed to Phorm or any other partner if you are switched off. You'll still see adverts in the normal course of visiting any participating website.