Dear customer
You may have heard recently that Virgin Media will be working with a company, Phorm, to provide our broadband customers with new online protection and enhanced features. When we were looking at this solution, we had some questions, and you might do too, so we’ve put together the information below to help you understand what it’s all about and how it’ll help to make your internet experience safer, and more relevant to you.
Phorm is the company providing this innovative solution, and it’s called Webwise. Webwise will help provide you with a safer and more relevant online experience by helping you avoid scam emails or websites, as well as making your online experience more relevant through advertising that matches your areas of interest.
A safer experience
Webwise will help you avoid scams, such as ‘phishing’ – this is where someone pretends to be a well known brand, like a bank, but is looking to steal your confidential information. You might receive an email which appears to be authentic, asking you to enter details such as account numbers and passwords, which are then stolen and used fraudulently. Commonly known as ‘phishing’, these websites can be hard to spot as they are designed to look just like genuine websites.
Webwise checks these sites against a regularly updated list of fraudulent sites and warns you if you’re heading to one. You’re given the option to continue to that site or not, so Webwise won’t restrict your online experience in any way, but at least you’ll be able to decide for yourself and avoid this form of identity theft. In this way, Webwise can help to protect your personal information.
A more relevant browsing experience
Another great thing about Webwise is that it can help reduce irrelevant advertising. As you browse web pages, Webwise looks at things like search terms, and learns what topics might be of interest. This is done without collecting any personal information, so once again your privacy is protected. These topics are then used to help some advertisers replace their adverts with ones that might be more relevant to you. Don’t worry, you won’t see any more adverts than you currently do, some of them will just be more relevant. For example if you searched for keywords like “Paris†and “Eurostarâ€Â, instead of random uninteresting adverts, you might see an advert for French hotels instead.
Protecting your privacy
Webwise has been designed from the ground up to protect your privacy and anonymity. As the system only learns about topics of interest, it does this anonymously, ensuring your privacy is completely protected.
We found that this system met our high standards for simplicity and privacy – so your privacy is assured. These privacy standards were also verified independently by Ernst & Young who conducted a detailed audit of the whole process and Webwise solution.
As a Virgin Media customer, you won’t be forced to use Webwise, so you’ll be able to keep your internet experience as it is now.
We are currently at the early stages of working to deliver the Webwise solution and will be writing to you nearer the time to advise when the solution will be ‘switched on’ providing more detail of what this will mean to you. Given the benefits of Webwise, we’re pleased to be offering you this service and making your web experience safer and more relevant.
Virgin Media
(********S)
Questions and answers
What benefits will the customer see?
Webwise automatically increases protection against online fraud, including phishing and identity theft by checking against its continually updated list of known fraudulent and untrustworthy websites. If someone who has switched on Webwise visits any website on the list, they'll receive a warning, so they can choose whether or not to visit that site.
Webwise also personalises online advertising by linking it to customers' interests, based on their anonymous browsing behaviour. For example, if users search for a deal on a car or visited motoring web sites, Webwise would help provide relevant advertising for car deals or insurance. Customers won't see any more adverts than they normally do - some of them will just be more relevant.
Isn’t this just spyware?
Webwise doesn’t record your activities like spyware does, in fact Webwise was designed to help ensure customer privacy.
How is customer privacy assured?
Webwise doesn't capture or store any customers’ personal details, only anonymous information about advertising categories that may be of interest to them. Webwise places a common cookie in web browsers - a small computer code with a unique, randomly generated number on it. With this cookie, Webwise can deliver warnings of potentially dangerous websites and replace some untargeted ads with more relevant ones. This cookie can be deleted at any time.
What information is collected?
We use the website address, keywords and search terms from the page viewed to match a category or area of interest (e.g., travel or finance). After matching, this information is discarded permanently, except the category information. The category information is only associated with a unique, randomly-generated cookie that can be deleted at any time from the browser.
Neither the web addresses, nor search terms you use are stored. They are purely matched to an advertising topic and then permanently discarded.
Webwise doesn’t store your internet (IP) address or keep a history of your browsing. The system or advertisers won’t know who you are or the websites you’ve visited.
No personally-identifiable information such as email addresses, surnames, street addresses, or phone numbers are ever stored.
No sensitive or personal financial information, such as credit card numbers, login IDs, passwords or bank account numbers are ever stored.
Steps are taken to actively ensure details such as credit card numbers, email addresses etc are never captured.
Why has Virgin Media partnered with Phorm?
We are very keen to ensure our customers have a safer online experience, but without blocking access. In this respect Webwise allows us to alert customers that they may be attempting to visit a site known to be fraudulent. Additionally, by providing customers with more relevant advertising, they should be able to find products and services that are more interesting for them.
Will customers be able to decide whether to use the system?
Customers won’t be forced to use the system, and will have the choice to keep their internet experience exactly as it is now. As we get closer to launch we’ll explain how this will work.
(********S)
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