Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] - Page 322

jelv · 25-04-2008, 13:09

Was the interview about Phorm? Any idea which station?

AlexanderHanff · 25-04-2008, 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by jelv

Was the interview about Phorm? Any idea which station?

I have no idea and it would have been rude to ask.

Alexander Hanff

NTLVictim · 25-04-2008, 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

I have no idea and it would have been rude to ask.

Alexander Hanff

Definitely too well brought up to associate with phormites....

popper · 25-04-2008, 13:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptJamieHunter

If he has fired them wouldn't someone like Dhaljit at Under Strict Embargo mention it in his blog? Haven't seen anything mentioned in PR Week or anything like that...

Forgot to get some English Breakfast Tea while out earlier. Ah well, back later

its to late for morning tea now Capt, your going to have to make do with afternoon tea and crumpets

http://www.squidoo.com/crumpets_club
http://sippingtea.com/etiquette.html
http://search.virginmedia.com/result...tryUK&x=39&y=9

CaptJamieHunter · 25-04-2008, 14:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by popper

its to late for morning tea now Capt, your going to have to make do with afternoon tea and crumpets

http://www.squidoo.com/crumpets_club
http://sippingtea.com/etiquette.html
http://search.virginmedia.com/result...tryUK&x=39&y=9

I find that English Breakfast Tea really hits the spot and helps me to relax.

There's some Harrods EB and Ceylon tea in my cupboard but I use those for special occasions, favourite visitors and the like.

And as for crumpet... oh, sorry, I didn't see the extra "s" there

But now you've got me thinking about food...

Paddy1 · 25-04-2008, 15:11

If anyone is thinking of jumping ship to a LLU ADSL provider, BT appear to be doing a special offer on new connections.

See http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/p...o/SNL21-08.pdf

It appears to be an 18 month subscription though.

SMHarman · 25-04-2008, 15:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonglet

Also for the first time,potentially the entire stock of Internet websites becomes available to carry advertising, opening up the ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“long tailÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ of hitherto un-monetisable sites (So even non oix sites will carry advertising they never had before and be more obstrusive while maybe cutting out the website owners add income by covering up their sponsors ads.).

The Phorm hardware is on the outbound request, not the inbound response, though I guess both will be going through the same switches.
Unless the site is signed up to OIX it will not suddenly be getting new OIX adverts. If it is subscribed to OIX then the adverts sent back from the OIX server will be targeted, not blanket.
This bit of your post is a little misleading, though to caveat this, it has been discussed that Phorm hardware does have the ability to modify response pages.

3x2 · 25-04-2008, 15:13

Quote:

If anyone is thinking of jumping ship to a LLU ADSL provider, BT appear to be doing a special offer on new connections.

Jump ship to BT?

AlexanderHanff · 25-04-2008, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

The Phorm hardware is on the outbound request, not the inbound response, though I guess both will be going through the same switches.

Not strictly true I am afraid. The Phorm system copies the entire web page to RAM for profiling, so they must be involved in the inbound response otherwise they would not be able to do that.

Alexander Hanff

SMHarman · 25-04-2008, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Not strictly true I am afraid. The Phorm system copies the entire web page to RAM for profiling, so they must be involved in the inbound response otherwise they would not be able to do that.

Alexander Hanff

Yep - your're right - just finished the morning coffee. I guess what I was trying to say was that while both are copied to the profiler only the outbound request is currently messed around with and 307 redirected to put the cookies on the requesting machine. The inbound response, while copied to the profiler is currently sent to the user unaltered. The OP was indicating that the Phorm applications could or would be replacing advertisments on the site they were viewing with Phorm/OIX adverts, this is not the case (as the technology currently stands).

Paddy1 · 25-04-2008, 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3x2

Jump ship to BT?

No, to a LLU provider e.g. Aquiss or BE. You still need a BT line, or am I mistaken?

AlexanderHanff · 25-04-2008, 15:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Yep - your're right - just finished the morning coffee. I guess what I was trying to say was that while both are copied to the profiler only the outbound request is currently messed around with and 307 redirected to put the cookies on the requesting machine. The inbound response, while copied to the profiler is currently sent to the user unaltered. The OP was indicating that the Phorm applications could or would be replacing advertisments on the site they were viewing with Phorm/OIX adverts, this is not the case (as the technology currently stands).

Yeah I agree with you there. However, historically (during the BT trials) it was used to do exactly that (insert javascripted ads into the response), so I think people can be forgiven for being concerned that it is likely to happen in the future through mission creep.

Alexander Hanff

GeoffW · 25-04-2008, 15:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Portly_Giraffe

Everyone, please provide any feedback or additional contributions!

There are some key details in the technical review of the current operation that I think are worth highlighting .

- Only port 80 is profiled. So I don't see why people should be worried about online banking and https traffic.

- The redirection between servers must be bad for performance, and even if people don't care much about ads they don't click on, they will care about anything that impacts performance.

Maybe in a prophylactic section.

- Only well known browsers are profiled. So it would be good advice to get the User Agent extension for FF or to use Opera.
- The effect of blocking cookies
- The dephormation FF addin.

ceedee · 25-04-2008, 16:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

On a tangent, how come Sky haven't waded in with a "phorm free" sales campaign? Not like them to miss a trick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Florence

Think you will find they are being crafty if the main three succeed then sky will join in the gravy boat..

If Phorm somehow manage to get Webwise approved by the courts and accepted by even 20% of it's intended victims, then I'd confidently expect News International to make a bid to buy the company rather than simply signup as a client.

vicz · 25-04-2008, 16:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffW

There are some key details in the technical review of the current operation that I think are worth highlighting .

- Only port 80 is profiled. So I don't see why people should be worried about online banking and https traffic.

- The redirection between servers must be bad for performance, and even if people don't care much about ads they don't click on, they will care about anything that impacts performance.

Maybe in a prophylactic section.

- Only well known browsers are profiled. So it would be good advice to get the User Agent extension for FF or to use Opera.
- The effect of blocking cookies
- The dephormation FF addin.

Respectfully: How do you know this is all that they do? - This is what they say they do (now), but what else is going on? Unless you can get hands-on and disassemble their code (not exactly easy!), we have only their word for it. And we do know that they are a bunch of lying, spyware-purveying, Russian *******s. If they said "Here, download this neat little root kit, it will keep you safe and make you money" would you do it? What is the difference?