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

[popper]

Originally Posted by Portly_Giraffe

Here's an initial draft of a flyer which could be sent to MPs to try to explain in non-technical terms what is happening and why it's wrong.

http://www.inphormationdesk.org/Phorm_Flyer_V1.pdf

Please everyone, review it for accuracy and effectiveness.

Thanks. PG.

sorry but it doesnt work for me... for effectiveness.

i always look forward to the flyers you produce, and work out the impact from my initial instant reaction on seeing it.

i do that by trying to put myself in the shoes of the target market the flyer is trying to inform.

alas, given its for the Govt, MPs,Meps, and related professional people, it lost my interest the moment i read the title.

its a sad fact we have to do it, but we NEED to use all the same tricks the ad systems use .

we are fighting this with facts, but we need to use the tricks to grab the interest.

so soundbites are the order of the day, use quotes from the likes of K%nt and the press offices to make the point in small sections.

we can see all the internet,we *forge* cookies,Interception and all the other good, clearly understood words in their quotes, etc.

talk about if your a professional MP, QC,Magistrate,Lawyer, Executive, Businessman/woman,Banker,architect,Tv Presenter,writer, etc and happen to use BT retail (other future signed ISPs)as your Broadband connection in the office or at home, YOU are in danger of being Covertly and fully "intercepted","collated", and any other words direct from the quotes to re-enforce the points.

first up OC is using the right heading for the purpose,it has to also be a soundbite, talking point,something like

"
The Internet "Phorm Storm", Things YOU NEED to Know.
"

as its PMs in this case, use and Work the recent By-Election Defeats into it in simple terms.

(the BE's were lost because....something punchy about not being made aware/knowing what the voters wanted from you, putting FAR to much Trust of their Information Providers to get it right,and failing, rather than asking directly using online forum tools, and how the sad Reality is, the Growing and un-abating "Internet Phorm Storm" has a Far Greater potential to harm Their long term interests......

it needs to grab them by the second paragraph, and it needs to touch on something/anything personal to them to get a second look....and that means the liberal use of "you" and "your" in all the points headings
etc

the classic, your childrens and grandchildrens homework web browsing isnt even safe from being groomed even if your opting out (of this data Pimping Practice) using the tools the ISP provide to stop the ads being served or seen your not really protecting them.

"you may be unaware, but you might as well, plant a covert bugging device on your person, and Be totally and unknowingly, broadcasting insidiously your Personal ID (PID) to all the unseen and unknown eyes looking and listening for you to pass by...."you get the picture...

and assume they Know Nothing about IT other than you switch it on and type, the advanced Pms that know all about the real IT workings ,will still get the point, but a flyer is there to first and formost, grab the reader, then soundbite inform, finally leading to the Slightly tech if they like more info.

at the very least, you need to make sure a key bad word *Meme or two sticks in their minds regarding Phorm and ISP interception after reading the top half of the A4 flyer.

*Meme: A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

[AlexanderHanff]

Someone PM'd me recently about donating an AdWords gift voucher/promotional code for helping to promote the Protest Event. The problem is I have hundreds of PMs and can't seem to find the right one; so could that person PM me again please as I have set-up an AdWords account and started a campaign.

Alexander Hanff

[Tarquin L-Smythe]

Yesterdays Pickpockets today's Clickpockets
Phorm Stealing From you for Financial Gain

---------- Post added at 05:51 ---------- Previous post was at 05:28 ----------

Previously
Hawkers
Of
Rootkits &
Malware

[popper]

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pi...ne/084852.html

[Privacy_Matters]

PM Alex

[Portly_Giraffe]

Originally Posted by Portly_Giraffe

Here's an initial draft of a flyer which could be sent to MPs to try to explain in non-technical terms what is happening and why it's wrong.

http://www.inphormationdesk.org/Phorm_Flyer_V1.pdf

Please everyone, review it for accuracy and effectiveness.

Thanks. PG.

On the plus side:

Originally Posted by roadrunner69

Looks good to me PG. Covers all the main points factually and is not sensationalist or over technical.
Printed a couple off for the notice boards at work tomorrow (if thats ok?)

plus a PM from another poster: "Very concise and informative. Thank you."

On the minus side:

Originally Posted by serial

Remember MPs have already recieved the brief from BT, that brief is a single page and much simpler.

