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

[lucevans]

Does anyone have connections at The Reg? It sounds like this is a story they'd want to break ASAP...

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by mark777

Too true. If VM hurry up and confirm this, they will have a very large, free of charge, PR Team working on their behalf. It will be working against BT and pointing their customers towards VM.

You can't buy that sort of publicity.

Good post Mark

[Rchivist]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

I hope someone has posted this to iii?

Make sure to remind them to read Investors Chronicle this Friday

Alexander Hanff

Done that too.

---------- Post added at 21:38 ---------- Previous post was at 21:35 ----------

Originally Posted by OF1975

Ditto hence my comment about more leverage to throw at BT. Even if VM confirm they are dumping Phorm I will still fight against Phorm so that I can inform BT and Talk Talk/CPW users about the risks and fight on their behalf.

Yes - don't you guys all go to sleep if VM pull out. There is a BT battle to be won yet.

I offered them the opportunity to be the first ISP to unequivocally ditch Phorm as a major PR opportunity to recover some lost moral stature - if this story is true I shall take some pleasure in telling them they missed the opportunity.

[AlexanderHanff]

Hey whoever posted on iii about Investors Chronicle, be careful, I never said the news was good for privacy and bad for Phorm. I just said it will make an interesting read. Also the phrasing of the post seems to suggest some breaking news about Phorm, whereas it is a news article, it is not an exclusive or anything like that. Please correct the post otherwise it could be seen as more than it might end up being.

Alexander Hanff

[Rchivist]

Originally Posted by Hank

Deep, deeeep, DEEP, DEEEEEEP JOY!

If VM declare this to be true, expect a rush of BT customers asking you if they can get out of their contract. Even if I cannot, I'll be counting the days to the day I can. Did they change the Ts & Cs yet? Could it be that I see the chanegs as material? Oh please VM do it. Then, please BT, launch your smelly stinking trial and change the TS & Cs. Try telling me it's not material and I'll tell you how material it is when I stick it up

[This user disconnected unexpectedly but is very happy tonight]

Don't get too excited about T&C's - the most likely scenario if BT stay on board with Phorm/Webwise, is an opt-IN trial, which won't give you strong legal grounds to leave, then more waiting and waiting, while they decide what to do. I'd just keep hassling them, while your contract runs out, - stay with em, and make their life very awkward, continually. Hassle, hassle hassle, a question a day, polite persistent awkward embarrassing questions. Far more constructive than a losing battle over T&C issues.

[OF1975]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Hey whoever posted on iii about Investors Chronicle, be careful, I never said the news was good for privacy and bad for Phorm. I just said it will make an interesting read. Also the phrasing of the post seems to suggest some breaking news about Phorm, whereas it is a news article, it is not an exclusive or anything like that. Please correct the post otherwise it could be seen as more than it might end up being.

Alexander Hanff

For once it wasn't me posting it on iii. I go by the rather subtle name of Stazi Phormistan there

[AlexanderHanff]

Originally Posted by lucevans

Does anyone have connections at The Reg? It sounds like this is a story they'd want to break ASAP...

Already contacted Chris

Alexander Hanff

[Ravenheart]

If Charles is right that VM have given two fingers to Phorm it is great news. I've not been about much the last week or so as I've now got a time frame for my bionic knee to be installed

I'm still waiting to hear from my bank about how Phorm could affect the new banking code, and I'll continue to fight against Phorm regardless of VM dumping them. If we keep on the continued pressure, raising awareness where we can then we can send Phorm packing.

Keep up the great work folks, the fight isn't over yet.

[AlexanderHanff]

Originally Posted by OF1975

For once it wasn't me posting it on iii. I go by the rather subtle name of Stazi Phormistan there

Hehehehe, well I don't want to upset my source. it is one thing me telling people to keep an eye out for the article, it is another thing to try and say what is in the article before it is even published. I wouldn't do the latter which is why I was very careful to say it would make an interesting read as opposed to disclosing any of the details I have been given.

Alexander Hanff

[JackSon]

I wouldn't worry, Alex. If they are a journalist I am sure they will be aware of the phenomenon of 'chinese whispers'.

