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

[brundles]

Originally Posted by Ravenheart

The Register has added a new piece after the weekend revelation from BT admitting they were using it last year despite lying to customers

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/17/bt_phorm_lies/

The bit that makes me chuckle in that article is the reason BT gave out at the time on the redirects to the Phorm domain:

Originally Posted by El Reg

BT denied any testing and said customers whose DNS requests were being redirected must have a malware problem.

Ironic really considering where we are now and the general customer perception of Phorm...

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Ravenheart

From scanning through the BT forum link Sirius posted.

http://beta.bt.com/bta/forums/thread...rt=45&tstart=0

Seems BadPhorm and Dephormation have been getting a lot of attention from Russia

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3drxqa

Maybe they're looking to protect their own browsing habits

Looks like 121 media Phorm are up to there old tricks then. So PHORM if you are reading this what are your Spyware writers up to this time ??????????

[crazymaniac]

Sorry, too many posts to read, but have virgin signed up to phorm yet or not?

Or is it still only BT and talktalk?

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by crazymaniac

Sorry, too many posts to read, but have virgin signed up to phorm yet or not?

Or is it still only BT and talktalk?

Yes, although unlike BT. they don't seem to have done any testing. Unlike Talk Talk they haven't currently announced any system that routes data from people who have opted out around Phorm's hardware.

Last we heard, they were considering their options.

[lucevans]

Originally Posted by Cobbydaler

Sir Tim says no to Phorm...

Excellent! Well done Sir Tim

Let's hope the national media make a big deal of this...

[aMIGA_dUDE]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

If you don't have a clubcard and always pay by cash, they have no way of tracking you.

Tesco and it clubcard or as it was callled once Tesco Loyal card (1993). Was started just so they could get information on customers. They need to get better information customers buying habbit's to better mange stock. Old way of doing was asking customers what buy etc. Which was expensive and people do not always tell the truth in polls.

They could of use customers Credit/Debit card number do this, but Tesco decided against doing this from linking customers to C/D cards due to Data Protection Act.

Now today we have Phorm. Yes Phorm people do not always tell the truth in polls. I would love to find out what Phorm asked/told people when ask people about Internet Add's.

PS Clubcard is an Opt-In.
Phorm is SPYCOMS.

---------- Post added at 12:54 ---------- Previous post was at 12:39 ----------

It might be worth editing wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by aMIGA_dUDE

PS Clubcard is an Opt-In.

Actually, I didn't mean to imply that Tesco did track people by credit/debit card nos (although, technically at least, it is feasable if not legal). I have no idea if they do. I was making the point that by using their clubcard, you do opt in, and get rewarded with point IIRC..

[Morden]

If you have a tesco credit card that doubles up as a Club Card then they do know what you spend on the card as you get points for every £ spent on the card. And with a credit card you cant opt out.

[Stuart]

If you have /wish to use the credit card, you can't opt out. However, you have the option of using cash.

If you don't want Phorm tracking your browsing then unless you wish to risk TOR, have access to a VPN or can change ISPs (usually a major hassle even assuming you can use another ISP), or are willing to trust them, then you have no option but to avoid using the internet.

[Sirius]

Looks like BT are just as devious and untrustworthy as all the other ISP's that are in bed with Phorm.

Hi Peter N,

Thanks for having a look.

No, I can confirm that these cookies were placed there at the start of a clean session. Normally I only see cookies from Google and Neowin when I open FF; Google as it's my home page and Neowin as the cookie keeps me logged in.

To double check what I thought i was seeing, I removed "a.webwise.net", "webwise.net" and "www.webwise.net" from my blocked cookies list and, sure enough, on opening a clean browser they are back (see screen shot below), as is the info on the webwise.bt.com site telling me webwise is off.

http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?i...isecrapbd5.jpg

I've never been asked by BT (or anyone else) about whether I was interested in, or wanted, this "service".

I can definitely confirm that these cookies are being placed here at the start of every browsing session. Or at least they were, as I've added them back to the blocked list (webwise.bt.com is back to saying the service is not available in my area).