Originally Posted by popper

sorry but it doesnt work for me... for effectiveness.
...

we are fighting this with facts, but we need to use the tricks to grab the interest.

so soundbites are the order of the day, use quotes from the likes of K%nt and the press offices to make the point in small sections.
...

So it appears we need a one-page, attention-grabbing, soundbite-based flyer. But I think the pdf at http://www.inphormationdesk.org/Phorm_Flyer_V1.pdf still works well as a factsheet to back it up.

I'll work on the shorter, more emotionally-based version over the coming week.

[popper]

yeah sure, as you say, its a very good backup middle ground factsheet, theres room for both, and even a Propellerhead version,from/for pete and the lads

the emotive soundbite version can capitalise on the DD angle today, anything opposite to whatever the labour lapdogs use on tv to discredit DD should be OK.

---------- Post added at 08:49 ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 ----------

Originally Posted by serial

Remember MPs have already recieved the brief from BT, that brief is a single page and much simpler. OK, here's my response to my MEP after he asked my opinion on the BT brief:

> What is BT’s involvement with Phorm? Earlier this year BT Retail, along with Virgin Media and Talk Talk, confirmed that it had entered into an agreement with Phorm,>a digital technology company.

Since I emailed you Virgin Media has stated it only agreed to look into the technology, they have not agreed to provide webwise:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05...rm_misleading/

>The agreement with Phorm enables BT Retail, and the other ISPs that have signed up, to offer customers a new free internet feature>called Webwise.

This concept of a "free internet feature" is a worrying way to "trick" their customers to agree to being profiled.

> What is BT Webwise and how does it work? BT Webwise checks for known fraudulent websites and warns customers if they visit one, with no need to download or>install any software.

This feature comes with Internet Explorer 7 and most anti-virus software including Norton who BT themselves provide to their customers already.

>It also replaces generic adverts on participating websites with adverts more relevant to customers’ interests, based on the web sites they visit and the things they>search for. Prior to the announcement, BT thoroughly researched Webwise and was encouraged by the very positive consumer response to the service.

So what webwise is is basically an advertising platform. This thorough research was a single third party survey. BT has not released any details of this survey.

> What does this mean for customers’ privacy? The privacy and security of our customers’ data is of the utmost importance to us. Any information on users’ browsing>is completely anonymous. The system does not store personally identifiable information, URLs, IP addresses or retain browsing histories.

This section comes down to trusting the people running the system, if you look at the history of Phorm(formerly 121Media) they're not inspiring much trust.
From the wiki page(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm):

"121media, the former name of Phorm, has had its products described as spyware.[9] As 121Media it distributed a program called PeopleOnPage[10], which was classified as spyware by F-Secure.[11] PeopleOnPage was an application built around their advertising engine called ContextPlus. ContextPlus was also distributed as a root kit called Apropos[10][12], which used tricks to prevent the user from removing the application and sent information back to central servers regarding a user's browsing habits.[13]

In November 2005 the Center for Democracy and Technology in the US filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over distribution of what it considered spyware, including ContextPlus. They stated that they had investigated and uncovered deceptive and unfair behaviour. This complaint was filed in concert with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Internet Center, a group that was filing a similar complaint against Integrated Search Technologies with Canadian authorities"

Also note that Phorm deleted key factual parts of the wiki entry but were caught doing it:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04...ors_wikipedia/

> Search information is>deleted almost immediately and is not retrievable. Webwise does not scan webmail pages so emails on Gmail, Yahoo mail or Hotmail are>not scanned.

It does not scan these email sites because Phorm have added them to a block list. They will scan any webmail sites not on that block list, a quick search on google returns several thousand webmail sites. What are the chances that they will all apply to be put on the blocklist, and why should they have to?

>Secure pages>such as banking websites and web forms, such as online registration or sign-up forms, are not scanned. None of the personal>information often>contained in form>fields is, therefore, ever captured by the system. No data is passed outside BT's network.

Often sites will have a secure login, but after that the pages are unsecured, hotmail for example does this. So they will be profiling data from a secure site.
The profiling computer is inside the BT network, but it has been "gifted" to BT by Phorm and runs Phorms software and hardware.

> Webwise privacy standards have been verified by an external auditor Ernst & Young

This audit was based on US law which is far weaker that UK law.

