[lucevans]

Originally Posted by popper

been there, done that, got no answers to the questions put....

generic answers are such fun....
and this ones not been mentioned in a while.

1. If you are a customer of BT Retail (or of any other BT divisions e.g. BT Business) , Virgin Media or Carphone Warehouse Talk Talk, or any other company that thinks to profile your data for advertising , then you might like to write to them quoting the very clear The Data Protection Act 1998 section 11:
2. 1. 11 Right to prevent processing for purposes of direct marketing
   2. (1) An individual is entitled at any time by notice in writing to a data controller to require the data controller at the end of such period as is reasonable in the circumstances to cease, or not to begin, processing for the purposes of direct marketing personal data in respect of which he is the data subject.
   3. (2) If the court is satisfied, on the application of any person who has given a notice under subsection (1), that the data controller has failed to comply with the notice, the court may order him to take such steps for complying with the notice as the court thinks fit.
   4. (3) In this section "direct marketing" means the communication (by whatever means) of any advertising or marketing material which is directed to particular individuals.

So, that being the case, what do you reckon to the following DPA notice?:

"Data Protection Notice

I write regarding the intention of Virgin Media to implement Phorm’s system known as “webwise” on your broadband network. I have studied the available information on the technical functionality of this system, and I do not want it to be applied to my internet connection. Please note that I am fully aware of the opt-out system requiring either the placing of a cookie on my computer or the blocking of access to certain domains, but I reject these methods for the reason outlined below:

Despite the offer of an opt-out to prevent me receiving targeted advertising from this system, it is apparent that my web browsing data could still be mirrored to, and analyzed by, Phorm-supplied hardware within your network. Although assurances have been made by Phorm that if I opt-out of the system, no data pertaining to my web browsing habits will be passed from that hardware to Phorm or it’s associates, no assurance has been given that the mirroring and/or profiling of my data will not still take place within the Virgin Media network, and this is unacceptable to me.

According to Phorm, the mirroring and profiling hardware that they supply becomes the property of Virgin Media, so that being the case, I would like to draw your attention to Section 11 of The Data Protection Act 1998 which give me the right to require you to cease, or not begin, processing my data for the purposes of direct marketing.

I hereby inform you that I exercise that right, and prohibit you from routing, mirroring, processing or profiling data traveling to or from my internet connection using any equipment supplied to you for the purpose of operating the Phorm system.

In the event that you receive this letter before the webwise system has been implemented, then it constitutes my standing instruction to you to not begin processing my data in the way outlined above in the future."

---------- Post added at 23:38 ---------- Previous post was at 23:32 ----------

Here is one for all you VM users (from the same El Reg article comments as my previous post):

Well VirginMedia.....
By Anonymous Coward
Posted Wednesday 19th March 2008 22:09 GMT
Flame

....have already implemented this system and it is running. They say on their site they will reveal information closer to roll-out but upon scanning my machine and using a packet scanner on my internet connection it seems they are already using this system.

I wonder for how long now.....

Burn VM Burn

Have any of you guys done any tcpdumps or tcptraceroutes to see if this is the case yet? It could explain why VM are being so quiet about all this. Could we be seeing criminal charges against BT and VM this spring? This is better than "Neighbours" & "Corrie".

Alexander Hanff

I think it unlikely they'd risk running a covert trial after the heat BT have been getting over their's last July - but who knows? It's even less likely they'd roll it out system-wide without the one-time "welcome/opt-out" screen that Kent Ertugrul keeps banging-on about.... also, I've been clearing my cookies out a lot over the last few days to see what was being dropped on my system, and I haven't seen any recurring UID cookies appearing....