[OF1975]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Hehehehe, well I don't want to upset my source. it is one thing me telling people to keep an eye out for the article, it is another thing to try and say what is in the article before it is even published. I wouldn't do the latter which is why I was very careful to say it would make an interesting read as opposed to disclosing any of the details I have been given.

Alexander Hanff

Sounds thoroughly sensible and appropriate to me. Sadly, there is no edit feature over on iii. I am sure that it would have been corrected by now if there was one.

[Rchivist]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Hey whoever posted on iii about Investors Chronicle, be careful, I never said the news was good for privacy and bad for Phorm. I just said it will make an interesting read. Also the phrasing of the post seems to suggest some breaking news about Phorm, whereas it is a news article, it is not an exclusive or anything like that. Please correct the post otherwise it could be seen as more than it might end up being.

Alexander Hanff

I've calmed down and issued a correction. they don't have an edit facility. don't worry too much - its a fairly wild forum, I don't think the FSA will be at my door. Compared with brettypoos I am the soul of discretion.

[AlexanderHanff]

Originally Posted by JackSon

I wouldn't worry, Alex. If they are a journalist I am sure they will be aware of the phenomenon of 'chinese whispers'.

Yeah but it is a respect thing. I have been very lucky to be given the time I have been given by journalists and media so I would never want to jeopardise that out of respect. It is also very useful to have such contacts so it would be a shame to upset any of them and possibly lose that resource as a result.

Alexander Hanff

[BadPhormula]

Originally Posted by lucevans

To Virgin Media:

Do yourselves and your customers a favour and confirm that this rumour is, in fact, true.
If you decide to go ahead with Phorm, you will lose a significant number of customers, and, perhaps more importantly from your perspective, brand integrity.

However, you now have the opportunity to really steal a march on your (bigger) rival BT and state that you will not integrate Phorm into your network, resulting in a mass influx of disgruntled BT customers and the kind of publicity and reputation enhancement that no amount of advertising budget could achieve....

Look at it as a loss-leader: you'll lose what little revenue you might have gained from Phorm royalties (and I suspect that once systems had been developed to defeat Phorm, you'd have made sod-all from it anyway), but you stand to gain a hefty chunk of your largest rival's customer base.

YOU CAN'T LOSE!!

Nice. I'd like to imagine they would do as you instructed but I think we will probably see some half-baked fizzle of a cop out. The corporate sneaks at VM will be trying to weigh things up, all the pros and the cons. One of the questions they will be asking themselves is how much damage will Phorm do us? How much damage will it do in the long run? How many customers will we lose vs how many will we retain and returns from churn.

VM will sit on the fence and see what BT does, and what happens to BT. They will not commit to adopt or to drop until they see the results of possible damage to BT.

I'd say more against VM if I could see something more positive come from the anti-phorm league campaign... (http://www.antiphormleague.com) I think those guys are playing it too cool. It's almost as if you could read them as opportunists saying just enough to keep the anti-phorm people on board and looking forward to some new takeup from the churn out. I wish they would put something more professional together and start pumping a bit of money into a proper fight campaign. Sadly I think they too will just sit on the fence and say nice things with very little commitment incase it backfires on them.

Meanwhile I've been researching co-lo hosting and SSL certificates for my anti-phorm server, I was going to ask one of the anti-phorm league to give me some rackspace and bandwidth (and that would have been the ISP I moved to -- Entanet looked promising because they have a LLU so I could dump my BT line as well). The costs £50 p/m for 100 Gigabytes bandwidth for the co-lo (+£1000 hi-end BSD server) and about £20 for a chained SSL certificate from GoDaddy or £76 for 256bit SSL certificate from Thwate. I'm using Zen Internet at the moment for testing purposes but I will probably drop them because they too are playing hide and seek, wait and see.

[Dephormation]

By co-incidence, just read this paragraph in 1984;

As O'Brien passed the telescreen a thought seemed to strike him. He stopped, turned aside and pressed a switch on the wall. There was a sharp snap. The voice had stopped.

Julia uttered a tiny sound, a sort of squeak of surprise. Even in the midst of his panic, Winston was too much taken aback to be able to hold his tongue.

" You can turn it off ! " he said.

" Yes ", said O'Brien, " we can turn it off. We have that privilege. "

Virgin, do yourself a favour. Turn it off.