> and leading privacy advocate Simon Davies, MD of 80/20 Thinking, has also>carried out a Privacy Impact Assessment on Webwise technology.

80/20 did an interim report back in mid March, the full Privacy Impact Assessment which was supposed to be released at the end of April has so far not been finished.

> Has BT tested this product previously? BT conducted two small scale technical tests of a prototype advertising platform in June 2007 and over 2 weeks in>September-October 2006. These tests were specifically conducted to evaluate the functional and technical performance of the platform. Absolutely no personally>identifiable information was processed, stored or disclosed during either trial. As with all Service Providers, it is important for BT to ensure that, before any>potential new technologies are employed, they are robust and fit for purpose.

As I previously mentioned these were not small scale with tens of thousands of people profiled secretly. When some of their customers complained about problems, BT denied any responsibility telling them they had spyware or viruses on their PC's.


This was from a few weeks ago, so we should come up with a tighter flyer.
(anyone wanting a copy of the full BT brief PM me)

i feel you were very soft on the right to reply answers

again, i think (and i might be totally wrong on this) that hard core emotive soundbite facts would perhaps have been better to get the points engrained in any Memes they will pass on to their collective, BT/Phorm/PR have supplyed many choices to use after all....

[wecpc]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Working fine here, maybe you have the page cached? the new page for the forums is https://nodpi.org/forum

But the old page should still work fine.

Anyone else having any problems?

Alexander Hanff

Tried again this morning and it is OK now.

Colin

[AlexanderHanff]

Yeah the problem was found and fixed. Shouldn't be any more issues.

Alexander Hanff

[Privacy_Matters]

Petition Link Button:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8...nbuttonhf3.gif

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

125 (W) x 125 (H)

If you have a website add this image and link to:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/

Animated version will be available later today.

Alex, I hope you don't mind - I've put your site URL at the bottom

[Wild Oscar]

A shorter version is much more effective I would say .. especially for the less technically savvy!

How about comparing Phorm to 'wiretapping'? .. everyone knows (or should do!) how insidious that is ..

something like this as a headline maybe ..

"Would you be happy having your phone tapped all the time?"
"Well thats what PHORM want to do do to your internet connection"

[SelfProtection]

Originally Posted by Privacy_Matters

Petition Link Button:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8...nbuttonhf3.gif

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

125 (W) x 125 (H)

If you have a website add this image and link to:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/

Animated version will be available later today.

Alex, I hope you don't mind - I've put your site URL at the bottom

It might be worth putting a second link, just a little bit smaller to nodpi.org using part of that banner.

People are more inclined to sign a petition once they understand a little about the Issue.

I like the fact that it's Black & White, tends to stand out & attract the eye more on a Web Page full of coloured images.

[Privacy_Matters]

Interesting response from Phorm to a question posted on badphorm (by email):

http://www.badphorm.co.uk/e107_plugi....php?1667.last

(of course in their guise as BT)

So, they are clearly advocating that there are rules for them, and different rules for others. ie contacting Alex for a retraction whereas they say in regards of themselves:

"We are under no obligation to publish or retract previous comments."

---------- Post added at 10:35 ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 ----------

Originally Posted by SelfProtection

I like the fact that it's Black & White, tends to stand out & attract the eye more on a Web Page full of coloured images.

---------- Post added at 11:03 ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 ----------

Protest advert Banner (DRAFT):

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2...erani01jo5.gif

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

468 (W) 60 (H)

[tarka]

Originally Posted by Privacy_Matters

Protest advert Banner (DRAFT):

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2...erani01jo5.gif



468 (W) 60 (H)

I have an observation... the "click here to help protect your privacy" reminds me of those adverts for fake spyware programs and I wonder if that will put people off clicking? Or would it perhaps capture the audience that we need to get to? eg those that are more likely to click that sort of fake advert?

edited to add... apart from that one observation (which may not even be an issue) the banner is absolutely spot on! good job!

[serial]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Someone PM'd me recently about donating an AdWords gift voucher/promotional code for helping to promote the Protest Event. The problem is I have hundreds of PMs and can't seem to find the right one; so could that person PM me again please as I have set-up an AdWords account and started a campaign.

Alexander Hanff

http://services.google.com/marketing...sing-redeemnow