British Telecom “Phorm” report: PageSense External Validation Report by BT Retail Technology, dated 15 Jan 2007. 52 scanned printed pages with occasional pen highlights, 17Mb.
The internal British Telecom report shows that the carrier committed at least 18,875,324 allegedly illegal acts of interception and modification during its controversial covert “Phorm” trials.
The report also indicates that personal identifying IP addresses were likely used, despite BT previously assuring the public and ICO that no personally identifiable data was used. IP addresses are recognised by the Data Protection Act.
In addition to the 18 million regular advertising injections or hijackings, THIS PART OF THE CONTENT HAS BEEN CENSORED DUE TO A NICE LETTER FROM PHORM*.
The report concludes that the “opt-out” system would not work, since BT customers find themselves opted back in every time they changed computers or wiped their cookies:
“The latter issue regarding opt-opt could not be specifically trialled either since [BT] conducted this test as a stealth trial”.
Full report here, with alternative addresses here and here.
A nice summary of it by No DPI, who originally received the document.
*EDIT 09-06-2008 I have received, and I must say a polite, letter form Phorm asking me to remove half a sentence. I am considering what I may do from here. I also think I ought to point you to this post: No DPI: Humble Pie Time.
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