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Old 22-02-2008, 03:16   #179
Traduk
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Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal [Updated: See Post No. 77 & 102]

Unfortunately the Phorm technique for acquiring information to supply targeted ads appears to go way beyond the "AOL privacy violation" debacle.

On their OIX site (open internet exchange) they claim to be able to use "behavioural keywords" derived, over time, from a combination of search terms, URL's and even contextual page analysis.

Forget about cookies which I think is a smokescreen and think of what is needed to gain that information and although it falls way short of a keylogger it has what was searched for, what URL's were visited and what pages were viewed. Spying is the only term for what is intended.

They cannot do what they offer ISP's without a major infringement on the privacy of the client base. They will and must spy on users and the the AOL debacle shows that anonymity via a random number is no surety of anonymity.

If I was with one of the ISP's that has apparently expressed an interest then I would have no cause for complaint because they offer me ADSL for free. IMO if you pay nothing then you have no real rights but I pay VM shed loads of money and I resent the thought of them charging me premium prices to spy on me for extra money.
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