BT suspend Phorm

July 7th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Guardian

Shares in Phorm, the Aim-listed technology firm, have plunged after it emerged that BT has quietly pulled plans to roll out its controversial advertising system, which tracks the internet habits of customers and has been attacked as online snooping by privacy campaigners.

BT was a key player in the development of Phorm’s Webwise system, which uses information about which sites an internet user visits to target them with relevant advertising on subsequent pages. News that BT has in effect mothballed the technology sent shares in Phorm down 40% by lunchtime today.

Via Manic

Killer marketing

May 15th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Phorm have got a bit of an image problem. That is one thing that everyone can agree on. So what do they do about it? They hire a Patrick Robertson

Hmm. This couldn’t be the same Patrick Robertson who first came to prominence in 1995 as the technologically-challenged spin doctor of arms dealing perjurer Jonathan Aitken MP, could it? That Patrick Robertson had a little trouble operating his fax machine, and his collywobbles about his boss’ political prospects found their way into the papers.

Could be…

And this couldn’t be the same Patrick Robertson who went on to run the PR operation for right wing billionaire Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party, could it? The party contested the 1997 general election on a single issue platform of crazed warnings of an imminent “federal European super-state”.

Possibly…

And this couldn’t be the same “PR guru” Patrick Robertson who orchestrated the £200,000 campaign by Tory grandees against the extradition of ex-Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, could it?

In 1998 a Spanish judge asked Britain to send Pinochet over for a chat about the thousands of dissidents who were “disappeared” under his bloody rule. This didn’t go down well with Thatcher-era Tories, who viewed him as a fellow free marketeer, and were grateful for his support of the war in the Falklands, which saved their collective skin in the 1983 general election.

Among those prominent Pinochet-defenders? Give us a wave, Phorm chairman Norman Lamont

Well…

Unbelievably, yes it can.

[Insert Phorm play on words here]

April 7th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink

BBC

Online advertising firm Phorm is pressing ahead with plans to launch more than a year after it first drew criticism from some privacy advocates.

“We have been supported or endorsed by all of the leading stakeholders,” Phorm chief executive Kent Ertugrul told BBC News.

“Ofcom, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Home Office, leading privacy advocates like Simon Davies, the advertising industry and publishers have all backed our service,” he said.

All the major stakeholders except the people who will be effected the most: the internet using public.

And who’s this Simon Davies bloke? Never heard of him. he might have got this award or done whatever, but he can’t be that much into privacy if he’s ok with Phorm.

Kent Etugrul of Phorm…

I am surprised by the fact, after it has been repeatedly explained how the technology works, they seem to be very keen on misunderstanding what it does

No, people know what it does, and even how it does it. And that is the problem. It is opt out. A fucking awkward shitty opt out that one will have to opt out of every time ones cookies are cleared.
Even when someone has opted out, their movements on the web still go through Phorms equipment, there is no way to bypass Phorm. The user is still dependent on Phorm and its’ technology doing the right thing and not recording their movements.

Phorm and privacy? My arse.

Phorms media suppression

March 5th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Wikileaks:

Which? magazine, The Telegraph, Google/UK Press Association and Channel 4 have all pulled articles over Phorm Inc. (BT/Webwise) legal threats.

Which? magazine[1], an independent non-profit magazine published by the Consumers Association in the UK, carried out a survey of their readership on their responses to proposals by Phorm Inc.[2] to work in conjunction with Internet Service Providers in the UK, to use Deep Packet Inspection technology to intercept and profile their customers Internet communications to profile them in connection with behaviourally targeted advertising.

When the magazine was published Phorm Inc. immediately applied legal pressure to the Consumers Association. A follow up press release from CA notified publishers of Phorm’s objections to the survey and requested that they not publish articles based on the findings in the survey until matters had been resolved between CA and Phorm. Articles published online by the Press Association, the Daily Telegraph, and a video news report on Channel 4 were immediately taken offline, in response to this legal pressure, and a report in the online version of the Daily Mail was heavily edited to remove references to the Which? survey.

Via

Where Am I?

You are currently browsing entries tagged with phorm at Sim-O.