Ah well, off to the complaints department, methinks; what a bunch of sneaky, lying turds they are.

G.

[mertle]

Originally Posted by aMIGA_dUDE

Thay might of not know of there past. Phorm is a new business name so searching with google would give them no info about there past issue.

It an issue of trust, I bet Phorm did not inform Virgin Media an Co. about there past history before public found out about it.

---------- Post added at 09:19 ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 ----------




He get this problem with Phorm and why it bad.

If dont know who Sir Tim Berners-Lee is, put it simply he is one who start this HTML thing in first place. He father web, with out him there would not be a:-
e-bay
google
phorm
etc

Day by day the news for Phorm get worse, next Phorm PR outfit will say Sir Tim Berners-Lee dosn't know what he is talking about.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7299875.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee

Good point but if it was easy enough for joe public to find the true identy its still no excuse for poor management. They need to go back to university learn how to run a business again.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

On the reverse Tesco hold more information on most f you than any direct marketing software ever will.

And herin lies the rub. Most people are willing to give up some element of privacy for an element of payback.
Clubcard - you allow Tesco to track your buying habits, in return they give you money and customised money off coupons. With clubcard rewards they then build in an escalator to the value of the money so ten quid of vouchers becomes forty quid of meal or cinema vouchers etc.

Google - you acknowledge they know your search history (if you are logged into google when you search), in return their searches find what you are looking for, otherwise the adverts are customised to that search, as a search page is dynamically built this is not unreasonable. The Phorm approach means you might be searching for Cars and seing adverts about iPods because you searched or surfed for them last week.

Sky multiroom - You allow the boxes to dial in to get the discount for having more than one box. You also allow them to monitor some of your viewing habits.

Phorm - they put customised adverts in some of the advertising spaces that already exist on a website. They protect you from Phising (but so does IE7 out of the box, and Safari? and you can get plugins for other browsers to do the same for free). So where is the value add to the consumer. There is none.
Or as TBL put it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7299875.stm

It's mine - you can't have it. If you want to use it for something, then you have to negotiate with me. I have to agree, I have to understand what I'm getting in return.

[mertle]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Looks like BT are just as devious and untrustworthy as all the other ISP's that are in bed with Phorm.

I have 8 of these webwise.net uid in the first webwise folder. Thanks to our nice add on it tells them to respect my privacy.

What gets me I am VM user so my question WHY are they there.

I dont think we are be told the truth and lot of porkies. An ultimate question concidering PHORM shady past. How easy would it to make the opt out cookie an opt in cookie instead.

[Florence]

Well only have till 28th March till BT phone line then BB will be a smaller ISP. One that is to small to be of any value to phorm also one that has already promised to not jump into bed with phorm.

I left BT over 15yrs ago I am now returning to them been through enough cable companies and stuck with them but this is the end, VM response to customers fears on Phorm and the links that are about that seem to prove they are still into the old ways is enough to make me move back.

Good luck to those who stay but I pay for a service to use as I wish I dont use it for anything illegal so feel this is an intrusion into my privacy something I refuse to give up.

All remeber if you visit webwise site for anything to search for the cookie and delete it as they are already active on the web.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Florence

Well only have till 28th March till BT phone line then BB will be a smaller ISP. One that is to small to be of any value to phorm also one that has already promised to not jump into bed with phorm.

I left BT over 15yrs ago I am now returning to them been through enough cable companies and stuck with them but this is the end, VM response to customers fears on Phorm and the links that are about that seem to prove they are still into the old ways is enough to make me move back.

Good luck to those who stay but I pay for a service to use as I wish I dont use it for anything illegal so feel this is an intrusion into my privacy something I refuse to give up.

All remeber if you visit webwise site for anything to search for the cookie and delete it as they are already active on the web.

Thrust me i will be joining you very soon. At the moment it will be Be Unlimited for my Broadband, Sky for my TV and BT for my Phone.