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

[BadPhormula]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Oh, Jesus wept! Even routers aren't safe now? What the hell?

And how will they know that there are no malware writers attending the demo? This would be a dream come true for them - how the hell would you detect a router rootkit?

Reading that article makes me glad my router's made by US Robotics, not Cisco.

Lookup "Ciscogate" "DEFCON", this worried Cisco so much they even got the FBI involved to arrest the researcher under 'national security' if he released his finding to a gethering of a few hundred eager hackers gathered in Las Vegas.

[Traduk]

Originally Posted by tdadyslexia

A number of us still use Internet Explorer v6 for one or more resins, I still use Internet Explorer v6 for it's ease of use plus it's ftp capability watt I use weekly, Internet Explorer v7 is not as easy to use as Internet Explorer v6 & as I said Internet Explorer v7 doesn't have ftp capability, I here you thinking why don't you use a ftp client, the simple answer is because I haven't found one that is easy to use with me ben Dyslexic!

Kent and his type are only interested in generalisations that suit his\their argument. That type of person usually uses one liners that contain a sound bite within the spin and the only benefit of any kind has been thwarted by MS.

It doesn't matter to him that people use a variety of browsers but in argument the fact the current mainstream one is defaulting to anti phishing on is a useful counter argument.


I have watched the MS anti phishing in action and it may well be a pointer to the future if Phorm is implemented. Page transitions are much slower because of the delay in getting the OK back which points to the need for a blacklist to be either onboard (local computer) or at the DNS stage. OpenDns does the job extremely well with zero delay albeit there are sometimes false positives.

IMO it is quite an onerous task for an ISP to take on board because failure to operate a phishing blacklist properly could attract interest for failure to protect (neglect) and failure through false positives (again neglect). They could become culpable from two different directions.

[BadPhormula]

Originally Posted by Dephormation

Fun for Friday...

A team of UK Technologists have solved the ISP spyware problem for content owners with a new 'opt in' standard...

www.parasitestxt.org


.

Brilliant. Double plus good!

[BetBlowWhistler]

just out of curiosity, where does the patent of that wipe-o-matic mention that the toilet paper goes 'afterwards' ?

[BadPhormula]

Originally Posted by BetBlowWhistler

just out of curiosity, where does the patent of that wipe-o-matic mention that the toilet paper goes 'afterwards' ?

It is delivered to people who have taken the "opt-in" route as a reward. And once a month all their names and addresses are added into a big tombola for the much coveted 'Polished Turd' award, presented by a smarmy big grinned Phorm executive.


THIS JUST IN

I have been handed a note from Emma Sanderson's office... A lucky once a year winner of the BT/Phorm "opt-in" system will be invited down to BT headquarters for photographs and lunch with Phormscum and BT execs (and a special treat shake hands with Phorm CEO Kent Ertugrul -- Just ask Alexander Hanff what it's like!!!). The photo image will be used for a huge coconut welcome mat at the BT/Phorm headquarters in London were visitors will get to laugh and wipe their feet on you. WOW!

[Kursk]

Hrhrhrhr! Yes, and as Phorm are finding out, when you peddle filth you end up with a huge pile of cr@p.

[OF1975]

Interesting question and answer article with one of Phorms competitors which describes phorms approach as an "adolescent approach to targetting."

http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-bl...targeting.html

[BetBlowWhistler]

"There has been a lot of controversy about Phorm recently – where do you feel it has gone wrong?

DC: They have put their money on a contextual based solution, which we feel is an unsophisticated method of targeting advertising, as it doesn’t solve ambiguities.

While our understanding of where to target ads is based on an understanding of the web page where ads are targeted, they don’t drill down to page level, so theirs is an adolescent approach to targeting."

Notice how he didn't respond to the question which referred to how the technology is *deployed* rather than how it works within itself. Snake-oil salesman the lot of them.

