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

[Raistlin]

Isn't it lucky for all of us, given how complicated an issue that this obviously is, that a discussion of BT's treatment of its shareholders (major or otherwise, the information that may or may not be disclosed to them, and the legalities or otherwise of said disclosure) is completely off topic within this thread - so we won't have to worry about a complicated and lengthy discussion of it

Originally Posted by HamsterWheel

All companies have private meetings with their major shareholders.
Quite normal, not illegal at all.
If there is anything they ought to tell the world, then of course they tell the shareholders too.
They also speak to analysts, and help them in the right direction with their searnings forecast.


Do you guys have to turn EVERYTHING into a major conspiracy theory ???

Not in the middle of a shareholders' meeting they don't - try and concentrate.

[Rchivist]

There is a useful post over on BT Beta just now, with a helpful analysis of where on BT customer feels we have got to so far. I thought it was worth mentioning here, to keep us focussed, and to break any baiting/troll feeding sessions.

Did anyone else read the profile of Baroness Vadera (DBERR) in the Guardian on Saturday? Mentioned the filesharing discussion but not the Webwise/Phorm issue. Letters?

I've also just received today, the first acknowledgement of my snail mail ICO complaint. So at least it's in the system.

And I've just received (after a reminder) a pdf response from BT Retail Legal Counsel, so if someone can pm me and tell me how to get a pdf copied up to the forum I'll post it. I generally find that copy/paste from PDF is a bit messy. It seems this pdf was made from a graphic file originally so there is no selectable text.

[icsys]

Slightly OT. Found whilst reading this news item

Here's a French outfit called Qosmos which has invented the 'ixDPI' and is expanding into the U.S. this year. It says its data could be used to extrapolate a user's demographic profile.

"Technology Overview
Your network is information

The data traveling over IP networks provides a wealth of information ready to be exploited in a great variety of ways. The strength of the Qosmos technology lies in its unrivalled ability to extract all application data contained in IP flows and to make this information relevant to your business needs."

Lovely choice of words...'extract and exploited'!

[phormwatch]

Phorm diagram update:

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5396/phormumlnm7.jpg

[Dephormation]

My old Dad (in his 70's) wrote to BT to complain about Phorm.

He got a call from BT in the past few days, anxiously defending Webwise, claiming it was a privacy enhancing technology, and drawing comparisons with Google.

Continuous surveillance is not privacy enhancing. And Phorm is nothing what-so-ever like Google. Mainly because it isn't a search engine.

And BT can't tell the truth.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Privacy enhancing, ROFL.

How on earth does having your browsing monitored so that your ISP & Phorm can make money off your usage "enhance your privacy".

[SelfProtection]

Originally Posted by Dephormation

My old Dad (in his 70's) wrote to BT to complain about Phorm.

He got a call from BT in the past few days, anxiously defending Webwise, claiming it was a privacy enhancing technology, and drawing comparisons with Google.

Continuous surveillance is not privacy enhancing. And Phorm is nothing what-so-ever like Google. Mainly because it isn't a search engine.

And BT can't tell the truth.

Irony Alert!

Was the call being monitored for Training Purposes as in "Training the Profiler"!

[SimonHickling]

Apologies if this is to any degree considered off-topic.

BT claim that because my content is available on the web, and not http authenticated, and because I haven't expressly asked for my site to be blacklisted, and it is referenced by Google, it's OK to make a copy.

So Google "iplayer Top Gear", get an iplayer downloader, and put the 2 together. It's linked via Google, it doesn't require authentication and the BBC haven't expressly asked me to blacklist their site from my content copier (iplayer downloader). Therefore it must be legal for me to make a copy (potentially even to use that copy for commercial gain).

Now if there was a similar downloader available for deezer.com I guess people would be able to safely ignore the letters BT et al will be sending out and refer them to the er ... leg-er-l advice BT sought.

[phormwatch]

Emma has been repeatedly asked about that very point - we've got no straight answers from here.

Goes to show that it's a significant problem for them if even an experienced PR <ahem>-artist can't come out with any sort of line on the matter - credible or otherwise.

[warescouse]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Privacy enhancing, ROFL.

How on earth does having your browsing monitored so that your ISP & Phorm can make money off your usage "enhance your privacy".

It goes to show how low they will stoop with their claims. (Horizontally lying across the floor I guess)

[Wildie]

have anyone read this
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...try-targets-uk
explains alot i think

[phormwatch]

Ernst & Young audit overlooks Phorm’s violation of its own privacy policy

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hrobert...rivacy-policy/

Originally Posted by phormwatch

Ernst & Young audit overlooks Phorm’s violation of its own privacy policy

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hrobert...rivacy-policy/

Fabulous, enlightening and yet somehow not unexpected.

Great link - thanks

[pseudonym]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Privacy enhancing, ROFL.

How on earth does having your browsing monitored so that your ISP & Phorm can make money off your usage "enhance your privacy".

Ah, but he didn't say enhance your privacy... Perhaps Kent plans on spending some of his hoped for ill gotten gains from monitoring our usage on a nice secluded mansion somewhere

I'm surprised BT aren't more careful about the claims they make about phorm as they might fall foul of the new Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008