Virgin Media steps away from Phorm as top sites opt out

[NewsreadeR]

Virgin Media is set to sign a deal with behavioural targeting specialist Audience Science in a move to distance itself from controversial company Phorm.

The deal comes as BT is in talks with ad networks to gain industry views on Phorm’s technology, which has been at the centre of a media storm over privacy issues since its launch early last year.

http://www.nma.co.uk/virgin-media-st...000272.article

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by NewsreadeR

behavioural targeting specialist Audience Science

Hmmmmm


I wonder what these people do then.....

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by Rob M

Hmmmmm


I wonder what these people do then.....

From reading up on them, basically the same as phorm.


http://www.goallover.net/?p=551

This looks like a smokescreen to me. Distance from Phorm move onto something the same with a different name hope it slips through the net

[Gary L]

Just seems to me they're going another way around it. it's basically the same thing but a different name.

[Raistlin]

Yep.

Clever idea too.

Distance yourself from the company that's getting all the bad press, sell it as a good thing, then quickly introduce a different company doing the same thing

[MovedGoalPosts]

The phrase "out of the frying pan into the fire" springs to mind.

The simple problem is that the service providers and content providers need funding if they are to operate. Ideally the ISPs should be able to cover their costs from subscriptions. Web content however, frequently relies on advertising, or alternatively has to be the closed shop of a subscription service. If the model is based on advertising the returns for many sites don't cover costs. Even a site as big as this can only survive because the team operate as volunteers.

The devil needs to be in the detail as to how this can be implemented without users being concerned about their privacy. Is it any wonder that users have a general distrust of anything that smacks of big brother technology? We all are subject to spam, we've all heard of government and other websites failing to keep private data secure.

[Billy-Bob]

Originally Posted by Aegis

From reading up on them, basically the same as phorm.


http://www.goallover.net/?p=551

It depends on how they acquire their data; if they intercept all the http traffic of the ISP customer, then they are the same as Phorm. If they don't, they are not.

Without any firm technical description of they system, it's impossible to say with any certainty, but from what little I have read about them, they appear to work the same way as other site-based cookie ad tracking systems, but with more "cross-site" sharing of user click-data - i.e. they make the data about your visit to site A who is a publishing client of theirs available to site B, who is also a client of theirs. If you visit site C, who is NOT a client of theirs, then neither site A or site B gets to know anything about what you looked at on site C.

This is very different to the way Phorm works: i.e. sites A and B in the above example would be able to know what you looked at not only on site C, but also sites D-Z (whether they were partners of Phorm or not), and also a lot of what you did in terms of webmail, iTunes, Microsoft Office and pretty much anything else that utilizes the HTTP protocol on port 80.

[Griffin]

The only way for any of them to be better is if its done on an opt in basis. I can't see many people agreeing to be spied upon though, after all thats basically what it is an invasion of privacy. Only way i would even consider signing up would be for a free high speed service with no limits/stm.

[Sirius]

Well i am glad that Phorm has just had another knife plunged in there back.


More info here on audiencescience

[BenMcr]

Did anyone see this in the original article?

Potts suggested Phorm may be forced to adapt the platform away from ISP-based targeting in a bid to survive. “It could use publisher data like Audience Science

and

while behavioural targeting specialists like Audience Science and Wunderloop deal directly with individual publishers to serve relevant and targeted ads based on their users’ surfing habits

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Ben Mcr

Did anyone see this in the original article?

Potts suggested Phorm may be forced to adapt the platform away from ISP-based targeting in a bid to survive. “It could use publisher data like Audience Science

and

while behavioural targeting specialists like Audience Science and Wunderloop deal directly with individual publishers to serve relevant and targeted ads based on their users’ surfing habits

But it looks like this is not a box in the isp snooping on everything you do. If that's the case there is a much better chance of blocking this with software on your pc.

[BenMcr]

That what I was trying to get at - it is definately different technology to Phorm

[Stuart]

Not to burst anyone's bubble here, but according to Virgin, the article is only partly correct.. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04...dia_phorm_nma/

They are still saying that they have made no firm decision about trials of Phorm.

[red502]

I've just read that Register page and it prompted me to look at the competition...

I've been with Virgin (blueyonder) for 7 years and currently pay £42 p/m for:

• Line Rental
• TV Large
• Broadband XL (20meg)

I can get a comparable package from BT/SKY/BE/O2 for £35-£40 p/m.

If I go with my mobile provider: o2, I can get Phone and BB for £22 p/m and just get freeview.

BT (and SKY) are doing free line installation for 2 months from now...

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/37753...n-save-122-50/.

If Virgin adopt Phorm (or anything as bad) I will not hesitate to move.

p.s. I live within 1 mile of the ADSL2 exchange and would get 15-20megs.