[Phormic Acid]

Originally Posted by Dephormation

www.parasitestxt.org

‘Someone’ has been busy.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

Investors Chronicle

Now it has been published I can tell you all that the article concludes with a Sell Order on the grounds that Phorm Stock is too high risk.

I’m not sure it needs an investment specialist to tell us that. If I were that confident in my knowledge of the Zeitgeist in each country where Phorm have planned to deploy, I’d probably be off trying to use it to make money myself. Clearly, Phorm got it very wrong with the UK. They may have thought that, with all those CCTV cameras and the generally snooping police and government, that we wouldn’t mind, but forgot that “an Englishman’s home is his castle.”

The Nordic countries tend to be more privacy conscious. But, while The Register reported the furore over every Italian's tax bill published online, the Norwegians routinely publish everyone’s tax summary. In more homogeneous communities, there’s a tendency to have less fear from an invasion of privacy. Consider how far deCODE genetics has managed to get in Iceland. I’ve no idea how Phorm would play in countries like those. Even in North America, where Phorm, NebuAd, et al. might get past the people, they risk getting shredded by the legislator.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

I think it was reported that this would be detected by their system's loop detection which would then "blacklist" your IP address for 30 minutes.

Now that would suggest to me that if you have more than one PC using your connection and webwise.net cookies were blocked by any of the users, then none would be protected while they were browsing. So Phorm Phishing protection would give the others nothing but a false sense of security.

It’s potentially a little more complex than that. The blacklist is a list of (IP address, domain name) pairs. On BadPhorm, I briefly considered the problems.

[AlexanderHanff]

Investors Chronicle

Few bits from the article for you all:

BEAR POINTS:


• Significant privacy concerns facing Phorm's product


• Formidable competitors


• Not forecast to make profits until 2010


• Reputational issues could affect sentiment


BULL POINTS:


• Agreements with three major internet service providers


• Internet advertising spend is growing fast

You can see this summary on Investors Chronicle

Phorm announced that it had signed agreements with three of the UK’s biggest ISPs - BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media - which between them account for 70 per cent of the UK broadband market. But it's not so clear what these agreements comprise. Phorm's relationship with BT, the UK’s biggest broadband provider, has progressed the furthest. However, in April, it emerged that BT and Phorm had conducted trials of the software without informing its customers. This caused outrage among privacy groups who have conducted a wide-ranging attack on the company, alleging breaches of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the Data Protection Act.

The extensive media coverage has led to the issue being discussed in both houses of parliament . Now, influential lobby group, the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), is pushing the Home Office and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to act.

But the consensus is that customer consent must be explicitly obtained - an opt-in model - rather than including everyone unless they opt out.

Virgin Media says it has only "signed a preliminary agreement with Phorm to understand in more detail if this technology works" and hasn't yet decided if it will be introduced.

They [Google, AOL and Yahoo] are unlikely to allow Phorm to steal the show.

Phorm may lack the firepower and commercial might to win this
struggle, but early success could mark it down as a takeover target.

SHARE TIP SUMMARY: Sell

Obviously I couldn't type the entire article for copyright reasons but I have picked out the most relevant points. There really wasn't anything which could be read as positive for Phorm in the article with the exception of the hint that it might become target for a takeover.

Alexander Hanff

[3x2]

Originally Posted by BetBlowWhistler

just out of curiosity, where does the patent of that wipe-o-matic mention that the toilet paper goes 'afterwards' ?

to the place that prints Phorm share certificates

[roadrunner69]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHanff

There really wasn't anything which could be read as positive for Phorm in the article with the exception of the hint that it might become target for a takeover.

Alexander Hanff

Thanks Alexander.
Another nail in kents coffin.

[mark777]

More from The Register

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/16/antiphormlite/

[tee cee]

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/deta...play=community

Interesting list of investors in Phorm here

All the usual suspects

[Cobbydaler]

Originally Posted by tee cee

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/deta...play=community

Interesting list of investors in Phorm here

All the usual suspects

I don't think that's a list of investors, it's a list of companies that investors in phorm also hold shares in...