Except it's plainly not true. They WILL be monitoring personal information. I'm not sure about https info (see my post a couple back) but for ordinary http info they definitely will.
As an example, even the
badphorm site itself has a registration page that isn't https. The page asks for (though doesn't demand) your real name. And also asks for a password. So regardless of whether you choose to opt out of the cookie thing Phorm will still see your name and password. If that isn't personal information I don't know what is. And given that people tend to reuse the same passwords on other sites that could be a way of discovering - say - bank account information.
In itself the cookie issue and the idea of having to opt out of having a general classification of your own browsing habits is a serious invasion of privacy, but it's a red herring. It's easily solved by blocking the cookie. Yes, you shouldn't need to have to do that, but there's your solution. All this talk about the cookie is diverting attention from the main issue:
Regardless of whether you like or not, a company which is not controlled by Virgin, has links to Russia, and is essentially the same company that has already been behind a malware/sypware attack, will be able to view the content of any web page (possibly excluding https pages) you browse to. Any web page. Including being able to view anything you enter into forms on those pages. Including email address fields, address fields, password fields. Bank account fields. National insurance number fields. Anything.
They say they won't store that information. How do I know? What guarantees have I got that they won't? Even if they don't intend to, how do I know they won't accidentally store that information in some kind of temporary file? How do I know that they none of their employees will maliciously tap into the data and steal it? How do I know that they won't be subject to court proceedings in some Orwellian banana republic - USA for instance
and be legally required to release that information? How do I know that they won't contract out any of their processes to even shadier companies?
They say they won't monitor numbers. How do I know? How can I trust them not to?
I appreciate that Virgin itself can already monitor this information if it wants. However, for all their faults, Virgin is a huge brand with a reputation to protect who I have chosen to trust with my internet connection. I have not chosen to trust Phorm.
I've been extremely happy with Virgin so far, but this is the closest I've come to switching to landline BB. And I don't even have a BT landline.